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LOS ANGELES -- Bronny James signed a four-year, $7.9 million contract with the Lakers on Wednesday, a league source told ESPN, reaching his rookie deal on the same day LeBron James agreed to an extension with the team and ensured the first father-son duo in NBA history will play for the purple and gold next season.

Bronny James' contract begins at $1,157,143 in 2024-25 and progresses to $1,955,377 the following year, $2,296,271 in 2026-27 and $2,486,955 for a team option in 2027-28, sources told ESPN.

The Lakers announced Wednesday that they had signed Bronny James and Dalton Knecht, the No. 17 pick in this year's draft, without disclosing terms.

James averaged 4.8 points on 36.6% shooting (26.7% from 3), 2.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 19.3 minutes at USC after undergoing a heart procedure last summer. He said the nearly five-month layoff because of the medical issue affected his development.

Lakers vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka praised James' mindset and potential as a point-of-attack defender, and new Lakers coach JJ Redick said James, whom Los Angeles selected with the No. 55 pick last week, will be a top priority with the team's revamped player development program.

“We view Bronny as [a] Case Study One because [of] his base level of feel, athleticism, point-of-attack defender, shooting, passing,” Redick said. “There's a lot to like about his game, and as we build out our player development program holistically, he's going to have a great opportunity to become an excellent NBA player.”

James and Knecht will make their summer league debuts Saturday in San Francisco against the Sacramento Kings in the California Classic.

The Lakers' roster now stands at 15, the maximum number of players an NBA team can carry.

By Dave McMenamin

ESPN Link

The Lakers finally landed some assistant coaches with head coaching experience, bringing in Nate McMillan and Scott Brooks.

The Lakers have finally begun adding coaches to their bench. Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reports that Nate McMillain and Scott Brooks will be joining JJ Redick’s staff as top assistants.

ESPN Sources: The Los Angeles Lakers are hiring Nate McMillan and Scott Brooks as top assistant coaches on JJ Redick’s new staff. Redick gets two longtime head coaches with a combined 1,189 victories to surround him. -@wojespn

Redick and vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka have been “completely aligned” with adding former head coaches to the staff and these acquisitions accomplish that.

Brooks has been rumored as a potential assistant coach option for the Lakers since early June and it appears that the Lakers were able to land one of their top targets.

With the addition of Brooks, the Lakers add plenty of coaching experience to Redick’s bench.

He was the head coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder from 2008-15 and the Washington Wizards from 2016-21. He was previously the assistant with the Portland Trail Blazers, working as an assistant there for three years.

McMillan also has extensive head coaching experience. He had three stints as a head coach, first with the Seattle Supersonics from 2000-05, then the Indiana Pacers from 2016-20 and lastly with the Atlanta Hawks from 2021-23.

Adding these previous head coaches should relieve Lakers fans who have been nervous about the lack of activity in filling out the staff.

It was starting to look like previous head coaches had little interest in joining Redick. That noise only got louder when Dwane Casey reportedly removed his name from consideration for the Lakers coaching job.

Now, the Lakers have two coaches who match the criteria they mentioned they wanted and suddenly, the staff fills out nicely.

With the Lakers expected to be “more involved” with assistant coach hires and financially investing in the staff, more moves are undoubtedly on the horizon.

Other coaches, such as Sam Cassell, Jared Dudley and former Laker Rajon Rando, have been connected to the Lakers and could join Redick’s staff.

If Los Angeles can add a few of these candidates to the organization, Redick will suddenly have one of the most experienced and esteemed benches in the NBA to help him navigate his first year as an NBA coach.

By Edwin Garcia

Silver Screen & Roll Link

With the new season just around the corner, what would we like to see more of in this community?

I'm not quite sure how polls work on Lemmy, but comments work, or I can comment, and we can vote on whatever?

I do appreciate when we get posts from other users and more engagement, but I understand if this community is more of the lurking type.

