South Bay Lakers head coach Zach Guthrie was full of praise for Bronny James after his G League debut on Saturday. Guthrie spoke to the media after the Lakers’ 110-96 win over the Salt Lake City Stars at UCLA Health Training Center and shared what impressed him about James’ play.
“I think he did a great job dictating on the ball,” Guthrie said. “He got the first bucket of the game. I drew up the first play for him, but we didn’t get to run it because they won the tip. So, we gotta get (Christian Koloko) to win the tip next time.
“But I thought, he got the first bucket, he played great, he played unselfishly, he played within the flow of the game,” Guthrie continued. “And I thought, like all our guards, we defended at a high level. We talked about dictating. They weren’t comfortable in their offense… I thought everyone did a great job of executing.”
James recorded six points, three rebounds, four assists, two steals, and one block against the Salt Lake City Stars. He didn’t shoot the ball well, going 2-9 from the field and 0-4 from three, but played good defense. The 20-year-old had five turnovers as well on the night, but his playmaking, in general, was impressive.
The hype for James’ G League debut was unlike anything we have ever seen for a game in the minor league. The South Bay Lakers had just five sellouts in 24 home games last season but tickets for this game against Salt Lake sold out more than 48 hours in advance.
SLC Stars’ head coach Steve Wojciechowski revealed that even his son wanted to come to the game to see James in action. He is undoubtedly a big draw and the arena was filled to full capacity with 676 attendees.
Among those attendees were LeBron, Savannah, Zhuri, and Gloria James. Anthony Davis, D’Angelo Russell, Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick, and GM Rob Pelinka were also in attendance and they all got to see James make the first basket of the game.
Bronny James hits his first jump shot of the night with the South Bay Lakers
Smooth looking shot pic.twitter.com/nlwlVXMuaN
— LakeShow Highlights (@LSH_lakeshow) November 10, 2024
That was indeed a smooth-looking shot. James then hit a floater in the second quarter and you thought he might end up having a productive scoring night at that point, but he just couldn’t hit a shot after that.
James’ shooting continues to be the biggest issue with his game and a lot of work is going to have to be put in for him to improve in that regard. Fortunately, the development of his game is why Bronny is in the G League and it will be interesting to see his progression as the season goes on.
The 1-0 South Bay Lakers will take on the Santa Cruz Warriors next on Nov. 15 at Kaiser Permanente Arena. It has been reported that the plan is for James to play only the home games, so it’s unclear if he will take part in that one. He is going to keep shuttling between the two teams for now and will be with the Los Angeles Lakers for their home game against the Toronto Raptors on Sunday.
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