{"id":38159,"date":"2025-07-04T13:28:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T13:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/38159\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T13:28:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T13:28:08","slug":"bronny-james-dalton-knecht-ready-for-second-summer-with-lakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/38159\/","title":{"rendered":"Bronny James, Dalton Knecht ready for second summer with Lakers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bronny James<\/a> stood with his back to the wall with both hands buried in his workout shorts, his practice with the Lakers<\/a> summer league team complete, his voice sounding more confident now that he\u2019s entering his second season in the NBA.<\/p>\n

He had to endure the outsized pressure and criticism of playing last season with his superstar father, LeBron James<\/a>, a season in which Bronny and his dad made history by becoming the first father-son duo to play together in an NBA game.<\/p>\n

Now, Bronny is more assured about his talents and he\u2019ll get to showcase what he\u2019s worked on when the Lakers play the Golden State Warriors in the California Classic on Saturday in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

The Lakers will play three games there and then head to Las Vegas for the NBA Summer League.<\/p>\n

That is where the most anticipated summer game could take place because the Lakers open the action against Cooper Flagg, the No. 1 overall pick in the June draft, and the Dallas Mavericks on July 10.<\/p>\n

Like all last season, James knows a lot of people will pay attention to that game \u2014 to him, still, and to Flagg.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year it was a crazy environment for me to step in and produce right off the rip, like being nervous too,\u201d Bronny said. \u201cSo, I feel like this year, I\u2019ll be able to go out and play freely and know what I\u2019m gonna go out and do for me and my teammates. So, yeah, I\u2019m just really excited to be able to play nervous-free.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dalton Knecht<\/a> got some extra shots up after practice Wednesday, his stroke looking just as impressive as it did last season when he shot 37.6% from three-point range during his rookie season with the Lakers.<\/p>\n

Knecht, too, is especially looking forward to playing in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

\u201cVegas, I mean, I feel like all of us didn\u2019t care who we played [last summer],\u201d Knecht said. \u201cIt was just go out there and play. Our fans always show up. We go out there all the time and it\u2019s pretty much Laker fans that sell out that arena and show us so much love. We\u2019re just trying to go out there and try to put on a show no matter who we are playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lakers rookie Adou Thiero, their second-round pick (36th overall) out of Arkansas whom they acquired in a trade with the Timberwolves, is dealing with a left knee injury and will not play this summer. The Lakers said Thiero is in the final stages of his return to play and expected to be fully cleared for training camp.<\/p>\n

For James, one year of playing in the NBA has made a difference as he approaches this summer.<\/p>\n

He appeared in 27 games last season, starting once, and averaged 2.3 points per game on 31.3% shooting, 28.1% from three-point range.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it\u2019s definitely some more excitement than nervousness, for sure,\u201d James said. \u201cI\u2019m just ready to go out there and play and be better than I was the last time I was playing. Just having that mindset of being ready to play and ready for whatever\u2019s thrown at me, no matter the role, what I gotta do on defense, offense, everything. Being a good teammate for my new summer league team, stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides skill work, James said his plan for the summer is to be in \u201celite condition\u201d and to \u201cbe disruptive on the defensive end.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that\u2019s my main focus, probably why I\u2019m getting a little leaner,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I still got 215 [pounds] on me still. So, I\u2019m just running a lot, getting a lot of conditioning in. And then just staying on top of my diet, eating healthy, being a professional. It\u2019s just Year 2, so I gotta lock in on the things that I didn\u2019t know before my rookie year and being better and excel with that. Yeah, my main focus is this year, or this summer, has been being in elite condition. That\u2019s what I\u2019ve been talking to my coaches about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knecht played in 78 games last season, averaging 9.1 points over 19.2 minutes per game.<\/p>\n

As the season progressed, Knecht said the game slowed down for him and that allowed him to improve.<\/p>\n

When the Lakers were eliminated from the playoffs by the Timberwolves, Knecht said he went to work right away. In his eyes, there was no time to waste.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight after the [playoff] loss, I pretty much started right away. Didn\u2019t take much time off,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I was getting in the gym, starting at 6 a.m., going with the guys at 10 and then coming back later at night just to get as many shots as I can, just working on my game and my cuts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bronny James stood with his back to the wall with both hands buried in his workout shorts, his…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":38160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[29011,1582,276,2494,25926,2961,8604,30833,2184,29246,12035,3363,224,5337,7088,30832,471,30831,24565,1628],"class_list":{"0":"post-38159","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-bronny-james","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-cooper-flagg","12":"tag-dalton-knecht","13":"tag-la","14":"tag-lakers","15":"tag-lakers-summer-league-team","16":"tag-las-vegas","17":"tag-last-season","18":"tag-last-summer","19":"tag-lebron-james","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-losangeles","22":"tag-lot","23":"tag-nba-game","24":"tag-no","25":"tag-second-summer","26":"tag-three-point-range","27":"tag-year"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114795204720665464","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}