[Lowlight] Bronny and the Bench Unit checks out after only playing 1 minutes and 45 seconds.
I’m convinced the Lakers constructed this bench just to maximize Luka’s chances of winning MVP.
You might have a point if it wasn’t Pelinka who did it. In his eyes this is a legit roster to build around your franchise player.
Yeah we entered this summer with total flexibility with tons of cap space and are now starting two vet minimum players at both wing positions. Our GM isn’t a serious person, as everyone already knew
I really wonder, if Nico HarrisonCollins didn’t make the worst trade in any major franchise sports ever, what would the Lakers look like?
AD is always injured, LeBron probably still leaves, no Luka, best player is Austin Reaves? That would be rough.
They have 130/165m of their salary cap locked in Luka/Kesser/Reaves and have sucked at drafting and/or developing, generally curious what you think their supposed to do to get better players outside of a new scouting department and some better luck in the draft.
I mean you could keep trading for expensive big name players, dump Quentin/Sandro/Jared for some 20-30m~ player but then you’ve got an even thinner roster
Pelinka got lucky with Williams and Thybulle being available at the minimum. Those two are worth more and also more valuable than Grimes+Sexton combined lol
You might be onto something. There are some G League teams that would give the Lakers bench a run for their money.
You need to win 55+ games for that
We’re 5-2 ???
No team has ever had a player win MVP with a record of 5-2
So 50 short.
Season is long
look at the teams yall beat
They just don’t have any assets to add really good roleplayers sadly
Bingo
Why does it have to be Bronny and the bench unit? Why not just the bench
Because Bronny and the Bench sounds like Benny and the Jets.
🎵B-B-B-B-Bronny and the bench! 🎵
bronNY!
I’m dead haha. I’m now going to sing this every time he checks in with the bench.
Oh, but they’re weird and they’re wonderful
Absolutely made my day! I’ll never look at bronny the same now
Laughed way too hard at this 😭😭
Because that doesn’t get people their internet points
clowning on lebron jr is objectively funny and entertaining, argue with a wall
Yeah I guess if you’re 12 years old
Neanderthal
“Bronny and the bench” sounds like a solid band name
Because Bronny doesn’t belong in the NBA
Yep
Surprise surprise. Nepo baby isn’t good enough.
He was like the last pick in the draft… Relax. He’s playing exactly how everyone expected him to play
Without the last name he would have never crossed a team’s radar.
That’s the point.
With a 4 years contract almost full guaranteed, how many 2nd rounders can say the same? Stop defending this crap
People on this sub were saying his floor was Tony Allen
But Vando and Laravia do????
Laravia absolutely does. Insane to think otherwise. He’s not going to be an all star player. But he’s already a decent roleplayer. He just happens to be on a team with absurdly high expectations of its young talent.
Yes lol
Those 2 are at least 10x better than what a player bronny is lol
Exactly . There are many more talented players in G league but he is neppo baby so he gets to play . I said after his dad left it wont take long before hes either waved or traded got downvoted but it is clear he just doesnt have the talent for NBA.
Well i guess only reason Lakers arent waving him already is cause it would be bad look and would anger his daddy
You ever watched Larry Nance play basketball?
Why aren’t you complaining about him?
Worst band name ever
Because Bronny inbounded a bounce pass out of bounds.
Because LeDaddy said he is better than most players in the league
😆
he said he is better that those Cats he was watching that night .. he did not say most players in the league
Which obviously wasn’t true lmao
If hes better than any player on 2 NBA teams, that would make him one of the best players in the league
Can’t wait for y’all to be irrelevant besides outlier Luka performances, and come playoffs AR average 11 on 19 shots.
Fun Fact:- Austin Reaves makes the same amount of money as Tyrese Maxey.
why am I getting upvotes and the dude above me downvotes i am also slandering the team and austin reaves
The Cavs can have Bronny next season
The NBA would never allow the Lakers to be irrelevant. Ask me how I know
Funny, coming from a fan of an irrelevant franchise
Luka is averaging almost 40 ppg and you wanna talk about outlier performances
Cleveland talking about relevancy is even funnier
Wow! Someone’s loving father said they’re better at basketball than strangers?
