USC Basketball: Lakers Eyeing Bronny James In Draft?

Is a legacy hire in the works?

Bronny James has had a rough start to his freshman season.

A four-star recruit out of Sierra Canyon School in Chatsworth, the 6’4” combo guard has struggled to score much for a 10-15 USC Trojans squad that seems likely to miss the NCAA Tournament entirely, barring an unlikely Pac-12 Tournament championship run.

Across 17 contests for the Trojans (six starts), James is averaging 5.9 points on .362/.275/.643 shooting splits, three rebounds, 2.6 assists and 0.8 steals a night.

Per Sam Amick, Anthony Slater, and Jovan Buha of The Athletic, it appears that Bronny may find an NBA home next season regardless of how raw he has looked offensively.

The Los Angeles Lakers could look to find a way into this year’s NBA draft (the team is currently without a pick) so that they can add Bronny James to their roster in some capacity, in an effort to placate All-Star power forward LeBron James.

LeBron has, for years now, spoken about a desire to play next to his son, which would mark the first time that's ever transpired in the league (it has happened in other sports, perhaps most notably with the Ken Griffeys in baseball). 

Bronny is such an undercooked prospect that he has fallen off most national mock drafts (both rounds) at this stage. If he were to declare for the NBA after his freshman season, it seems likely that someone would snag him in at least the late second round, gambling on his sheer athletic upside and the possibility that LeBron would stick to an earlier pledge, where he claimed he would sign as a free agent with any team that drafted his son.