The Los Angeles Lakers are still sorting through their roster after a restless offseason, and Bronny James remains part of that conversation even as the spotlight has shifted.
The 21-year-old guard is heading into his third NBA season, and the questions around him grew louder the moment his father left the franchise. LeBron James is now with the Philadelphia 76ers, yet speculation persists about whether father and son might eventually share a locker room again.
Bronny was a second-round pick whose 2026-27 salary is guaranteed, a detail that would ordinarily quiet trade talk for another year. The Lakers, however, are over the standard roster limit with 16 players and must get down to 15. They also still need help in a couple of key spots.
That combination has put James on the list of names people mention when they talk about possible trades or a cut.
Lakers analyst Trevor Lane does not expect James to be the one who goes.
“Could the Lakers move on from Bronny James?” Lane said. “He’s got a team-option next year, so you would just decline that team-option, you could waive him. That would result in about $2.3 million in dead money sitting in your books. Not the end of the word; that would be just for this season. … That said, Bronny was actually fairly good last season. Quietly, he shot 39 percent from 3, last year Bronny did.”
James played in 42 games with Los Angeles last season, averaging 2.9 points per game on 40.9/38.6/85.7 shooting splits. There is still obviously a lot to be desired, but Lane feels that the Lakers may want to spend more time developing the youngster.
“Will he ultimately become an NBA rotation-level player? We don’t know that for sure,” Lane added. “I will say that he has improved a ton since he came into the NBA. I wouldn’t jump to the conclusion that just because LeBron is no longer a Laker, that Bronny is the guy that’s going to get cut. And let’s also remember the Lakers did guarantee the half-portion of his salary that was non-guaranteed this summer. So they clearly decided that he is at least worth guaranteeing about half of salary in order to hang on to him.”
Those comments line up with how the front office has treated James so far. The team could still waive him, but it has given several signs that it wants to keep developing him as a young piece. Other names sit in a more precarious place. Dalton Knecht arrived with higher expectations than James did.
The Lakers have until the end of October to decide on Knecht’s team option, and Lane believes they are more likely to part ways with the former first-round pick unless he plays well in preseason and the opening week of the regular season.
Jake LaRavia and Jaden Hardy have also been discussed as possible cuts. Both are 24 and on expiring contracts worth about $6 million, which makes them more useful as salary-matching pieces in a trade than as players the Lakers would simply release. Waiving either one would not serve the roster as well as keeping those deals available for a deal that could bring in a more established contributor.
For now the picture around Bronny James is less dramatic than the rumors suggest. The Lakers have already invested enough to keep him on the books, and Lane’s reading is that the organization still sees him as a player worth developing rather than the easiest name to drop.
Whether that assessment holds through training camp and the first weeks of the season will decide how long the conversation lasts.
