Why LeBron's new team — the 76ers! — should happily trade for Bronny James
At long last, LeBron James has made his decision. The 41-year-old is a Sixer, signing a two-year deal worth $8 million to join Philadelphia.
Is Bronny James next?
For James' free agency, it's not clear what the exact terms of engagement were during this round. But unlike past courtships, the employment status of James' son, Bronny, will likely be part of internal discussions with LeBron's new team in Philly. In 2024, when James' Los Angeles Lakers selected Bronny with the 55th pick in the draft, the Jameses became the first father-son pairing to play in the NBA together.
LeBron has not publicly stated that he'd like his eldest son to join him, and it's not a given the Lakers would satisfy any such request. But it also wouldn't be a surprise to hear that LeBron would prefer to continue playing with his son. In the playoffs, after throwing an alley-oop to Bronny in a Game 3 win over the Houston Rockets, LeBron didn't hold back his joy.
"It just keeps getting better and better," he said after the game. "It's like, wow."
As of now, there is no plan or request for Bronny to join his father, per ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne. But that could always change as the season draws closer. Bronny for the time being remains on the Lakers' roster, set to play his third year on a four-year contract that he signed in 2024. The 21-year-old became a rotation player by the end of last season, garnering 16.9 minutes per game while appearing in eight playoff games with the Lakers.
But president Bob Myers and the Philadelphia 76ers should happily acquire Bronny. Here are three reasons why.
1. Bronny James was much better last season
Is Bronny James a good NBA player? I don't think anyone would argue that he is right now. The better framework is to count him among the hundred or so players who are trying to make it in the league. In 556 minutes over two seasons, he's averaging 2.7 points, 1.1 assists and 0.6 rebounds. Not great. On a per-minute basis, his career PER of 8.4 is 464th among 485 players with at least 500 minutes over the last two seasons. Still: not great.
But he's trending upward. The swing skill for Bronny is his 3-point shot, which would allow him to level up his athleticism with a perimeter threat. Last season, he made 22 of his 57 3-point shots, giving him a promising 38.6% conversion rate, an improvement from his debut mark of 28.1%. If he can maintain a strong percentage and continue to deliver strong on-ball defense, he'll be able to carve out a role as an NBA player.
There's also G League data. In his age-20 and age-21 seasons, his G League ledger shows that there's something there. In 25 career games in the G League, Bronny is averaging 18.4 points, 4.4 assists and 4 rebounds in 30 minutes per game while shooting 49.6% from the floor, 41.3% on six 3-pointers per game and 80.5% from the line. For a defensive-minded player like Bronny, scoring 22 points per 36 minutes with an above-average 63.9% true shooting percentage at the G League suggests he's more than ready for NBA minutes.
Maybe Bronny doesn't pan out to be a Top 300 player one day. Gary Payton II bounced around the league before he found a real home in Golden State at age 29. Bronny is eight years younger than GP2 and, despite his youth, teams will have hundreds of millions of reasons to employ Bronny and his father.
He's already proven he's worthy of a roster spot. If you're annoyed by the nepotism at play, NBA history tells us that league executives have to pay off a debt to sons of NBA players who deserved better shots.
2. Bronny is ahead of the curve at No. 55
Do you remember Mladen Sekularac?
How about Cady Lalanne, Herbert Hill, Ejike Ugboaja, Rick Rickert, Maurice Jeffers, Kris Clack and Ronnie Henderson?
These names are among the 31 No. 55 selections since the draft expanded to that many picks in 1996. Which means that one out of every four No. 55s don't even make it to Game No. 1.
That's the thing about Bronny James. Players selected this late in the draft are basically blind dart throws, unlikely to make any impact in the league whatsoever.
Any Bronny analysis has to begin with the recognition of the long-shot baseline, one that shows playing in a single game is already an accomplishment. Anything after that is cake. Consider this fact: In just two seasons, Bronny has already scored the 12th-most career points of the 31 selections at No. 55.
Lakers head coach JJ Redick gave Bronny his big opportunity at the end of last season, playing him real minutes as a fringe rotation player on a playoff team. That just doesn't usually happen for players drafted as late as he was, as young as he was. In fact, among the 144 players drafted since 2000 at the No. 55 slot or later, only 15 actually played by their age-21 seasons, or what amounts to about 10%, according to Stathead.com research tools. Bronny is getting minutes earlier than 90% of those who are drafted as late as he was. Through this lens, Bronny is ahead of the curve.
Did Bronny benefit from being LeBron James' son and get an earlier opportunity? Sure, but such a nepotistic benefit is long overdue considering that second-generation players have been snubbed more often than not in the past. The NBA Draft tells the story that NBA progeny has been underrated.
In a span beginning with the modern two-round draft's debut in 1989 and through 2022, there have been 62 players selected who were the sons of NBA players. Some became future Hall of Famers, including Stephen Curry, Kobe Bryant and Jalen Brunson. Others became perennial All-Stars and champions, including Kevin Love, Al Horford and Klay Thompson.
