Bronny James opened the 2026-27 season as the Los Angeles Lakers’ 15th man, and the role has not grown since. He is averaging under a point a game, has logged just a handful of minutes, and most of those have come once the outcome was already settled.

That is the backdrop for a piece of analysis published this week on Lakers fan site LakeShowLife, which Heavy.com reported on Thursday as a kind of unofficial roadmap. The message to the son of the league’s all-time leading scorer is blunt: copy Miami Heat guard Davion Mitchell, and give Redick a reason to put you on the floor.

The Davion Mitchell blueprint

The first task is positional. As a 6ft 2in combo guard, Bronny does not profile as a scorer the Lakers need. LakeShowLife writer Collin Keane argues the only lane left is the one Mitchell has carved out as a defensive specialist.

“Mitchell is living evidence that small guards are not completely extinct in the NBA, so long as you defend like a bulldog, hold your own physically, knock down 3s, and take care of the basketball.”

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Redick himself pointed Bronny towards Mitchell and Indiana’s TJ McConnell as players whose game he should study, and LakeShowLife noted earlier this year that he must function as an undersized, high-energy perimeter disruptor rather than a creator.

Rebuilding Redick’s trust

The second task is more immediate. In a column published on 4 November, LakeShowLife writer Tyler Watts observed that Redick has become unwilling to use Bronny even when the result is no longer in doubt.

“Redick can’t even trust Bronny in garbage time.”

The trigger was a game against Toronto in which the Lakers led 124-109, a 15-point margin, late in the fourth quarter. Bronny entered with the margin secure but the reserves let Toronto run off an 11-1 spurt, cutting the lead to five with 43.7 seconds left, and Redick pulled his starters back on to finish the job. “I won’t make that mistake again. I’ll leave the guys in. You gotta play to the final buzzer, and if guys are not ready to play, then I just won’t put them in,” Redick said afterwards, quoted by Watts.

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A different conversation now LeBron is gone

The nepotism row that followed Bronny from USC to the Lakers in 2024 has been reframed by one enormous change. LeBron James left Los Angeles over the summer and signed a two-year, $8 million deal with the Philadelphia 76ers, ending eight seasons in a Lakers jersey. His son is now a Lakers player without his father in the building.

Bronny also survived the Lakers’ first roster crunch of the season. Shams Charania reported on 19 October that the team had waived 2024 No. 17 pick Dalton Knecht to meet the 15-man limit, choosing to keep Bronny on the end of the bench.

Redick framed the Knecht decision in roster-fit terms rather than as a vote of confidence in Bronny. “I think the biggest thing is the team changed. The team changed. Needs changed, the fit changed.”

What Jovan Buha expects next

Lakers insider Jovan Buha has already warned that the situation is fragile. His view, reported by Yahoo Sports, is that Bronny is the most likely player to be waived if Los Angeles finds a free-agent upgrade, and that in any trade he would function as a throw-in rather than an asset.

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The next window for either outcome is the NBA’s 15 December deadline, when players signed in the off-season become eligible to be dealt. Until then, the roadmap is the roadmap: guard, hit threes, protect the ball, and do not get pulled when the lead is 15.

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