The Los Angeles Lakers are home to two of the most historic teammates in NBA history with LeBron James and his son, Bronny, together. It’s the first time in league history that a father and son have been in the league at the same time, let alone the same team. This gives new head coach JJ Redick the chance to do something truly special for the two.
At some point this season, LeBron and Bronny will be on the court at the same time, giving the all-time great a chance to live out a dream he has been discussing publicly for years now. And questions have already begun flowing as to when that’s going to happen.
Redick would not commit to an exact timeframe, but knows for sure that it will happen this season and is likely to be on the earlier end of the year, he said on The Lowe Post with ESPN’s Zach Lowe:
“In terms of that moment, yeah we’ve talked about it, and we’ve thought about it and we’ll get it done. don’t want to commit to anything right now but that’s going to happen, and that’s going to happen sooner rather than later.”
Outside of that moment, though, Bronny is expected to spend a majority of the year playing for the South Bay Lakers in the G League, something Redick wanted to redefine in his first year as head coach:
“The G League is not a demotion by any stretch. We are in the same building. We should be the model for integration between the NBA team and the G League team. I look at Zach (Guthrie) as an extension of my staff. That team is an extension of our team. I would expect us to use the G League for very specific reasons. I think Bronny is a young guy, I’m very high on him as a basketball player. He’s kind of like our first player that we get to mold and help develop. So we’re going to look at the G League as a tool in our player development system.”
The G League has typically been seen as a demotion for players who aren’t ready for the NBA but teams would like to keep in their system. However, Redick is trying to reframe the G League to be a more direct tool for the parent team. And that Bronny is the first real experiment for that.
Either way, Bronny is going to get direct developmental attention while also having the chance to play some minuutes alongside his dad in 2024-25.
JJ Redick reveals Lakers starting lineup
JJ Redick was not shy about who the Lakers are going to be starting to begin the 2024-25 season. He bluntly admitted that it will be the starting lineup that went 23-10 last season with LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Austin Reaves, D’Angelo Russell and Rui Hachimura.