Rob Pelinka Talks Drafting Bronny James | 2024 NBA Draft

Rob Pelinka Talks Drafting Bronny James | 2024 NBA Draft

welcome everybody good to see you guys on backtack days um you know I think about the Los Angeles Lakers um I think about you know a franchise where basketball history just sort of unfolds and takes place I mean if you think back to the origins of the game of basketball and Dr M naith and A you know Peach basket and all that’s emanated from the invention of the game um and you think that in the history of the NBA there’s never been um a father and a son that have shared an NBA basketball court and that feels like something that could be magical and we know and have to respect of course that LeBron has a decision about his opt out um and I’m sure he and his family and his agent will deliberate what they’re going to do there and of course he has freedom to decide whatever’s best for him and his family but if it worked out that he was on our team next season NBA history could be made and NBA history should be made in a Lakers uniform so that’s just sort of globally how we feel about the draft moment but more important than that is to talk about bronnie James as a basketball player because this is his day and he was the one selected with the 55th pick bronnie is um first and foremost a person of High character and second he is a young man that works incredibly hard and those are the qualities we look for in drafting players and adding to our developmental core at the Lakers he had a great draft workout with us where he displayed um those qualities to me and a our lunch that we shared in the building just to get to know each other became clear that he was a man of character in terms of his work ethic I think we’ve all seen that lived out too he’s not a person that has ever taken shortcuts or expected or been entitled about basketball opportunities he’s worked for everything that he’s gotten including being selected today at 55 so it’s an honor for us to add him to our program coach reic is already excited about putting a development plan around him to increase his basketball skills and turn him into the player that we think can impact and help this franchise so with that I’ll open it up for questions yeah Rob to to go further on Ronnie as a basketball player how would you describe his game what did you like about what you saw at USC and also in his workout offensive defensive the athleticism what are the things that make him the basketball players yeah I think um the road to Ultimate victory in the NBA is with two-way players that you know can be great Defenders and can be shot makers on offense and if you’re able to develop guys like that and Surround your Superstar players with them that’s a good recipe for success and uh Bron’s of that ilk I think he’s going to be a point of attack Defender um that can really be disruptive with the way he guards other teams point guards um I think he can guard multiple positions um and we’ve really seen growth in his shooting I think at the combine when we were there with the scouting staff he was one of the leaders and sort of making his his shots and some of the drills um and we really think he can um turn into being an elite shot maker so just a a three and D player for sure you you saw the draft board play out and you know that you’re at 17 and 55 going about your process of evaluating prospects when did it start to become like a reality that that this could this day could happen part of the team yeah so you know last night Dave of course was with the pick we had you don’t know the player I mean the clock is ticking you have no idea if a team before you is going to select a prospect that you value highly so it really doesn’t become real until the pick before is made and so when the team pic before us picked and his his name wasn’t taken that’s when it really started to become real um I put a call into his agent uh who was with bronnie and bronnie was put on speaker phone and Coach reck and I um were able to welcome him to the Lakers family and and let him know that this moment was happening mostly because of the work he’s put into the game and because of the character young man that he is that that was what was expressed to him on the phone call Rob you just mentioned the potential development plan with Coach reic what can you share about what that could look like next year yeah jovon great question you know coach and I are in the process of of building out his staff as we speak but as we talked about in our opening press conference we really want to take kind of an Innovative and new look at how players are developed and that archetype will be wrapped around bronnie and the other players that we you know get on two ways as we bring guys in um and the young players we already have on our roster so um I just think it’s a it’s a perfect time as coach builds out his PD or Player Development staff um to really pour into the guys that we have here and I think you guys will see that played out in real time once we get that staff hired you mentioned obviously LeBron has the decisions to make it you mention that NBA history could be made if they play together how much did you ask him of Brian that is how he feels about sharing the floor with his dad I guess what was his response yeah we really Kobe we really kept the the draft process to bronny being a Laker and what we felt like we needed to do to help him become great and the core qualities in him that we saw so we didn’t talk a lot about that just because again want to respect his dad’s decision as a free agent um so that wasn’t really something that came up how much of this uh because he had the heart issue and he wasn’t able to play as much would have expected at USC how much of this is going to have to be development yeah it’s a good question you know we had a a player on our um roster this year and gave Vincent that had to have a a surgery and missed some time and we saw him come back at the end of the season during the playoffs and he was really good defensively but the offensive Rhythm wasn’t quite there and I remember as I was evaluating our team thinking that’s similar to bronnie you know I think he had a really strong defensive year at us see in terms of being that point of attack Hound on the ball but maybe because of the significant amount of time he took off the offensive flow wasn’t what you know it could be and so I think polishing that back up getting him back in an offensive rhythm is going to really catapult him back into you know getting the trajectory of being that development player that we really look forward to having Mark rob you mentioned a lot about Bron’s character what jump out to you to show that he’s really well equipped to handle all the expectations and extra attention given the Lakers and yeah of course I think growing up as he’s growing up there’s a fishball there’s lots of eyes looking at everything you do and I think he’s been able to handle all that with an extreme maturity um it’s evident when you spend time with him that he doesn’t let things bother him he is who he is he believes in him himself he was raised right by LeBron and Savannah to be very respectful of coaches in my case a general manager but when he walks in the room you know you have his attention because he was taught that and it’s just very genuine um and you can tell right away this is a fine young man that was raised the right way yeah Rob just considering what you know Ronnie had to go through with his heart and even how that would have impacted season as a basketball player do you also see some kind of additional upside there as he gets more just playing basketball again in in how how do you kind of factor that into the whole evaluation process yeah he’s 19 years old you know so I think to do some of the things that he can do as athletically especially as a 19yearold and with the shot consistency that he’s really shown in the draft process um you can see the foundations there for sure and I I think now of course when you’re in college you’re juggling a lot of things you’re juggling your school load your family life basketball now he’s going to be able to dedicate all of his resources to playing basketball and I think I really think the the trajectory is going to be an aggressive one and we’re really excited about the foundational qualities he has and then growing those have a couple more followups and we’ll conclude Dave and then we’ll end with Rob see you guys much time uh as a team with one another uh that when something like last July happens you feel it more than just a coworker’s family member going through a medical skater um can you even reflect on on just kind of your perspective uh in the 11 months that have followed from you know kind of the the unknowing the trauma of that situation I guess the joy that yeah I I think um you know listen for me I remember we won the the n Season tournament in Vegas and the News broke that bronny was going to have his first game at USC um after everything he had to endure and um it was really important to just be there in the moment for that and so um made sure to you know get back um even though that we wanted to celebrate the IST and and have some fun in Vegas but it it was really important to just be there in the moment I think that’s that’s what Lakers family is all about um and I I think the emotions of it all that’s when it really takes hold I think is in those moments when he got back on the court and it was able to to be healthy and play and uh that was special last question he this organization is no stranger to crazy things happening getting back to sh on the that LeBron hops in I mean this could create a ccus atmosphere there’s going to be some strong narratives is JJ and this organization prepared for this type of thing the biggest moment in sports happen with the Lakers and that’s how we’re built and we’re excited to see this story unfold

Subscribe for the latest Lakers’ content: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8CSt-oVqy8pUAoKSApTxQw
Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lakers
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lakers/
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lakers
Get the Lakers app: https://www.nba.com/lakers/multimedia…