As I pointed out last month advocating for Carlos Boozer's son, Cam, for the No. 1 pick, sons of NBA players are nearly twice as likely to become All-Stars than their non-legacy counterparts. The reality is that sons of NBA players like Bronny James have seemingly been punished, or at the very least overlooked, by teams for having a father who played in the league.
Despite their family's star power, Scotty Pippen Jr., Gary Payton II and Seth Curry never heard their names called on draft night and have played a combined 26 seasons in the league. Even for second-generation players who don't have a box-office last name like Luke Kornet, Garrett Temple and Wesley Matthews, the fact that their fathers played in the NBA wasn't enough to get picked.
“Punished” might seem like too strong of a word, but the successes of undrafted sons of NBA players lends credence to the idea that GMs stiff the name-brand prospect, preferring instead to go for lesser-known diamonds in the rough that may make them look smarter for discovering. Like GP2 and Seth Curry, it took a while for some smaller second-gen players to carve out their NBA roles. Considering that Myers is playing with house money getting LeBron James at just the veteran minimum this season, trading for Bronny would be a no-brainer.
3. The LeBron James Subsidy
It's totally possible that this was part of the deal with Philly: If I sign for the minimum, commit to trading for Bronny and I'm in. So far, there's no indication that Bronny and LeBron are a package deal, but if LeBron's happiness was truly the North Star that brought him to Philly and he wants to continue playing with his son, the Sixers' business and basketball ops shouldn't think twice about doing LeBron a solid.
LeBron James has made $584 million in his NBA career. That's a bargain. Because of the max contract that artificially caps the earning power of the best players, James has effectively subsidized the contracts of the rest of his NBA peers while providing enormous surplus value for his squad.
In a 2024 study, BYU economist Scott Kaplan showed that James' predicted salary in 2018-19 based on ticket sales, merchandise, popularity (as represented by All-Star votes) and player performance would be a whopping $123.3 million, nearly $100 million higher than his actual salary paid by the Lakers that season ($35.6 million). And that's just value to the Lakers. Kaplan asserted that due to James' ability to fill seats on the road, his value to the entire league was worth an annualized $229 million in salary.
Instead of James getting that money, it's distributed as part of the BRI (basketball-related income) to other players. Call it the LeBron James Subsidy. Nowadays, LeBron, at 41, doesn't spin up quite as much box-office magic as he did back then when he regularly led all players in All-Star votes.
Last season marked the first time in 22 years that he wasn't voted as a starter, but he still finished with the eighth-most votes in the league. By comparison, in 2018-19, Kevin Durant ranked eighth in All-Star votes and, according to Kaplan's model, provided $182 million in value to the NBA, with $98 million allocated directly to his team.
So what will LeBron be worth in 2026-27 as a Sixer? Let's throw in the fact that the cap has skyrocketed about 60% higher than it was in 2018-19. With revenues more frothy than at the time of Kaplan's study, we can roughly project James' predicted salary for his new team to be over $150 million and nearly $300 million in total value for the NBA. And that's pegging his value to a player ranking eighth in All-Star votes like KD in 2019.
So, yeah, James' economic value to his new team will dwarf his contract, and that was before he indicated he was willing to play for the veteran's minimum of $3.9 million. Bronny's contract will pay him $2.3 million next season, which is a rounding error compared to what James' on-court and off-court value will provide. Honestly, if Bronny's younger siblings, Bryce and Zhuri, were both old enough and entered the draft, teams would probably consider employing them, too.
Bronny remains on the Lakers roster, but the team needs to trim at least one player in order to be in line with league roster rules. By going over the roster limit, Luka's team appears to be operating as if Bronny is expendable. Perhaps they truly believe he's the next GP2, the scrappy son of an NBA player who needed a few years to find his footing, and they find a way to keep him around. But they probably know he's worth more to LeBron's new team than his old one.
Both the Lakers and Sixers have some cap work to do. According to ESPN's Bobby Marks, Philadelphia is currently $572,000 above the first apron, so they have to shed salary. Dominick Barlow's $3.4 million for Bronny's $2.3 million would get them there. It might make more sense to find a home for Dalen Terry, who is already in a logjam in the backcourt before Bronny comes into the picture.
Maybe the Lakers play hardball with the Sixers and ask for a, um, King's ransom, but then again, no team drafted him early and made the Lakers sweat in 2024 despite everyone who paid one second of attention to draft coverage knowing the Lakers would seriously consider drafting Bronny at 55.
Is Bronny getting more opportunities because of his name? Probably. But he's the exception to the rule. Usually, sons of NBA players are snubbed rather than spoon-fed. LeBron is the only one who stuck around long enough to make sure the second-generation snub didn't happen to his family. After all, Philadelphia is the City of Brotherly Love. LeBron and Bronny could make Fatherly Love a reality.
