Suns owner thinks Bronny James would've been a good fit in Phoenix

The Los Angeles Lakers selected Bronny James with the 55th pick in the 2024 NBA Draft. It was the pick everybody saw coming — perhaps the most telegraphed, widely predicted, and heavily scrutinized second-round pick in league history.

To be fair, the Lakers did make literal league history. Bronny James and LeBron James became the first father-son duo the NBA has ever seen. While Bronny is destined to spend his season mostly in the G League, he will share the court with his father early in the campaign, cementing a truly special moment for the history books.

While James Jr. won't spend too much time with the big-league squad this season, he's under guaranteed contract for at least three years and will be treated as a key development piece as a result. He has real commitment and buy-in from the Lakers' front office and coaching staff. That's rare for a late second-round pick, and it could aid James' development at the next level.

Now, we can get into the semantics of how much Bronny "deserves" this, but in a league where nepotism is rampant at the highest levels, drafting the son of the greatest player of a generation (and maybe ever) is hardly egregious. Especially when his son is a McDonald's All-American with real athletic tools, who was projected as a first-round pick a year ago.

Bronny endured a lot in college, suffering a cardiac arrest before the season and still making his USC debut as a freshman. At 19, the upside is there, however faint, and the Lakers are convinced they can tap into it. In fact, Los Angeles is not the only team convinced of Bronny's upside. He also worked out with the Phoenix Suns during the pre-draft cycle, and Suns owner Mat Ishbia is doubling down on Phoenix's interest.

"We thought Bronny James would be a great fit here in Phoenix but the Lakers drafted him... We want Phoenix to be a destination and it's always a positive thing when players wanna come here."

Suns owner Mat Ishbia thinks Bronny James was 'great fit' for Phoenix

The Suns always felt like an unserious team in the Bronny James sweepstakes, if we can even call it that. He worked out for two teams — one that employs his father and is located in his hometown, another in Phoneix. The Suns didn't even own a first-round pick going into the draft, and picking Bronny in the first round would qualify as team-building negligence.

Phoenix did ultimately trade back into the second round, using the No. 40 pick on Marquette big man Oso Ighodaro. He addresses a glaring need for Phoenix at the center position with Jusuf Nurkic aging out of effectiveness. Bronny? Well, the Suns needed a backup point guard, but the Monte Morris signing addressed that need. James isn't even a real point guard.

At 6-foot-1 with a 6-foot-7 wingspan, James is a major athlete and a legitimately good defender. The Suns need stoppers on the perimeter. In that sense, maybe James was a "great fit." He's also a year or two out from being good enough offensively to survive in the NBA. With the Suns' accelerated timeline and focus on building an immediate contender around Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, James' fit becomes more complicated. How serious are the Suns about player development? We can use Ishbia's own words to answer that question...

"Fans like to look in the future and say, 'Hey, I really like that 2031 draft pick because maybe that seventh grader is going to be really good and we're going to draft him and one day he's going to be a player.'"

Ishbia and the Suns want winners right now. Bronny is not that. At least in Los Angeles, there is a clear organizational push to start developing young talent in advance of LeBron's eventual retirement. To the point where LeBron is probably frustrated with the moves the front office hasn't made in order to built out this feeble "youth movement."

Bronny has struggled out of the gate in Summer League, but Summer League means very little. Check back next season to see if the Suns harber any regret about not capitalizing on their supposed interest in the 19-year-old from USC.