I wonder what about their relationship would’ve cause LeBron to say that.
Why ask questions you already know the answer to? Oh, that’s right internet points
He is a product of unprecedented nepotism, which is why he always deserves to be in the spotlight
“Unprecedented”? That’s a nice way of saying you haven’t watched the NBA for more than 3 years
it’s so precedented that after Bronny got drafted it got a bunch of sons to come out preemptively defending their validity. players like austin rivers got real loud for a few days and then went back into obscurity.
Except the teams who paid them for years and years
Extremely precedented nepotism tbh
unprecedented nepotism
Lol, I remember being young and naive too.
which is why he always deserves to be in the spotlight
I just can’t imagine possibly caring about it as much as so many on here seem to. It doesn’t merit more thana guffaw from me.
He was the 55th pick in the draft, it really wouldn’t have been a stretch to draft someone with his basketball profile regardless
6’1 guard who averaged 5/3/2 on 36/25/67 is a common profile in the second round?
It is a stretch actually. He would go undrafted 100% if hi last name was different not dissing him but just facts. His college stats are bad
name 1 player with his basketball profile that got drafted.
1
This is the best argument I’ve seen, because we all know bronny was drafted because of his college profile. He showed an incredible amount of promise in his singular college year. Never seen anything like it. He oozed so much potential he probably could’ve skipped college altogether
Because Bronny shouldn’t be part of the bench unit.
hes soo bad 😂
because its funny to say it was all bronnys fault
I mean that turnover in the video was all his fault lol. He bounced the ball out of bounds
Bronny this season seems to be a sleeper agent acting on the instructions of LeSenior
Klutch has been training him since birth to be a sleeper cell that sabotages Lebrons enemies.
I’ve never seen that in my entire life lmao
Whilst completely ignoring Grimes who was the real reason that bench unit got clapped.But this is the same OP that made the post yesterday accusing Lebron of sticking his tongue out at some kids when he was actually doing it to his wife.
should.., I not expect anything of him or what? Is this Bronny bloke really that unimportant?
Yes? He’s the last player on our bench.
damn, that means the lakers are gonna drop him after his contract ends right? rip
One can only hope. The only reason he has that contract is currently playing for pennies in Philadelphia.
Nepotism.
It can’t only be benefits
Really makes you think
It is not the bench it is the garbage time team.
We’ve all heard of Bonny can’t say I know any other lakers bench players enough to care
Why not Bronny and the bench unit?
I mean he did have one of the worst inbound passes you’ll see across the league, pros and G-League. I’d rather he just threw a dart to a defender than whatever that was
Because Bronny is the most infamous bench warming, nepotism benefiting, opportunity fumbling nba player we’ve ever seen. My goodness you reddit people are soft.
Idk, you seem pretty pressed yourself lol
Not just pretty pressed, extremely pressed. I won’t sleep tonight over this
Because he the only one on the bench that doesn’t belong in the NBA
Because JJ gave nepo baby Bronny his special treatment by subbing just him in around the 2.5-min mark to play a few possessions with the other starters, while the other bench members only got to come in like 40 seconds later.
It’s only fair and fitting that the Make-a-Wish bum gets his special treatment here on this sub too with “Bronny and the Bench Unit” in the title lmao.
lesperm is the top dawg among this bunch, leader bears the responsibility. that’s his burden
Because we don’t care about other bench warmers of Lakers
I wish this sub would restrict unflaried comments.
Because he isn’t the bench unit, he’s our star player
Cause the Lakers drafted a Nepo baby and posting his lowlights is funny lol. Same with any other nepo baby or Make-A-Wish Hire. Thanasis/Dame’s Cousin. Even though both of those guys are like 100x the NBA player Bronny is.
I’m all about exaggerating for effect, but Keljin Blevins was never even close to Bronny.
The crazy part is he actually averaged more points his second year than Bronny. 3.1 ppg vs 2.9 ppg
Alex is the nepo one. Thanasis and Kostas were actually drafted, and by other teams.
