Bronny is a good athlete

Bronny is a good athlete
by Mark_It_Zero (2024-04-05 14:29:27)

In reply to: Is Bronny James good enough to merit a draft pick? posted by knutesteen

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He's very fast, he's a good jumper, and he has a compact shot that he gets off fairly quickly.

He is not yet a NBA level player, though, and I think it will be an uphill battle to get there. He has played on stacked teams since he was a little kid, and in my opinion, it has hampered his development as a playmaker. At his size, it'll be difficult to carve out a role if he isn't a playmaker. Teams tend to want more size and versatility if you are going to be a swiss army knife. Gary Payton II has been able to do it, but it's really difficult to get minutes in the NBA if you are short, an inconsistent shooter, and aren't very good at creating shots for others even if you are a disruptive defender.

I'm not a fan of having talented kids play on super teams during club and high school. I think it robs them of the necessary adversity to become elite playmakers and leaders. One former pro who has done a good job with his son is Gilbert Arenas. Alijah played for a neighborhood club program until he started playing 17u for the Compton Magic, and instead of going to Sierra Canyon, he went to Chatsworth. Alijah is one of the best prospects I've ever seen live. He's had to work for it.

"Not yet an NBA player." He's not even a major college

player yet. He would probably struggle in the Ivy league.

End of 2nd paragraph makes him perfect for the Bulls. *

He’s barely a Div 1 college player.

He’d be a benchwarmer at a mid major except for his his dad.

I think he had a normal freshman season

Plenty of legit high major D1 players struggle as freshman. Averaging 5 points on 36% obviously isn’t lighting it up, but it’s not unusual even for top 100 freshman.

your last paragraph is spot on

I wish every parent understood this - or even really wanted to understand this.

Agree with you about talented kids playing on stacked

AAU teams. At some point you have to learn to deal with adversity. That doesn’t happen when you win every game 91-35.

Don’t worry, the NBA is here to help.

They’re going to apply the same magic touch to youth basketball that they’ve applied to college ball. And we’ve all see how well that’s worked.