Bronny James is heading into his third NBA season without his father in the building, and he is doing it as one of three Lakers guards a prominent insider says the team may have to cut.

Los Angeles sit at 16 players, one over the regular-season limit of 15, after a summer of guard-heavy signings. On his podcast, Lakers insider Jovan Buha said the decision had come down to three names.

“It’s a competition between Bronny, Jaden Hardy, and Dalton Knecht. I’d probably lean Dalton,” Buha said.

Bronny on his own

The second-round pick spoke at the Lakers’ media day on 29 September, days after LeBron James turned up on the other side of the country in Philadelphia 76ers colours. He addressed the shift directly.

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“I think it’s a motivating factor for me, just getting up every day and trying to prove myself as Bronny instead of LeBron,” he told reporters.

“He’s got his own path and I got my own.”

He played 27 games as a rookie last season and averaged 2.3 points and 0.8 assists in 6.7 minutes, shooting 31.3% from the field and 28.1% from three.

Head coach JJ Redick has publicly backed him. Reports from the start of training camp said Redick fully expects James to make the roster and compete for the reserve point guard minutes behind Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, with Collin Sexton the primary second-unit option. Clutch Points’ Brett Siegel said on a livestream that Bronny was not really the one in the fight.

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“There’s going to be a lot of pressure on Dalton Knecht to fight for this roster spot with Jaden Hardy in training camp. One of them is most likely going to be cut,” Siegel said.

Why the other two names are there

Knecht, a 2024 first-round pick drafted for his shooting, has not settled into a rotation role over his first two seasons. He has a $6.4m team option and reporting from the Lakers beat, via Yahoo Sports, has consistently had him as the most likely player to be waived or moved.

Hardy, acquired as a scoring guard, is competing with Knecht for a bench spot behind a backcourt that already includes Doncic, Reaves, Sexton and Quentin Grimes.

Bronny’s inclusion on the shortlist is partly a function of contract: he is on a cheap second-round rookie deal and is the least expensive player to cut if the Lakers want to keep two guards they signed for more money. The reporting around him is a danger notice, not a planned move.

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Doncic, who took over the leadership of the team after LeBron’s exit, said at media day that the separation was not an easy one.

“It was kind of sad. Playing with LeBron was amazing. There’s a lot of things I learned from him,” he said.

Los Angeles have to be at 15 players by the eve of 21 October, when they open the regular season at home against the Golden State Warriors. They will play LeBron and the 76ers at Crypto.com Arena on Christmas Day.

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