Did Bronny James boost his draft stock at the NBA combine? | On The Clock
Yahoo Sports NBA draft analyst Krysten Peek and CBS Sports' Kyle Boone assess Bronny James' performance at the combine and discuss his potential draft status. Hear the full conversation on “On The Clock” - part of the “Ball Don’t Lie” podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
Kyle, we have to talk about the player that had the most attention this week.
And that's Ronnie James, the oldest son of lebron James, who, him and his wife, Savannah were actually here out in Chicago for the second day of scrimmages supporting their son and they were like any other proud parent.
Savannah had her cell phone out when he was getting interviewed at the end of the game, you know, with big smiles on their face.
But how big was this week for Ronnie?
And, and what did you see from him just in his maturity and being able to rise in such a big moment?
I thought he had a really big week and I did not have high expectations for Ronnie James coming in this week and maybe that has something to do with it.
But again, you go back to the guys that maybe didn't look like they belong on the floor this week during scrimmages, there was a pretty long list of them.
Ronnie was not among them.
Yeah, he had a some struggles and maybe it kind of looked like he just kind of blended in the first day, but the second game.
Um, on the second day of scrimmages, I thought he really did good.
He was, he was more assertive.
He had a pull up, Jay.
That was really nice.
I was sitting in the, in the row in front of lebron.
Um, and he made like a, a nice little one handed pocket pass and you could hear lebron say good pass.
Everyone heard that the whole gym heard that.
Yeah, like my, it made my bones creak because lebron has like such a distinct like good buzz.
Um But it was fantastic.
Like I, I wish I could bottle up that moment, but he really played well this week and I think he handled himself well.
More importantly, there's obviously questions about his in his game and how it's gonna fit into the NBA because he wasn't, you know, a huge star at us C and I think he answered some questions on that front this week talking about um you know, like I wanna be like Drew Holiday, I wanna be someone who can embrace my role.
I don't expect that I'm going to be a superstar in the NBA, but I do expect to compete and I feel like um his media appearance earlier this week was um in particular, really impressive kind of handling himself in a way that, you know, I don't know if he's uh media trained or, you know, if this is just how he feels, but it, it felt genuine when he's like, you know, I, I haven't really thought about playing in the NBA with my dad.
Like, I'm just trying to make a name for myself.
I'm, I don't want to be known as lebron's oldest son.
I want to be known as Ronnie James.
And I thought he showed a lot of maturity just like in how he handled that situation because, uh, you were there in the, in the, in the ballroom KP.
It was a lot like there was a huge media gaggle.
Um People are like quite literally tripping over themselves to, to ask questions to Ronnie James and, um, you know, given the scrutiny that he's obviously going to face because of his situation because he's lebron's son.
I thought he held, he handled himself really well in the media setting.
Um did really well in the shooting stuff.
Um Testing wise, I thought was really good.
Maybe the sh the, the height as we talked about earlier maybe wasn't exactly what you had hoped.
But, you know, I think, um this week kind of helped him in a way where people are taking him seriously.
Um As, as a person, um which I think was probably the case anyway, but I think being able to kind of step out of that, that shadow and say, like I am Ronnie James, I think was really interesting.
And then as a prospect too, like I think he is seriously draftable and I've thought that for a long time but um having the performance that he had this week in Chicago, I think maybe crystallized that in a way where people can say like, yeah, he, he had a solid week in Chicago.
Um If someone wants to take him with a draft pick, whether it's, you know, number 15 overall or number 55 overall, um I think that's absolutely validated and warranted.
Here's what I wanna say and I will say this probably multiple times between now and the draft.
I understand that he did not have a good year at us.
C nobody had a good year at us.
C Isaiah Collier didn't have a good year at us.
C we just need to forget that that even happened.
I think people are forgetting that Ronnie James had open heart surgery in August and was back on the court in December to make that turnaround is insanely incredible.
Like it's, it's unheard of, it is by far unheard of.
Ok.
So he's back on the court.
He is a shell of himself the entire season.
He's trying to adjust to a new offense, trying to adjust to the pace of the college game.
So to say he should have gone back, his game doesn't translate is totally unwarranted because he understands the NBA game.
He knows about the spacing he can play defense.
Ronnie James is an NBA player and he's going to get drafted, may probably, you know, on his own merit.
But is it also enticing that his dad might join him?
Yes, that's the first thing I want to say.
The second thing I want to say is I think that coming out of this week, the Los Angeles Lakers are going to have to be having some conversations and their goal to have to move up the board.
We've already seen it with the Utah Jazz saying that they, they're interested in bringing in Ronnie for a workout and, and they, they are considering him with the 32nd pick.
So if the Lakers wanted to move up, they'd have to move up at least to 31 you know, and I think we're gonna start seeing those conversations, but it's way too early.
We're getting way ahead of ourselves.
But yes, Ronnie James has done enough this week to be drafted and I think he stays in this draft and, and he does get drafted, you know, on the second night of the NBA draft.