3 reasons Bronny James still isn't ready for minutes with the L.A. Lakers

It's that time of year when NBA teams are looking to make a move. Contenders are looking for that missing piece to help them challenge for a championship, while the league's also-rans are shedding pieces to better position themselves for the draft.

At 18-14, the Los Angeles Lakers definitely fall into the former group, as we saw when they traded for Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton on Sunday. Even a loss to the NBA-leading Cleveland Cavaliers on New Year's Eve hasn't dampened the enthusiasm surrounding the team's recent stretch of quality play, and with about five weeks still left until the trade deadline, Lakers fans are now anxiously awaiting the next move from general manager Rob Pelinka.

Sometimes the best way to improve is from within, and there's a subset of Lakers fans that believe that rather than look to the trade market, the Lakers should instead give Bronny James another shot to prove himself on the big stage. Bronny has undoubtedly been playing much better ball after a quiet start to his pro career, but there are several reasons to believe that he's not ready to help the team make a playoff push. Here are three of them.

Bronny needs more G League experience before he's ready for NBA minutes

Those that want Bronny to get a permanent call-up from the South Bay Lakers to the Association forget how little actual basketball experience he has. Whereas fellow Lakers rookie Dalton Knecht played big minutes in 154 games across five years at Northeastern Junior College, Northern Colorado and Tennessee, Bronny averaged under 20 minutes per game in his only year at USC, and he was only able to play in 25 games thanks to a congenital heart defect that forced him to miss the beginning of the season.

Playing in the NBA is a lot different than playing at USC, and Bronny hasn't received much experience there, either. He's appeared in just seven games for the Lakers, and he's been on the court for less than 20 minutes total.

Bronny needs a lot more seasoning in the G League before he can even think of cracking JJ Redick's rotation. Thankfully, he's getting it. In seven games with the South Bay Lakers, he's averaging nearly 27 minutes a game, and unlike his time at USC and on the Lakers bench, he actually has a high usage rate, with over 14 shot attempts per game.

Getting good minutes as one of the focal points of the team is exactly what Bronny needs, but it will be a season or two at minimum until he has the reps needed to hang in the NBA.

Bronny's recent stats aren't as impressive as they seem to be

On the surface, Bronny is doing some good things in the G League. He's averaging 13.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.9 assists, and he's been doing even more lately.

The counting stats are there, but the efficiency is not. Bronny is only shooting 36.6 percent from the floor, and an ugly 21.2 percent from three. He's also turning the ball over more than three times per game, and he has a negative plus/minus.

It could be tempting to chalk Bronny's lack of efficiency up to the variance of a small sample size, but he only shot 36.6 percent from the floor and 26.7 percent from three at USC. Right now at least, this is who he is.

There aren't that many stories of G League players who have gone on to long and fruitful NBA careers, but the few that do succeed usually dominate at the G League level. Bronny isn't close to that, so if his efficiency isn't great against fellow G League competition, imagine what it would be like when he has NBA defenders trying to lock him up.

After trading for Dorian Finney-Smith, there aren't any minutes for Bronny

Trading for Dorian Finney-Smith erected another roadblock in Bronny's path to NBA minutes, as the former Net occupies the same role that the best potential version of Bronny projects to have.

Finney-Smith is a true 3-and-D player, but as a nine-year NBA veteran, his 3 and his D are both much more advanced than Bronny's. Finney-Smith is enjoying the best three-point shooting year of his career, and his 42.7 percent mark from deep is currently the 23rd-best rate in the league. Defensively, his reputation is eclipsed only by Anthony Davis on this team, which is the primary reason why the otherwise defensively-inept Lakers traded for him in the first place.

Before the trade, the Lakers' roster makeup made more sense for Bronny to find a place. D'Angelo Russell ran the second-team offense after being moved to the bench, but as a point guard, his presence wasn't an impediment to Bronny, who would never be asked to handle the ball anyway.

With LeBron now 40 years old, the Lakers are firmly in win-now mode, hence the trade for Finney-Smith. Bronny may ultimately prove himself as a 3-and-D rotation piece, but JJ Redick can't afford to let him learn on the job when there are better options available.