Whats outrageous is two of those three are NBA champions
Because their goat is MJ
Because as the point guard he runs the unit. Seriously only Bronny gets passes like this by r/NBA
You clearly didn’t watch the game. Grimes was the reason that bench unit got clapped. Bronny just that 1 TO.
Mah internet engagement points.
imagine being luka with all this crazy talent in yoru prime and watching this troglodyte pelinka build this fucking teletubby ass bench
I’d say the surrounding talent around Luka has only been where it needs to be (for a team trying to contend) after the trade deadline in 2024 and the start of the 2025 season before he got traded.
So really he’s had less than a year of contender/championship level supporting talent. It’s been said before but the trade fucked Luka more than anyone because the Mavs took years building around him just to essentially hit the reset button by trading to him with a team devoid of assets.
Kessler and Reaves are the only other starting caliber players on the roster for a team trying to make a deep playoff push
and although the Mavs made the finals, given how the Celtics series went I think you could still have doubts about the roster construction and whether a backcourt of Luka-Kyrie would be good enough defensively going forward. And this Lakers team doesn’t have as much athleticism around the backcourt as that Mavs team.
Luka didn’t play “great” in that OKC series a few years ago but they still won - early days, but can you see the Lakers winning a playoff series if Luka isn’t playing well?
So he was traded to a new team, who have had to spend 1+year trying to build the team around him, trying to mimic the previous team he was on, who may not have been good enough anyway
Kyrie had a bad series vs that Celtic team, but that Celtic team is also WAY underrated. That’s honestly one of the best championship teams in a long time. That Mavs team could’ve won the finals in other years.
Luka-Kyrie would be good enough defensively going forward.
The mavs were a great defensive side.
Celtics series went the way it did because lively and gafford were struggling in the pick and roll with Tatum covering the passing lane and horford/tingus staying close to the rim. Celtics refused to play up on the picks and focused on eliminating the corner 3 because the mavs spot up shooters were only good in the corners.
Their defense had absolutely nothing to do with them losing the finals, celtics had a perfect cover for the mavericks offense that was able to shut down everyone on the team except for luka
The Trade produced no real winners.
Luka’s personal life went down the drain (wether relocation was the cause we will never know), he lost at least two more years on non-competitive team…
Mavs … well, a disaster for them.
Lakers, who knows what they would do post LBJ, but getting Luka on the cheap is not a bad deal for them, that’s for sure. But, would be better for them on the long run to go into a complete rebuild? Who knows.
F Nico.
Id say Mavs got saved by getting coop and coop is also a big winner because he gets to play on an insane team early in his career
Correct. And people will forever just blame Luka and say he’s not a winning player lol
Are Lakers fans not in on the Kessler thing? I think the results for Pelinka generally show a mixed bag at best that looks a lot better than it should because LeBron wanted to play in LA and Luka fell into his lap, obviously. I don’t see him as a particularly good GM or president or whatever title he has. I’m just curious if specifically this past offseason is seen as a flop or people are more just mad about him in general.
It’s the bench, the moment Luka sits any lead that’s there gets erased. They were up 22 at one point and they had to bring Luka back in because they narrowed it down to 12 in a matter of minutes
Yeah, I mean it’s clear there’s work to be done. I guess I’m just wondering if there was a clear “why didn’t he do x” point this offseason in the minds of the fans or if it’s more “well he’s shown no indication he’s smart enough this is just a tactical slow build”.
I like Kessler a lot. But throwing so much money into Kessler/Reaves/Luka is WHY the bench can’t be good because of how little money they have left.
Leather-Jacket Rob has robbed us of what could have been!
He’s the ultimate GM edger… brings you the biggest names, and surrounds them with expensive cones & bowling pins. 🎳
I heard this in Charlie’s voice
Dawg who the hell is just “Charlie” 💀
Kirk
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a player bounce the ball out of bounds on the inbound pass.
I once saw Lamar Odom just dribble in a couple steps, then pass.
Bronny is so dumb he doesn’t know you can run side to side on the baseline when inbounding
Bronny probably is smart enough to know you can only run side to side after a made basket lol. Because…that’s beginner ball level knowledge
Give him a break he’s a Lakers fan
Based on your comment history you make the most boring comments imaginable because you have nothing original to say and trying to score Reddit points temporarily alleviates your insecurity.
