The Lakers assigned Bronny James and Cameron Carr to the Coachella Valley Lakers on Thursday, a day before their G League affiliate opens its season in Palm Desert. Dan Woike and Dave McMenamin both posted the team’s announcement a little after 11:30 a.m. Pacific.
I’m for it. Bronny has played 12 minutes all season, and Coachella Valley can give him 30 a night. But here’s my request, aimed at the Lakers and at everybody who’s about to post his box scores: don’t grade this stint in November. The G League’s early-season tournament has been the worst G League basketball of Bronny’s career, two years in a row. His good G League numbers came later, in the regular season that starts in late December.
Twelve Minutes in Two Weeks
Here is Bronny’s season so far, per Basketball Reference. He played 6:46 in the 22-point opening-night win over Golden State. Then he sat out four straight games. Since October 30, he has checked in four times for between 70 seconds and 1:44 each. Five appearances, 12 minutes, four points on 2-of-3 shooting.
Twice now, the Lakers have played the exact game JJ Redick described in the preseason. After an October 8 exhibition win over Sacramento, Redick said, per Heavy’s Alder Almo, that “if one of Luka or Collin is not in the lineup, then one of Bronny James or Jaden or Chris is going to play because we need another ballhandler.”
Sexton was inactive for the opener, and Bronny got his 6:46 in a game the Lakers won by 22. Then on October 28 at the Clippers, Luka Doncic sat the second night of a back-to-back with back tightness, per NBA.com. Bronny didn’t play. Quentin Grimes played 38 minutes, Austin Reaves 30 and Sexton 21, and Redick gave the leftover 9:25 to Jaden Hardy, per the Basketball Reference box score. The Lakers won by 16. Redick did what he said he’d do. He just picked Hardy, and that tells you where Bronny stands on a 7-2 team.
I argued in October that the Lakers should keep Bronny as their 15th man, and they did, waiving Dalton Knecht on October 19 to get from 16 players to 15, per ABC30. I still think that was right. But a 22-year-old guard who plays 90 seconds a night, when he plays at all, is mostly watching.
The November Problem
The 18.4 points a game you’ll see quoted for Bronny’s G League career is real, but it only counts the G League regular season. It leaves out the Tip-Off Tournament, the 14-game stretch the league plays from November into December before records reset at the Winter Showcase. Split them, using Bronny’s G League page on Basketball Reference:
| Season | Stretch | Games | PPG | FG% | 3P | Ast | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | Tip-Off | 7 | 13.4 | 37.4 | 7-of-33 | 3.4 | 3.0 |
| 2024-25 | Regular season | 11 | 21.9 | 44.3 | 35-of-92 | 5.4 | 3.5 |
| 2025-26 | Tip-Off | 6 | 9.5 | 35.6 | 7-of-33 | 4.5 | 3.8 |
| 2025-26 | Regular season | 14 | 15.6 | 56.4 | 31-of-68 | 3.7 | 2.1 |
That’s a big split. In 13 Tip-Off games across two seasons, Bronny has made 14 of 66 threes, 21.2%. In 25 regular-season games, he made 66 of 160, 41.3%. Last November and December he had 23 turnovers against 27 assists in 185 minutes. In last season’s regular season he shot 56.4% from the field with a .703 true shooting percentage, which is good at any level.
Some of that is noise, because 13 games is 13 games. But the pattern is two-for-two, and it’s enough to set expectations. Bronny has been a slow starter down there, and he’s arriving this time off two weeks of mostly watching.
What the Lakers Should Ask For
The schedule makes this simple. Coachella Valley opens Friday at Acrisure Arena against the Salt Lake City Stars, the defending Tip-Off Tournament champions, per the G League’s schedule release. The Lakers host Portland the same night. The tournament wraps up at the Winter Showcase in Orlando, December 19 to 22, where a 36-game regular season also begins with records reset. The G League Finals start the week of April 5.
So the Lakers get about six weeks of Tip-Off games before the version of Bronny that showed up in the last two regular seasons is supposed to appear. My asks for the Tip-Off stretch are narrow:
- He runs the team. Redick’s preseason role for him was backup ballhandler, so the G League job should be the same one: bring it up, set the offense, take the hard possessions. Thirty minutes of spot-up shooting next to another guard teaches the Lakers nothing.
- Watch the turnovers before the points. Last year’s Tip-Off line was 3.8 turnovers a game. If that number drops below 3 while he’s handling the ball every trip, that’s progress, even if he’s shooting 30% from three.
- Leave him there. Same rule I gave for Carr’s first assignment in October: recall a player when there’s a real role waiting for him. Carr, by the way, has three appearances and 3.5 total minutes this season, per Basketball Reference. He needs this as much as Bronny does.
Where This Leaves Bronny’s Contract
Bronny is making $2,296,271 this season, and his $2,486,995 salary for 2027-28 is a team option, per Basketball Reference’s Lakers contract page. The full cap picture is on our Lakers roster and depth chart. The Lakers don’t need to decide on that option in November. They need to decide on it after they’ve seen whether this year’s G League regular season looks like last year’s, and whether any of it carries over to a real NBA minute.
So expect an ugly first month in Palm Desert. If the Tip-Off pattern holds, there will be a 2-for-11 night that goes viral and somebody will declare the experiment over. Ignore it. Judge Bronny on the turnovers in November and the jump shot in March, and make the option call after that.