4 Player Comparisons for Bronny James: All-Star Ceiling? (2024)

Bronny James is more than just the son of Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James.

The USC freshman has a versatile skill set that has positioned him to go in the second round of the 2024 NBA Draft. His talents closely resemble four key contributors who currently play in the league.

While player comparisons are an annual hit-or-miss around draft season, the younger James can model his game after these four championship-caliber pieces while refining his repertoire throughout his professional career.

1 Christian Braun

Immediate Impact: Athletic playmaking slasher

Bronny is a gifted athlete who will bring his precocious passing ability into the NBA right out of the gates. He's not a flashy volume passer like Jason Kidd was, but he's shown that he's learned a lot from LeBron's tutelage throughout his youth.

James' ability to make the right reads in the half-court proves that he's a team-first play-maker that can aid any five-man unit's ball movement. James also plays fast and thrives while setting himself and his teammates up on the break.

Denver Nuggets star Christian Braun is a perfect player that James can mirror in his rookie season. Braun output in his freshman season at Kansas is eerily similar to James', though the latter outpaced his NBA counterpart with his 2.1 assists per game to Braun's 0.5 APG.

Nevertheless, Braun instantly made an impact in a condensed role as a rookie on a deep Nuggets team, albeit with three years of collegiate experience under his belt. His peripheral stats would tell the layman that he barely moved the needle as a distributor, but the eye test showed a player who consistently made high IQ decisions while helping ignite the 2022-23 NBA campaign's second-best fast-break offense (15.9 PPG) and eighth-best this year (12.6 PPG).

Braun finished strong above the rim in the open court and selflessly advanced the ball with outlet passes when his teammates had numbers in transition. When placed in position to facilitate a run, he drew defenders and executed lobs to perfection. Relatably, the 23-year-old stripped perimeter players thanks to his active hands in the passing lanes and his solid overall on-ball defense. He was instrumental to the Nuggets winning the 2023 NBA title.

James possesses intelligent defensive fundamentals. Much like Braun, he can earn favor in the eyes of his first NBA coach by translating winning defense into easy opportunities on the other end. In the half-court in college, James' floor spacing enabled him to penetrate inside and kick out to shooters on the wings when defenses collapsed. He finished with authority at the rim when they did not.

This, like Braun, who posed an even bigger threat to opposing defenses with a 35.4 percent clip from downtown as a rookie and 37.3 percent clip for his career, would be a third component that could earn Bronny a similar 15.5 minutes per game as Braun saw in 2022-23.

2 Miles McBride

Next Step: Becoming a deadeye shooter

The biggest indictment on Bronny's game is his inefficiency from beyond the arc. James connected on a mere 26.7 percent of his looks from the three in the 2023-24 NCAA season.

Unless he cleans that up, and quickly before the start of the next NBA regular season, that could take away from his time on the court. However, should James chart a path for himself similar to Braun and service whatever team he lands on with his explosiveness and playmaking, the next step for him as a pro will be developing into a reliable shooter from outside.

New York Knicks guard Miles McBride is exactly the type of player that James not only shares similarities with but can blossom into from deep. McBride established himself in the Association as a pesky defender who could also make plays for his teammates.

However, the 6-2 ball-stopper has taken a major leap as a shooter in his third year this season. He had never averaged better than 29.9 percent in his career from three-point range. In 2023-24, he turned into a marksman, converting 41 percent of his 3.9 three-point attempts per game, as one of only 30 total qualifying players who shoot at that clip or better on the campaign. He consistently found his stroke off the dribble and when passed to. As a whole, he graduated from being a sub-40 percent shooter from the field to a respectable one at 45.2 percent.

Not only has McBride upped his percentages, he's learned how to make the most of his touches on offense. After the Knicks suffered a bevy of injuries midway through the season, McBride saw his minutes spike up to 35.5 MPG in the month of March.