When you grow up so wealthy your reality becomes boundless
How will this affect LeBron’s legacy
barely affects it, ledaddy has adopted new superior son in philly
Bronny comes home for Thanksgiving and he’s been replaced with cutouts of VJ in all the family pictures
Locks changed, sees everyone laughing and hugging through the window
Bronny and LeDad has the highest father and son points and other records. That’s the legacy.
I will be honest. I really thought the lakers would cut bronny as soon as his daddy left
He’s got a guaranteed contract and roster spot, they have to wait it out. Lebron and Klutch threw a temper tantrum and refused to let Bronny go undrafted or sign a 2 way deal because they knew he would get cut asap
LBJ also purposefully waited to announce the decision 2.0 until after Bronny’s contract became fully guaranteed
Well in his defense, if they are throwing away money on bronny he clearly won’t be winning a ring there. It was time to bounce.
/s
They can literally waive him at any time. The difference between a guaranteed and a non-guaranteed contract is the simple fact that they’d have to pay him to go away. They’d also have to retain the salary cap hit, but it’s a piddly amount, so who gives a fuck.
They don’t open up cap space cutting him, they get nothing. It’s far better to use him as part of a group of salaries to make a trade work or wait it out
If he’s as bad as is said, addition via subtraction
They gave up 12 points in 41 seconds.
This is some Reggie Miller vs Knicks kind of crap.
Lakers end of bench has to be worse than most college or YMCA teams, I swear.
Literally the worst NBA squad I’ve seen in my entire life. And this is even AFTER we got rid of DK and didn’t even play Looney.
jokes aside I think this lakers roster genuinely sucks.
Luka is amazing and will still drag them to wins but idk I don’t like any of the moves they made this summer. Not sure the path for them to contend outside of another star asking out and demanding to go to LA
Don’t get me wrong, I somewhat agree, but this is a clip of their third stringers. The talent in the West is really serious business & they do need far more depth than they’ve got with not a lot of ways to get it (my hot take that a lot of fans won’t like is that they will have to flip AR if they want to be a serious team). But for what it’s worth, Thybulle, Ziaire (who didn’t play), and Kessler have all been very good for them, and Mamu and Sexton are fine for their usage (Grimes’ contract is the biggest head scratcher imo).
Time will tell if Kessler was “worth” the picks I guess, but there are so few starting caliber centers available every offseason and under no circumstance could they afford to go into this year without a real starter. Kicking the can down the road for a “cheaper” trade would’ve been disastrous. Might as well bet on someone who is a great fit with Luka, has a high motor, and actually knows how to protect the rim without fouling.
Good pickups for a modern nba offense, but most of these dudes are like 6-9th man talent level, not starter level talent.
Laravia kind of got owned last playoffs because they basically wanted bench talent to play big minutes against the other teams starters.
Watching LaRavia play is like watching a clumsy person fumble and try to hold onto your infant child
I had to see the light die in Lebron’s eyes every time he passed to Laravia only to see him fumble the ball with his butterfingers each time
There was a point during the finals where I genuinely decided that I’d rather have Bronny play a full four quarters than allow LaRavia to even enter the stadium on game night. He deserves to be crucified for crimes against basketball
He should strictly be in there for hustle and spot up 3s. I don’t know why he keeps putting the ball on te ground and drive. He’s horrible at handling the ball
You don’t think The Sheriff has been good so far?
I think he’s good at his strengths aka rim protection and being a lob threat for Luka but I think the idea that hes worth giving away the last 2 tradable firsts you have for him is a bad decision
I just can’t see Luka, AR, and Kessler as a championship trio the nba is too talented currently
I could see Kessler, now that I see how it’s working. The problem is that the market for rim running, rim protecting bigs is in low supply, high demand, and the shelves are often empty. For that reason I get the overpay.
It’s crazy how Luka had the perfect team built around him with Lively and Gafford (assuming they could stay healthy), PJ and Derrick Jones Jr, and Kyrie and Hardaway.
Hardaway? He was sabotaging Lukas career making 20mil and the 2 deep playoff runs we made was when he wasn’t playing. Also the team wasn’t perfect because pj and djj can’t shoot.
