Bronny James has more than his fair share of critics and Quincy Olivari came to his defense after they both made their G League debuts in the South Bay Lakers’ 110-96 win over Salt Lake City Stars on Saturday. When Olivari was asked about his own performance postgame, he gave James his flowers.
“To have Bronny out there looking like how he did, I was just happy to see him get out there and show the world that he can play. I’m a big advocate on pushing that he is a great player and the criticism he gets is unfair. To see him go out there, have fun along with (Maxwell) Lewis to go out there and show that he can also hoop too. It was just great to see.”
It’s great to see Olivari show this kind of support to James. There was a lot of talk during the Summer League about the 20-year-old’s teammates not being his biggest fans, but it does look like he has made a positive impression on those around him.
As for James’ performance against the Stars at the UCLA Health Training Center, he had six points, three rebounds, four assists, two steals, and a block in the contest. He played good defense and showcased his playmaking prowess as well.
James was yet again inefficient, however, going 2-9 from the field, 0-4 from three, and 1-1 from the line. His offensive game is still very much a work in progress and he needs to improve his shooting if he is to become a solid NBA player someday. Bronny also had some ball security issues in this one, recording five turnovers.
So, we saw some good and some bad, which is to be expected. Bronny, the 55th pick of the 2024 NBA Draft, is far from a finished product and will experience a lot of growing pains this season.
Olivari, meanwhile, continues to impress. The 23-year-old put up 28 points, 10 rebounds, six assists, and one steal against the Stars. He went 8-19 from the field, 7-15 from three, and 2-2 from the line, and seems to be going from strength to strength.
The Los Angeles Lakers had initially signed Olivari to an Exhibit 10 contract after he went undrafted but following his impressive showings in preseason, they signed him to a two-way deal. He sure has shown they were right to do it and if he keeps this up, he might break into the rotation at some point in the second half of the season.
The Lakers haven’t gotten much production out of their bench unit in 2024-25 and if there isn’t much improvement as the season progresses, they could start looking into giving the likes of Olivari a shot. For now, though, the youngster will only be featuring in the G League.
Olivari and the 1-0 South Bay Lakers will take on the Santa Cruz Warriors next on Nov. 15 at Kaiser Permanente Arena. He will be looking to make a strong impression in that one too, but James might not be playing alongside him in that contest. Reportedly, the plan is for Bronny to only play the home games, so I don’t expect him to feature against the Warriors.
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