If this post doesn't get any engagement outside the usual up/downvotes. I'll assume we're good with the usual posting and continue.

This summer has been more about who isn't coming to the Lakers than who is.

Dan Hurley reportedly turned down the Lakers' head coaching offer, Klay Thompson picked Dallas over Los Angeles and now, Dwane Casey is reportedly withdrawing his name from consideration as part of JJ Redick's staff.

Casey has been coaching in the NBA for over 30 years and was the head coach of the Detroit Pistons from 2018-23.

His coaching pedigree perfectly matched what vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka and Redick mentioned as their ideal assistant during Redick's introductory press conference.

Another potential assistant is also off the board, with Terry Stotts reportedly coaching with the Golden State Warriors next year. It's starting to look harder and harder for the Lakers to fulfill their promise of head coaching experience on the bench.

This has to be concerning, given that Redick is currently the only coach on the Lakers' staff and the number of coaches available for hire is getting smaller by the day.

The offseason may be long, but building out the staff quickly is crucial. Free agents want to know who they will be playing for besides Redick and the Lakers already have Summer League basketball looming, making it that much harder to coach the young guys and build out the staff.

Redick confirmed on Tuesday that Dane Johnson would be the head coach of the Lakers during Summer League action and that Bronny James and Dalton Knecht will play in both the California Classic and Las Vegas Summer League.

With the Lakers reportedly willing to financially invest in assistants, it begs the question, why are coaches choosing not to come here?

If the Lakers fail to hire the caliber of assistants they mentioned, it will appear that this is not an alluring job or franchise to be associated with at the moment.

That might seem unfair or exaggerated, but perception quickly becomes reality in the NBA.

For Pelinka and the Lakers' sake, they need to start landing some of the personnel they've been seeking.

By Edwin Garcia

James will have a player option next summer and a no-trade clause as part of his new two-year, $104M maximum deal with the Lakers, sources said.

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Christie — 35th pick in the 2022 draft — has shown promise as a future LA rotation player.

Ahead of signing likely his last contract in the NBA, LeBron James looks set to really help out the Lakers. After LeBron opted out of his contract earlier on Saturday, his agent, Rich Paul, spoke to Dave McMenamin of ESPN and revealed that he is open to taking a discount on his next deal to open up the full mid-level exception for the Lakers.

If LA cannot find an impact player to sign for the full MLE that would be created by James taking a paycut, James will seek the max.

 There can only be so much patience on James' part: Team USA camp begins a week from today in Las Vegas and he needs a deal before taking the court https://t.co/lSkfup7YQJ
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) June 29, 2024 

In his article, McMenamin elaborated that players who fit this archetype would be quality veterans with something to prove, like Jonas Valančiūnas or a shooter like Klay Thompson, who appears to be on his way out of Golden State.

  The type of player that James would be willing to make a financial sacrifice for would be an established veteran playmaker like James Harden or Klay Thompson, or an established big man to play alongside Anthony Davis — like Jonas Valančiūnas, sources told ESPN.

LeBron has consistently taken the max throughout his career, except on his first contract with the Miami Heat in 2010. Since then, he’s taken the max and no team associated with the King has ever blinked. Even now, the Lakers were reportedly eager to re-sign LeBron at the max.

If he takes less money, however, it opens up the chance to sign a player on the full mid-level exception, which is approximately $12.9 million.

That kind of salary could land a quality starter and put the Lakers back into contention in the Western Conference.

This is the kind of scenario that was unfathomable just a week ago, when it seemed inevitable that LeBron would take the max and the Lakers wouldn’t have the cap space to acquire any potential free agents on the market.

LeBron is more than willing to take the max and with the Team USA camp and his son likely playing in Summer League, if he’s still a free agent, he’ll have to deal with a media circus and this contract situation will undoubtedly create tension.

There’s no need for that if he wants to remain a Laker.

So, if vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka has a deal he can get done, then now is the time to do it and show that he can help build a contender here in Los Angeles.

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