USC Basketball news has received a couple of big time decisions recently from Bronny James, the son of NBA legend LeBron James who joined the Trojans to play his college basketball but dealt with a health scare and inconsistent playing time throughout his freshman season. First, it was announced that James would be taking his talents to the college transfer portal, meaning that he will likely be moving on from USC basketball, and then, on Friday, James revealed that he would be entering himself into the upcoming 2024 NBA Draft, but still maintaining his college eligibility and transfer portal status at the same time.
This news led some to wonder how highly touted of a prospect Bronny James would be should he opt to go ahead into the NBA Draft after just one season at USC. Recently, NBA insider Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated took to his account on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter, to shed some light on how NBA scouts are viewing the talented young guard/forward.
“NBA scouts are divided on James. He has elite defensive tools but lacks the size to defend bigger guards. He showed flashes of being a strong playmaker but isn’t a traditonal point guard. His shooting was streaky. Still, he performed well given the near tragic cardiac incident he had last summer. James will go through the evaluation process before making a decision on the NBA draft,” reported Mannix.
An interesting path for Bronny James
As Mannix mentioned in his report, Bronny James dealt with a health scare last summer when he suffered a cardiac arrest at a team practice, but thankfully fully recovered from the incident and was able to suit up for the Trojans for the majority of this past season, which was a relatively disappointing one for USC basketball overall.
Playing time, at least initially, was sparse for James, who spent his childhood growing up in the shadow of his legendary father LeBron James, a member of the hometown Los Angeles Lakers since the summer of 2018. The younger James showed immense flashes of talent in his own right during his high school days at Sierra Canyon in Los Angeles, and has also heard his name thrown around the media at certain points by his father, who has gone on the record as saying his son could start for the Lakers and that he is better than several players currently in the NBA, both of which perhaps added some unnecessary pressure on Bronny's shoulders.
In any case, as previously mentioned, James is also maintaining his status as a member of the NCAA transfer portal, meaning that if things don't work out in the draft, he can always choose to return to college and join another basketball program outside of USC. It's possible that he's simply entering the draft as a means of getting more legitimate feedback from real NBA scouts as to where his game fits in the league today, before going back to college to work on potential areas of improvement.
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