Kwame Brown says there are high school players ‘better than Bronny’

With arguably the Los Angeles Lakers’ two best players on the shelf for their preseason opener against the Phoenix Suns on Oct. 3, guard Bronny James had a higher usage rate on offense than usual. However, instead of making the most of his additional touches and showing out, he faltered.

James finished tied for the most shot attempts of any player on the team with 12, yet he misfired on all but one of those looks. Following James’ woeful preseason showing, former NBA player Kwame Brown claimed that there are “high school players” better than the 20-year-old.

“And this ain’t year one,” he said. “This is year two. This is year two — this don’t make no sense. We got high school players better than Bronny. Absolutely got high school players better than Bronny. Bronny was never the best high school player on his team. He was never the best college player on his team. And he still gets 12 shots in a preseason game where everybody’s auditioning, where nobody normally passes the ball. Everybody trying to get they s— off it ’cause it’s new people out there. It ain’t just you.”

Interestingly, James attempted more shots from the field than guard Austin Reaves, yet Reaves scored more than double the number of points he did. While James ended up with just eight points, Reaves totaled 20 on 6-of-11 shooting from the floor and 7-of-7 from the charity stripe.

James didn’t do a great job of proving to the Lakers that he’s ready for a larger role as a second-year player with his performance on Friday. The guard was far from a mainstay in head coach J.J. Redick’s rotation as a neophyte last season, as out of Los Angeles’ 82 regular-season games, he appeared in just 27 of them.

The No. 55 overall pick back in the 2024 NBA Draft also put up forgettable numbers in the sporadic instances he did see the court as a rookie, considering he averaged just 2.3 points, 0.7 rebounds and 0.8 assists per game. His scoring efficiency left a whole lot to be desired, as he knocked down just 31.3 percent of his field goals and 28.1 percent of his 3s.

Here’s hoping that James will put his rough preseason debut in the rearview mirror with a solid showing in the Lakers’ next contest against the Golden State Warriors. The two teams will do battle on Sunday night in what will be a road game for James and company.

Conversely, another ineffective scoring performance from James on Sunday would be disappointing with the start of the 2025-26 regular season so close. Los Angeles will open its campaign against the Warriors on Oct. 21.