ESPN goes wild, tabs Bronny James as a top-10 pick in the 2024 class

Bronny James has been on NBA radars for years but his draft stock just took a big leap with ESPN tagging him as a likely top-10 pick in 2024.

When your father is the best basketball player in the world, you can’t help but grow up in the spotlight. Bronny James can thank his father, LeBron James, for the early hype but he’s earned plenty on his own, becoming one of the top prospects in the 2024 draft class.

At least some portion of his appeal as a prospect is tied to the possibility that LeBron will opt to sign as a free agent with whichever team drafts him but he’s been fairly consistently rated as a first-round prospect based on his own skills and physical tools. Jonathan Givony of ESPN may have caused a stir today with a piece tagging Bronny as not just a first-rounder but a likely top-10 pick.

James plays for one of the best high school teams in the country, Sierra Canyon, but is mostly a complementary scorer and creator on offense. As Givony noted, his perimeter defense is the most developed and attractive piece of his prospect profile at this point.

Still, this is a fairly significant leap in the evaluation for Bronny. More than a few scouting sites previously had Bronny ranked toward the end of the first round. Just a month ago, even Givony seemed more of that mind, writing “He’ll be in strong consideration as a first-round prospect in our initial 2024 NBA mock draft when that is released in the coming weeks.”

In a month, he went from maybe a first-round prospect to landing in the top-10.

Where will Bronny James go to college?

Bronny will graduate from Sierra Canyon this spring but still has one more season of basketball ahead of him before he’ll be eligible for the 2024 NBA Draft. He has reportedly already received offers from Memphis, Ohio State and USC. But LeBron has also bragged that he could get Bronny into any college he wanted with one phone call.

College won’t be the only option on the table for Bronny. There are four prospects likely to go in the top-10 of the 2023 NBA Draft who aren’t playing college ball — Scoot Henderson (G League Ignite), Victor Wembanyama (Metropolitans 92), and twins Amen and Ausar Thompson (Overtime Elite).

At this point, almost anything is on the table for Bronny and any pathway he might choose is open.

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