Bronny James hasn’t had a great start to life on the court in the NBA and Gilbert Arenas pointed out the biggest problem with his game on Monday’s episode of Gil’s Arena. Arenas believes James is just way too passive on the court and wants him to become more aggressive.
“I like the bones of what he could be,” Arenas said. “I think the problem with Bronny’s game is he’s not aggressive and when you’re not looking to score it becomes a problem… It’s like the Ben Simmons case, right? When you’re looking to make passes, you miss everything.
“If you just be ultra-aggressive like, I’m looking to score, you stop me, then I make the pass,” Arenas continued. “But if you sitting here trying to make a pass and the rim is right here… it becomes a harder game. I like some of the things he does. Sometimes it’s just like in your mind you’re already trying to pass the ball. That’s not how you supposed to play the game. It’s not your game.
“When you look at the Jason Kidds, the Steve Nash, they’re passers but because they’re so aggressive like, ‘I need to touch the paint here, I know where to pass.’ How they look at the game is still an aggressive look,” Arenas stated. “His game is passive, all the way around.
“Everything is secondary to him,” Arenas added. “… It’s just this awkward thing when he is supposed to shoot it he passes, when he is supposed to pass he shoots.”
James can certainly be accused of being a bit too passive at times. While he has that tendency to look for the pass, I think it’s been amplified by the fact that he has struggled so much with his shot since the Los Angeles Lakers drafted him with the 55th pick of the 2024 NBA Draft.
James shot 35.0% from the field and 15.8% from beyond the arc in the Las Vegas Summer League. Those percentages dropped even further during the preseason, as the 20-year-old shot just 29.7% from the field and 8.3% from beyond the arc. It’s only natural that when someone struggles to this extent, they hesitate a bit to just let it fly.
James’ shooting struggles continued in his G League debut with the South Bay Lakers as well. He had a solid all-around showing against the Salt Lake City Stars, with six points, three rebounds, four assists, two steals, and one block, but went 2-9 from the field and 0-4 from three in 31 minutes.
To James’ credit, he hasn’t completely gone into a shell as evidenced by those nine shot attempts. He just needs to find that right balance between passing and scoring and I think that will come when those shots start falling at a better rate. That’s not going to happen very soon, though, as his offensive game needs a lot of work. It’s why he was sent to the G League.
James’ next outing might not be in the G League, though. He is with the Lakers, at present, and could feature in their next game against the Memphis Grizzlies at Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday at 10 PM ET.
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