Rich Paul says LeBron is off the idea of ‘having to play with Bronny’ – Givony | NBA Today

Rich Paul says LeBron is off the idea of ‘having to play with Bronny’ – Givony | NBA Today

some Superstar potential there who should it be number one who should be the number one overall watch the next generation of NBA stars begin their [Music] [Applause] Journey how special is this guy they have a star on their hands that was nasty how about that talk about some lingerie on the [Music] deck to the horse the finals are behind us but that does not mean things are slowing down at all we are now just one week away from the start of the NBA draft which of course means the Atlanta Hawks are on the clock our draft expert Jonathan gavone released his latest mock draft this morning Zachary race is the first pick to the Atlanta Hawks followed by Alex SAR at two to the Wizards and the Spurs taking a pair of point guards at 4 and8 and Stefan castle and Robert dilling Cam and look who’s here JG himself so JG NBA fans they might not be too familiar with alexar and Zachary race but everybody knows bronnie James your latest mock draft has him going to the Lakers with the 55th pick and you reported yesterday that bronnie has only worked out with the Suns and the Lakers despite other teams trying to get him into their building so why exactly is that the case well I spoke with bronnie james’ agent Rich Paul this morning very interesting conversation he confirmed that bronny has only conducted workouts with two teams so far the Suns and Lakers he says he’s comfortable with where he might land ultimately on June 27th presumably with the Lakers he said that other teams such as the Dallas Mavericks the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Toronto Raptors have also expressed interest in picking him Rich Paul wanted to remind us that he’s long had a strategy of steering clients to preferable destinations even later in the draft with the knowledge they will end up getting guaranteed contracts normally reserved for players Ed much earlier Taylor Horton Tucker Brandon Boston Jr and Chris Livingston were similar examples of players who conducted limited workouts just like bronnie this year Rich Paul also infirmed that there is no package deal for LeBron’s signature with either the Lakers or sons in exchange for drafting bronnie there’s been talk around the NBA that the Phoenix Suns want to rec recruit LeBron and are dangling the carrot of selecting Brony at 22nd Paul confirmed that to me but said they are not interested in such a move as the sons are severely limited in the type of contract they can offer LeBron a minimum contract which he deemed insulting Paul also said there’s a scenario which the Lakers pick Ronnie James at 55 and see LeBron decide to sign elsewh in free agency so yes a lot of interesting news coming out of that call okay uh Bobby you were just laughing here a little bito when we were talking when JG was going through those quotes from Rich Paul what is your what do you make of all this yeah LeBron’s not going to Phoenix for the minimum I think we could probably put that to to bed there I think I wouldn’t get caught up that he’s only worked out for Phoenix and in the Los Angeles Lakers certainly being in the Nets runoffs we’ve drafted players that have not come in and worked out before I think the most important thing is that every team has his medical information uh he went through interviews in uh in Chicago uh there’s a good Comfort level with him there I think it’s intriguing Phoenix at 22 22 is a little bit of a reach to take him I think where they are with their draft um Equity lack of moving forward is there somewhere where they maybe move into the early part of this maybe move off 22 into the early part of the 30s and pick up some more draft picks here so I wouldn’t get scared off that he’s only worked out for two teams I think certainly if there’s a comfort level if you like him at 31 for example you take him um and then you just have to kind of deal with the ramifications as long as you have a really good player development program in place for him that’s the most important thing that there’s a plan in place for bronny James okay cuz you mentioned Player Development and when you think about the two-way contract that’s the point of a two-way contract is to try to develop players we haven’t seen bronnie play that much college basketball that was one of the things one of the criticisms with him going into the NBA Draft so do you think that it is realistic for them to say that they don’t want to sign him to a two-way contract when he goes into the league oh I think it’s really realistic I think once you get drafted that kind of changes a little bit there were 25 players drafted last year 10 players wind up signing two-way contracts uh the other 15 were you know three or four year deals the one player that did was G Jackson in Memphis two-way contract gets uh converted second Team all NBA so I understand the reluctance of a two-way but the reality is that the likelihood he will be in the G League at one point at some point whether it be on a two-way or on a on a standard contract uh JG when you think about teams that want bronny obviously he’s only worked out with two teams Suns Lakers what other teams are actually interested in bronnie yes so rich Paul cited three teams he cited the Minnesota Timberwolves who he iMed Ely dismissed because he says he does not know who their owner is going to be down the road he cited the Dallas Mavericks who LeBron James has a close relationship with Nico Harrison their general manager Nico Harrison ran Nike basketball for a long time and so they’ve known each other since LeBron was 18 years old and he called bronny James he said bronnie uh Nico is like an uncle for bronny James and then he also cited the Toronto Raptors saying that MSU jiri their president of basketball operations has long had an affinity for bronnie James and he said that they have the 31st pick and it would not be shocking if they decided to take him there even without a workout like Bobby marks just said not every team needs to see a guy in a workout and so um you know maybe people have seen enough of bronnie James he has a you know a pretty big track record dating back to the Nike ebl playing at Sierra Canyon the Nike hoop Summit the McDonald’s All American games these are all places that he excelled in so a team could possibly take him higher than that I ultimately anticipate him ending up with the Lakers just because the fit is too strong there and with them you know a guaranteed contract that’s powerful I agree with what Bobby says about how a two-way could be a development option but a two-way contract is a non-g guaranteed deal and I don’t you know that’s not a real commitment on the on the side of a of a franchise you know giving somebody a multi-year contract using the second round exception on them I think that holds a lot more weight and that’s what Rich Paul is ultimately angling for here yeah Jonathan just hit it right on the head it doesn’t matter if you go at 31 or 55 the money is still the same this is not the first round where it’s a sliding scale based on here if you pick first or if you pick 21st and there’s a five or $ six million difference here and we’ve seen that before as far as you know a player going at 31 is is basically going to um um sign for the same contract if uh if bronny gets picked at 55 by the Lakers who do you think that Atlanta do you think that they know who they have going number one overall a week from now I don’t believe that they’ve made a decision yet they had Zachary ret our project number one pick in their building today for a workout Zachary Racha is headed next to s to San Antonio on Friday and then he’ll work out for the Washington Wizards so the teams with the second and fourth pick I think Atlanta is going to explore a lot of different options including drafting Donovan kingan who had a very strong workout there last week uh clingan’s size and his length and mobility and Shop blocking ability is very attractive to Quin Snider remember his best days as a coach came was Rudy goar Manning the the paint for him so I I think the Atlanta Hawks are open to a lot of different concepts uh you know possibly doing something with the San Antonio Spurs and flipping that fourth and first pick maybe getting their pick their 2025 first rounder is owned by Atlanta right now so I think the Atlanta Hawks are going to be exploring a lot of different situations in the next week or so all right we’ll see what they do the NBA draft just one week away on ESPN and ABC [Music] he

Jonathan Givony joins NBA Today to discuss his conversation with Rich Paul, the agent for Bronny James, where Paul says that Bronny has only worked out for the Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns ahead of the 2024 NBA Draft. Bobby Marks gives his thoughts on Bronny’s draft prospects and the chances he ends up playing in the G League at some point.

✔️ Subscribe to ESPN+ http://espnplus.com/youtube
✔️ Get the ESPN App: http://www.espn.com/espn/apps/espn
✔️ Subscribe to ESPN on YouTube: http://es.pn/SUBSCRIBEtoYOUTUBE
✔️ Subscribe to NBA on ESPN on YouTube: http://bit.ly/SUBSCRIBEtoNBAonESPN
✔️ Watch ESPN on YouTube TV: http://es.pn/YouTubeTV