From averaging merely 4.8 points at USC to an impressive 21.9 points for the South Bay Lakers in his rookie season, Bronny James has come a long way. But there is a long way still to go for James Jr to find a permanent spot in JJ Redick’s rotation. Frankly, the youngster is still trying to figure out his identity as a player and he believes his defense could get him there. “There’s gonna be guys that can score 15, 20 a game. I’m most likely not going to be that guy right now. To get myself on the floor, I’ve got to be a defensive menace.” Bronny remarked, showing signs of maturity and growth.

Fueling Bronny’s bold claim, NBA legend Paul Pierce urged him to follow the mindset of a veteran player of similar stature. “I like Bronny and how he’s improved over the year. To be a rotation player, being that you are 6’1-2 guard he has to show me that he can do one thing great. I heard him saying he has to be a terror on the defensive side of the ball. Now, if he can show that to where he can be a lockdown defender because think about this, and I always refer to Pat Beverley…”

Yes, despite being a 6’2 guard, Pat Bev carved an illustrious twelve-year NBA career. Not because he was scoring 30 points a night like Luka, or dishing out 10+ assists like Tyrese Haliburton, but because he was a defensive menace. And it’s not that Beverley could not put the ball in the basket. The former Lakers star averaged 37.3 points as a high school senior but realized that he would require a different skill set to find success in the pros.

Pierce believes that’s exactly what Bronny needs to do, “He (Pat) was a scorer, but he came into the league and said, ‘Hey, it’s a bunch of scorers out here that can do a lot of things I can do. I gotta figure out how I can be on this court, how I’m gonna be on this rotation. I gotta change my mindset and my game.’ And that’s what Bronny has to do. He has to figure it out.” As an undersized guard, Bronny cannot be a jack of all trades, but he has to be a master of one if he wants to succeed in this league. He needs to come in with that mindset and hopefully follow in Beverley’s footsteps. “If he can do that, then he can find a spot in this Lakers rotation,” Pierce added.

Even Bronny made his focus clear for this summer, “That’s my main focus, getting conditioned this year. It’s been shown that I know how to score the ball a little bit, I’m staying true to that, but also focusing on the defensive end.” And looks like Redick envisions him in a similar role.

While Bronny aims to be a defensive menace, his head coach seemingly had a similar vision for him last year. Ahead of his rookie season, Redick revealed his bold expectations from LeBron’s son, “What I’d like to see is a lot of ball pressure. The example I used, we were at the Canada-USA exhibition, obviously, I’m not comparing Bronny at 19 to Lu Dort who is an All-NBA defender, but you watch that game and Lu Dort or Jrue Holiday, there’s 8 or 9 possessions a game where they just completely take the offense out of what they’re trying to do because of their disruptiveness.”

Of course, both Holiday and Dort are two of the most elite defenders in the league. More importantly, former champions. If Bronny can contribute to a team the way they do, he would not have to be an elite scorer to carve out a successful NBA career. His defense would be enough. However, JJ clarified that reaching that level would require a lot of hard work, “There’s a conditioning element to being able to play that way defensively. But overall, we like what we’ve seen in practice, we like what we’ve seen in the Summer League.” And this year, Bronny is also exploring his leadership traits.

Now that the vision is clear and both JJ and Bronny James are on the same page, it will be interesting to see how the youngster turns his defense into a weapon this year. Do you think Bronny can up his game to book a permanent spot in the Lakers’ rotation? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.