Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick handed Bronny James just his second start in the NBA on Saturday against the Milwaukee Bucks at Fiserv Forum. It was an opportunity to impress, but James failed to take advantage of it.
It was clear fairly early on that this wasn’t going to be James’ night. The 21-year-old passed up two wide-open three-pointers in the opening minutes of the game, and Redick had a stern message for him after he did it the second time.
“Bronny, you gotta shoot the f***ing ball,” Redick appeared to say.
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Luka Doncic was the one who passed the ball to James on both occasions, and he seemed to be frustrated by this as well. Redick decided to sub the sophomore guard out of the game after the second possession, and he wouldn’t play another minute in the first half.
While some might think this was a little harsh, you simply cannot have a player on the court who is unwilling to shoot when he’s that wide-open. It allows the opposition to constantly double-team your best player, which is what was happening here.
The Bucks were able to key in on Doncic because they felt comfortable leaving James open. That meant Redick had no choice but to make the change.
James would re-enter the game at the start of the third quarter, but was subbed out after three minutes. He only came back in with just under three minutes remaining in the fourth with the Lakers up 110-88.
In all, James played just under 10 minutes despite getting the start. The fact that Redick had every other starter on the court for more than 28 minutes is somewhat damning.
James, the 55th pick of the 2024 NBA Draft, ended up recording just one rebound, one assist, and one block against the Bucks. He failed to even score a point, going 0-2 from the field as the Lakers won 119-95 to improve to 10-4.
James fared better than this in his first start, which was against the Portland Trail Blazers in the final regular-season game of the 2024-25 campaign. He had four points (2-10 FG), three rebounds, six assists, and four steals that night against the Trail Blazers. Sure, he didn’t shoot well, but he impacted the game in other ways.
We have actually seen improvement in certain areas of James’ game this season compared to last, but he continues to struggle with shooting and scoring in general. He is averaging 2.0 points, 1.0 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 0.9 steals, and 0.1 blocks per game in 2025-26, while shooting 26.9% from the field and 20.0% from beyond the arc.
That’s horrible efficiency, and James is not going to get too many minutes if he keeps shooting that poorly, even with him impressing on the defensive end. The only reason he got the start here was because LeBron James, Rui Hachimura, Marcus Smart, and Gabe Vincent were all out.
All four are expected to be back soon, and minutes will be hard to come by for James once everyone is healthy. He might regret not showing his best against the Bucks.
The Lakers are in action next against the Utah Jazz at Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday at 10:30 PM ET. It will be interesting to see how much game time James gets in the contest.
