Bronny James reportedly has gained interest from more than 10 NBA teams, but he will only visit a few clubs ahead of the 2024 draft, which will take place from June 26-27.
The guard, who is the oldest son of Lakers star LeBron James, will take private workouts with a few teams, including the Lakers and the Suns, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
“Bronny James has over 10 workout invites,” Charania said during Tuesday’s installment of “Run It Back” on FanDuel TV. “I’m told he’s only going to visit a couple of those, and that’s going to include the Lakers and the Phoenix Suns… There’s only going to be a couple teams, two, three teams.”
The 19-year-old is in consideration “among a lot of players” with the Suns’ No. 22 pick in the first round of this year’s draft, which will take place at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Bronny impressed at the NBA combine earlier this month when he recorded a 40 1/2-inch max vertical jump and shot 19 of 25 during the 3-point shooting drill.
He announced he entered both the 2024 NBA Draft and the transfer portal in April after playing one season at USC — where he averaged 4.8 points (on 36.6 percent shooting), 2.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 25 appearances.
Bronny missed the Trojans’ first eight games after he suffered cardiac arrest during practice in July.
Rich Paul, the agent of both James and Bronny, said the younger James will not sign a two-way contract.
“Teams know that. I’m not doing that,” Paul told Bleacher Report’s Chris Haynes on Friday, adding that his draft range has “been all over” the place.
Paul explained that he’s not focused on honoring James’ desire to play with his son before he hangs up his jersey for good.
“Well, LeBron said he wanted to play with his son. Bronny can’t do anything about that. And that’s nothing we should push back on,” Paul said. “If he wants to play with his son, that’s that. But again, I have a job to do representing Bronny and LeBron.
“LeBron’s season’s over. I’m focused on Bronny and the rest of our draft class. If it aligns where he can play with his dad, great. Am I necessarily focused on that? No, not at all. I’m focused on a team-plan investment and a seriousness as it pertains to fit and opportunity.
“We know that there’s gonna be some development necessary, but what does that actually look like? The teams I’ve talked to know exactly where I stand. I’m not going to bulls–t around in this process. We’re going to execute our plan.”
James — who will turn 40 in December — signed a two-year, $97.1 million contract extension with the Lakers in September 2022, which includes a player option for 2024-25 worth $51.4 million.
He has until June 29 to either opt into the final year of his contract with the Lakers or become an unrestricted free agent.
In April, Charania reported that the Lakers were “open to the prospect” of drafting Bronny.
While at the draft combine in Chicago, Bronny told reporters that he isn’t focused on playing with his father.
“My dream has always just been to put my name out, make a name for myself, and get to the NBA,” Bronny said at the time. “Which is everyone’s end goal that’s here. I never thought about just playing with my dad, but of course, he’s brought it up a couple of times. But yeah, I don’t think about it much.”
James declined to provide clarity when asked if he considered LA’s season-ending loss to the Nuggets in Game 5 of their first-round NBA playoff series as his last game in a purple and gold jersey.
“I just want to get home to the family honestly,” he said, adding that he was planning to rest his body before training camp with USA Basketball for the Paris Olympics this summer.