Anonymous NBA executives believe that a return to college would be helpful for USC guard Bronny James, who just completed his first collegiate season.
“If he goes back, I think he’ll have a better year, because hopefully his health is fully stabilized and he can have a full year of training and focus, and maybe the expectations are lowered so he can just play,” one exec said in part to ESPN’s Jeremy Woo, who spoke with three anonymous NBA front office members about James’ pro future. “I think that could be really helpful.”
James, the son of Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, valiantly overcame significant hardship just to play this season after he suffered cardiac arrest during a July 24 workout at USC. A congenital heart defect caused the cardiac arrest.
James made his season debut on Dec. 10, one month into the 2023-24 campaign. He ended up posting 4.9 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game over 19.3 minutes of action on average.
Those aren’t notable numbers for draft prospects, but he spent much of his offseason recovering from a potentially life-threatening health issue. He didn’t get the benefit of a full offseason of workouts and a preseason with his teammates. In other words, it’s easy to take his stats with a large grain of salt.
James entered USC as a 5-star prospect ranked No. 22 on 247Sports Composite’s ranking of class of 2023 boys basketball players. The potential is clearly there for better play, which is perhaps why execs believe another year in school would do him good before he goes pro.
“We’d recommend he go back, just because this season didn’t get off on the right foot,” another exec told Woo.
“He was behind due to the cardiac episode, being away from the team, the rehab, etc. So I think going back and continuing to fine-tune these skills [would help], because the offseason is when you really develop stuff.”
A third exec agreed on the point that a full offseason would significantly benefit James, and that person also noted the potential of a big jump between his first and second collegiate seasons.
“If he goes back, he gets an entire offseason. That’s the biggest thing to me. You can see a big jump with kids from year one to year two, and I’d expect him to come back knowing a role and where he is in the pecking order.
“I don’t think he knew and I don’t think USC ever knew this year. In some games I felt he’s very important to them and in other games they’ve kind of force-fed him minutes. And if he came back another year I think he’d pretty firmly know where he stands, and it wouldn’t be a very iso-centric team next year because [USC guard and potential lottery pick Isaiah Collier] is going to leave.”
We’ll see what James decides to do soon enough. If he does declare for the draft, then he’ll have to do so by April 27. James would then have the option to withdraw by June 16 or go forth with the pro process. If the latter occurs, the draft is set for June 26-27. If he is not drafted, then James has the option to return to school.