G League plan for Bronny James comes with unexpected twist

After ESPN’s Shams Charania and Dave McMenamin hinted at it last month, Los Angeles Lakers rookie Bronny James is now set to start shuffling back and forth between the NBA and G League with L.A.’s five-game road trip complete.

According to the latest reporting from Charania, James was assigned to the South Bay Lakers on Thursday, something that was expected. However, what many folks likely weren’t expecting is that the current plan is for James to only play in South Bay home games.

James hardly saw the floor during L.A.’s road trip, which the team finished with a poor 1-4 record. He did score his first NBA basket in just over five minutes of action in Los Angeles’ blowout loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Oct. 30, but he only saw about 10 minutes of combined playing time across the entirety of the road trip.

His most recent action came in the final game of the trip. In a matchup L.A. lost to the Memphis Grizzlies by 17 points to fall to 4-4 on the season, James played less than five minutes and finished with two points on 0-of-2 shooting from the field. His two points against Memphis came at the charity stripe.

The only other playing time he got during the road trip came when he logged a few forgettable seconds on Nov. 1 against the Toronto Raptors.

Overall, the youngster has played in just half of L.A.’s eight regular-season contests to this point, and his playing time usually hasn’t come in meaningful situations.

Fans should be excited to witness how James will perform in the G League, considering he hasn’t gotten many opportunities to show what he brings to the table with Los Angeles thus far. James’ G League debut on Saturday will also mark South Bay’s season opener.

Here’s to hoping that James will show out against the Salt Lake City Stars on Saturday, and maybe he’ll even sniff the floor for the Purple and Gold in their upcoming bout against the Philadelphia 76ers prior to his G League debut.