Bronny James could be in line for meaningful playoff minutes when the Los Angeles Lakers open their first-round series against the Houston Rockets, with head coach JJ Redick saying Wednesday the team may need every available player because it is short-handed.
Redick said the Lakers will need “all hands on deck” after losing Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves, and he said James has improved enough to earn trust. The second-round pick in the 2024 NBA Draft has played in 42 games with one start in his sophomore season, but most of his minutes have come in garbage time. This season, he has shot 40.9% overall and 38.6% from 3-point range, a sharp rise from 31.3% overall and 28.1% from deep last year.
The opening of the playoffs comes at a moment when the Lakers have had to shuffle their rotation and redistribute minutes to players including Luke Kennard, Jake LaRavia and Rui Hachimura. Over the five games since Dončić and Reaves went down, James has averaged 6.6 points and 2.0 assists in 17 minutes per game, a run that followed 14 G League games in which he averaged 15.6 points, 3.7 assists and 3.1 rebounds.
Redick said James had improved “a lot” and specifically pointed to his shooting and defense, saying he has been better with his body positioning and is becoming more disruptive on that end. He also said the Lakers trust him and that his shooting work in the G League over the past two years has given the staff confidence if his number is called against Houston.
The possibility carries extra weight because LeBron James said his son earned the chance to play in a postseason game and called the experience of sharing the floor with him the best thing that has happened in his career. Bronny James said it is “insane” to be part of his father’s career, but added that he has to lock in and do his job. If both players see the floor in the series, they would become the first father-son duo to log playoff minutes together.
The Lakers’ margin for error is slim. If they get past the Rockets, they would face the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference semifinals, and Oklahoma City went 4-0 against Los Angeles this season while outscoring the Lakers by an average of 29.3 points. That makes the first round less about easing into the postseason than surviving it, and it is why James may matter sooner than expected.