Making eight starts in 14 appearances that month, the West Virginia product averaged 13.9 PPG and 3.1 APG, his highest monthly averages of the year, both coming under his third-lowest usage percentage at 14.5 percent. Even further, McBride saw his catch-and-shoot percentage from outside rise to 45.2 percent, good for second-best on the team behind Jalen Brunson that month (min. 10 GP). He also second to Brunson on the season as well at 42.2 percent overall (min. 50 GP).

Case in point? McBride has evolved into a player that every championship team needs. Specifically, he makes the most out of his looks. When the ball gets kicked out to him from three, he's as reliable as they come.

Bronny can earn himself a fixed spot in any rotation by coupling his natural athleticism and passing with a surefire stroke from deep while making star guards work on the offensive end. This took McBride from earning spot minutes to becoming a hero for New York in their pursuit to reach the 2024 Eastern Conference Finals.

3 Kentavious Caldwell-Pope

Veteran Status: Polished two-way star on contender

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope earned a major stamp of approval when he won the 2020 NBA championship alongside LeBron on the Lakers and gained favor in the eyes of the four-time league MVP. He proved that he could be an elite veteran presence elsewhere, earning another badge of honor as the starting shooting guard on the 2023 defending champion Nuggets.

The 2011 McDonald's All-American looked like he could flirt with being a 20 PPG scorer in the NBA when he hit the ground running in the Summer League. Though he did not quite reach that ceiling, the 11-year veteran has delivered on both ends as a quality role player who has a big game or several in his back pocket when needed come postseason time.

Caldwell-Pope finished No. 11 in Defensive Player of the Year voting in 2020-21 and has averaged double figures in eight of his 11 seasons as a professional. Need a bucket off the catch from outside? He's your guy. Need a run-stopping three to get the team back on track? "KCP" can be counted on. Need a high-energy defender who can take on the opposing team's best perimeter scorer on a nightly basis? Caldwell-Pope gets the assignment. When your first, second, and (in some cases) third options are cold, can you call plays for him to deliver offensively in spurts? Coaches have.

Caldwell-Pope is what the 2023 McDonald's All-American James can realistically look like as a seasoned product. A guy that can average around 15 points per game a few seasons into the league and five dimes at his peak while upping his three-point percentage from south of 35 percent to 40-plus percent year in and year out. Moreso, James can reach this status as a championship piece and use it as a stepping stone to reach his hopeful ceiling as an All-Star.

4 Jaylen Brown

​NBA Ceiling: All-Star caliber scorer & defender

Pull up a highlight reel of Bronny James playing for USC. You'll see Boston Celtics All-Star Jaylen Brown written all over his game. Everything from the way James runs up the court, to his shooting form and dunking style is almost a carbon copy of Brown. It may not be like Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan, but it's close.

All James would need is a four-inch growth spurt to bring his body mechanics to that level of resemblance. Pragmatically, James has the ball-handling ability and confidence to get to his spots and score with finesse, even in traffic.

Take his career-high 15 points against Oregon State on Dec. 30, 2023. James was able to hit tough fall-away threes from the corner, spot up from the wing 30 feet out, get into the lane and convert floaters with a friendly bounce, and throw down tomahawk slams on the break.

Opportunity would be the biggest deciding factor in whether James can reach Brown's level of stardom. Brown was a highly touted prospect out of Cal and went No. 3 overall in the 2016 NBA Draft. Bronny is looked at as a late first-rounder at best in the eyes of many analysts. Nevertheless, how good he becomes in the league is entirely on him.

Brown looked much like Caldwell-Pope at his peak on the stat sheet in his second and third seasons with the Celtics even though he showed clear signs that he'd reach stardom shortly after. He's been able to take his raw physical gifts and multiply them with intricate dribble moves and proficient shooting from every area of the floor. He lulls defenders to sleep in isolation and exploits the smallest of cracks in their fronts. If Bronny hits each of the previous three milestones in his career, he could strive toward reaching All-Star status like Brown has.