Lakers introduce draft picks, say Bronny James ‘earned’ his spot

EL SEGUNDO — As the Lakers were introducing their draft picks, Dalton Knecht (No. 17 pick) and Bronny James (No. 55), on Tuesday afternoon at their practice facility, new coach JJ Redick wanted to set the record straight about the franchise’s second-round pick.

As part of one of his first comments during the introductory press conference, James said he was “extremely grateful” for everything that Redick and Lakers general manager and vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka had “given” to him.

Redick made it a point to clarify that comment.

“Rob and I did not give Bronny anything; Bronny has earned this,” Redick said. “Bronny has earned this through hard work. And for us, prioritizing player development, we view Bronny as like, case study one, because his base level of feel, athleticism, point-of-attack defender, shooting, passing, there’s a lot to like about his game.

“As we sort of build out our player development program holistically, he’s going to have a great opportunity to become an excellent NBA player.”

Redick, seemingly, made the distinction aware of the narratives surrounding the organization – and specifically James – since last week’s NBA draft.

Knecht was considered one of the steals of the draft after being projected to be selected in the top 10 by most major pre-draft prognosticators. The 23-year-old, 6-foot-5 wing who spent the last season with Tennessee was the 2023-24 SEC Player of the Year after averaging 21.7 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 36 games with the Volunteers – the caliber of player the Lakers didn’t think would be available to them in the draft.

“I’m just excited to be here in the right place,” Knecht said. “And I’m excited just to get to work here and go out and compete.”

But James’ worthiness of being drafted was doubted by many outside the Lakers organization.

James, 19, is the oldest son of superstar LeBron James, who has played for the Lakers since 2018 and is expected to return to the organization on a new contract after declining his player option last week to become an unrestricted free agent.

No father and son have ever played in the league at the same time, let alone on the same team.

Bronny acknowledged the pressure of being on the same team as his father, a four-time NBA MVP and the league’s all-time leading scorer.

“For sure, [an] amplified amount of pressure,” said the younger James, while his father watched quietly from the back of the gym. “I’ve already seen it on social media, the Internet … talking about that I might not deserve an opportunity. But I’ve been dealing with stuff like this my whole life. So it’s nothing different.

“It’s more amplified, for sure. But I’ll get through it.”

Bronny James deftly answered questions about everything he’ll face after jumping straight to the NBA after one short season of college basketball. He played inconsistently last winter at USC after recovering from a frightening cardiac event in July 2023.

“The time that I had off, I feel like I could have been perfecting my game more,” Bronny said. “I just feel like I’ve been given the opportunity to showcase what I can really do, because I wasn’t given that much of an opportunity at SC. So I’m excited for what it’s going to be.”

The Lakers’ drafting of Knecht and James comes at a time when the organization has made it clear player development will be a greater emphasis for them going forward.

That was once again the message on Tuesday.

“The player development program we’re trying to build is holistic,” Redick said. “Oftentimes when people talk about player development, they talk about ball handling and shooting and passing, and certainly the mechanics of playing basketball are an important part of player development. But it’s also tactical. It’s about reads, it’s about incorporating film, incorporating analytics. We will hopefully in the next few days or couple [of] weeks hire a director of player development program that sees my vision.

Redick added: “It’s nutrition. It’s how you take care of your body, your work in the weight room. The mental development. And all the ups and downs that come. I had a chance to spend a few minutes with Dalton this morning. And one of the things we talked about is just being open-minded. Having an openness and just letting go of outcomes. And the thing that excites me about both these guys is that their basis of basketball is as workers. That’s a great starting point.”

And even though they’ll have different expectations going forward, Tuesday was their starting point.

Knect and James will be on the Lakers’ summer league team, which will begin play on Saturday in the smaller California Classic in San Francisco (July 6-10) before heading to Las Vegas for the league-wide summer league (July 12-22).

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Redick said South Bay Lakers head coach Dane Johnson will be at the helm of the Lakers during summer league.

“I will be heavily involved in practices,” Redick said. “I will also be involved in some capacity during the games, during film, all of that. We talk about development, it’s an incredible opportunity for Dane and his staff to develop further. For me, I have to prioritize a bunch of different things right now, including building out a staff.”

Pelinka also addressed the Lakers’ aggressiveness during free agency, which started Sunday afternoon. Their lone reported move has been agreeing to re-sign Max Christie to a four-year deal.

“We’re gonna always be aggressive to try to make roster upgrades and will be relentless to continue to look at what we can do,” Pelinka said. “We have 14 guys under guaranteed contracts with one space. This is the season of being mindful of all the different things we can approach to improve the roster. So we’re in the midst of that as we speak.”