{"id":106836,"date":"2024-11-13T20:09:13","date_gmt":"2024-11-14T01:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=106836"},"modified":"2024-11-13T22:41:03","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T03:41:03","slug":"nepotism-isnt-the-problem-with-lakers-plan-for-bronny-james","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/11\/13\/nepotism-isnt-the-problem-with-lakers-plan-for-bronny-james\/","title":{"rendered":"Nepotism Isn’t the Problem with Lakers Plan for Bronny James"},"content":{"rendered":"

By now, the\u00a0<\/span>Los Angeles Lakers<\/span><\/a>\u00a0have initiated their season plan for<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Bronny James<\/span><\/a>, who <\/span>was\u00a0<\/span>sent down<\/span> to the G League<\/span><\/a>\u00a0following the Lakers five-game road trip. However, the plan surrounding Bronny’s development and how LA plans to curate it is causing a stir and drawing expected controversy. ESPN’s senior NBA writer Brian Windhorst issues his concern with the matter, but it’s not what you might expect.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nepotism Isn’t the Problem with Lakers Plan for Bronny James<\/h2>\n

Senior NBA Writer Waves off Nepotism and Favouritism in Bronny James Case<\/h3>\n

Nepotism? So what? Favoritism? Whatever! Those are essentially Windhorst’s feelings on the Lakers planning to have Bronny suit up for Lakers home games but send him to the South Bay Lakers when the adults go on the road. There’s no word on plans for players like\u00a0<\/span>Quincy Olivari<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>Christian Koloko<\/span><\/a>, and\u00a0<\/span>Jalen Hood-Schifino.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0As far as we know, it’s just for Bronny.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether you believe this to be a classic case of favoritism or nepotism, should it matter? Windhorst puts himself in that category\u2014<\/span>‘I don’t care,’<\/span><\/em>\u00a0were his exact words. However, there is another matter that Windhorst does highlight that should be taken seriously.\u00a0<\/span>On his\u00a0<\/span><\/a>Hoop Collective<\/span><\/a><\/em>\u00a0podcast, he explained his concerns<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I know he\u2019s getting somewhat special treatment and nepotism. That\u2019s fine; honestly, I don\u2019t care. Like I said, it\u2019s normal. Now, I think it\u2019s actually detrimental to him. I don\u2019t like that. I don\u2019t know whose idea it was, but obviously, the Lakers are fine with it\u2014they\u2019re doing it. On this particular instance, I think that\u2019s gone too far, and I don\u2019t think it benefits Bronny. I don\u2019t think it benefits the South Bay Lakers, and I don\u2019t think it benefits LeBron at this point.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, this situation could be one of three things. One: the Lakers are arrogant in their view of Bronny as an NBA-ready-now player. Two:\u00a0<\/span>JJ Redick<\/span><\/a>\u00a0is simply just smarter than everyone else. Perhaps he sees something in Bronny’s development persuading enough to want Bronny on the bench for home games. Or three, and I shutter to say it because the long-rumored notion that\u00a0<\/span>LeBron James<\/span><\/a>\u00a0has by night shadowed as the GM and head coach of all his teams is rubbish. But, three, LeBron pressured upstairs on this one. You pick.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why Windhorst is Right<\/h3>\n

Development\u2014it’s all about development and getting Bronny from point A to point B. For players who are not ready to step into point B, they spend time in point A\u2014the G League. It’s puzzling what Bronny can learn on the NBA level playing the last 1:30 of a game when Max Christie<\/a> is generally the only player taking shots in that time. Perhaps\u00a0<\/span>Redick<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and Rob Pelinka see enough in Bronny to validate that at least being an observer from the bench is more productive than playing minutes for South Bay.<\/span><\/p>\n

The reasons are what they are. However, you have to believe that Bronny would learn more about playing the game of basketball if he were playing the game of basketball. In the G League, he’s likely starting every game. He’s also getting reps with some of the young players like himself\u2014players who might potentially follow him up to the NBA in a year or two. Windhorst is right not to care because, yes, the Los Angeles Lakers will always do whatever they want to do. They’ve earned that right and have leaned on it regularly over the years. He’s also right in saying this plan has the means to cramp Bronny’s development rather than raise it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By now, the\u00a0Los Angeles Lakers\u00a0have initiated their season plan for\u00a0Bronny James, who was\u00a0sent down to the G League\u00a0following the Lakers five-game road trip. However, the plan surrounding Bronny’s development and how LA plans to curate it is causing a stir and drawing expected controversy. ESPN’s senior NBA writer Brian Windhorst issues his concern with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5081,"featured_media":106839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,26,62],"tags":[49759,4572,4544,4907,2279,38,4916,49377,759],"class_list":["post-106836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-lakers","category-nba","tag-brian-windhorst","tag-bronny-james","tag-christian-koloko","tag-jalen-hood-schifino","tag-jj-redick","tag-lebron-james","tag-max-christie","tag-quincy-olivari","tag-rob-pelinka"],"modified_by":"Aaron J Zacharias","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5081"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}