The Los Angeles Lakers are not standing completely pat at this year's NBA trade deadline. Surprisingly enough, a big beneficiary of Rob Pelinka finally pulling the trigger on a move may just be Bronny James.
Shams Charania reported: "The Los Angeles Lakers are trading Gabe Vincent and a 2032 second-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks for Luke Kennard, sources tell ESPN."
Kennard should give the Lakers a nice boost to the perimeter shooting. Meanwhile, the big point here for Bronny would be that the backup point guard position is now wide open. An opportunity could be here for the second-year guard to finally get some real minutes off the bench.
Bronny James' path to bench minutes suddenly becomes much clearer
There should be a handful of guards available on the buyout market when the dust settles from the trade deadline. Given this latest deal, it should not be surprising to see the Lakers go out and add one of those names. Are any of them really going to be insurmountable competition for Bronny, though?
As things stand, the best names available are expected to be Mike Conley, Lonzo Ball, and Chris Paul.
Two of those players can't play defense anymore. One of those players can't hit the side of a barn when putting up a shot.
In case anyone needs clarification on who is who, Conley and Paul are well past their best days of being effective on the defensive end. Adding either one of the two and having them play bench minutes in Los Angeles would only weaken the Lakers defense further.
Ball does not have those issue. However, if Lakers fans were frustrated with the offensive output from Vincent, they are going to be having complete meltdowns watching Lonzo attempt to score the basketball.
Ball is still a gifted passer. The Lakers just do not need a ton of that playmaking when they already have Luka Doncic, LeBron James, and Austin Reaves. What they need is knockdown shooters. Lonzo is only connecting on 27.2 percent from beyond the arc and 30.1 percent from the field overall. Woof.
It's not like the message here is about Bronny being perfect by comparison. However, James has given the Lakers flashes of ability on both ends. If there's an open competition for those minutes, it's not a complete guarantee that whoever comes in as a rival for the young guard will really be that much better at this stage of their career.