Really talented team. If only they had someone like anthony davis to take them over the top
The moment you mentioned Hardaway I knew you were trolling. Fucking terrorist. Good team, not really talented. No one could hit a shot in the finals besides Luka.
“For that reason I get the overpay”
Why are so many NBA fans completely clueless about how the NBA works?
Did that move make them contenders or stronger contenders?
No?
Then giving away all of your future assets in that move was a bad idea. Period. You do not lose trades if it does not do either of those things.
I can see this trio being contenders if AR gets back to his form that he had last year AND if there are at least somewhat decent role-players and bench players to support them.
I know it is not even 10 days into the season, but if that is what it’s gonna be like when bench plays - no tri can win anything.
People who genuinely thought they could go far with reaves as a #2
That’s pretty embarrassing
Get on the scale!
Get off the scale!!
Bronny was -11 +/- in 1:44…the only player who was worse logged over 12 min.
Also Carr and Hardy were -9 in 59 seconds.
Nobody talks about that. Carr is a first round pick. Why is he excluded from the hate?
Hardy is a 5 year vet… early 2nd round pick.
But only Bronny matters who was like 57th pick? You guys have a hate boner
Looking at the final minute, it looks like Carr didn’t do anything wrong. He played well, though he only failed defending on the contested 3 by Battle.
Hardy played the worst in the min
redditors will tell you bronny deserves to be in the NBA
as chuck would say: dat’s turrribul
I get that Bronny is the one highlighted in this because it gets clicks, but our first round pick this year that everyone was excited about, and is just 1 month younger than Bronny, was -9 in 1 minute as well. Pretty rough debut lol. Probably will help him to get some minutes with the actual rotation to build some confidence.
He didn’t do anything wrong. Grimes and this Bronny lowlight were the reason it became close again.
Grimes is really terrible dribbling the ball down the court, Stu called him out perfectly, he dribbles along the side line and 2 raptors double him once he passes the mid line, so he effectively got himself pinned by 4 sides. And he did that twice in a short time window.
Carr didn’t really do anything wrong and this was his first NBA game (not including preseason) so lets cut him some slack lol
Carr didn’t even get to touch the ball. I hate box score watchers
make-a-wish james
I need to see this full sequence. On the highlights, the lakers get the ball at 55 seconds and the raptors are dribbling back down court at 53 seconds but they cut the 2 seconds out 😄
Full sequence here:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=gLTLjxStBRw&t=425&is=RM51Y2Wr5DcykxCD
7:05 of the video (already linked) is when all starters were out. Bronny went in a bit earlier.
Its a 3 point shooting era so JJ shouldn’t have sent in the bench that early. Maybe wait for the final minute. It was funny seeing a clip of Austin Reeves asking the fan back for his headband when JJ decided send the starters back on court lmao
That video made me dizzy.
It feels like someone is recording a TV and following the ball handler around.
9 point lead, one minute to go. All they have to do is dribble the ball to the front court and hold the ball. Then make free throws or let time expire. Subbing the bench out is confidence killing.
Imagine losing a game where you lead by 15 because you didn’t want to kill the confidence of your 2nd string. Cmon man lol
Everyone on reddit seems to think how people working feel is more important then the outcome. It’s actually hilarious how little real world experience these people have.
Its like an episode of Full House.
gen z coded
You can acknowledge that they probably needed to put the starters back in and also not sound like an out of touch boomer dickhead lol
3rd string*
They subbed themselves out in effect. Wtf was that inbound?😭😭😭😭
It was a college bench level player being played in an nba game.
Please don’t coach my basketball team. I like to win.
lol fuck off with that shit😭
Insane that has been so highly upvoted.
Uhh it was a 2 possession game. 1 steal on the inbound and a 3 makes it a 1 possession game. JJ would be crazy not to put the starters back in.
But their little feeling might have been hurt!
They were down by 6 with 44 seconds left when they subbed them out.
Nah, it’s a teaching moment.
I need to see the full sequence. The two times they had the ball in bounds somehow they had it for 7 seconds, and 2 seconds, and the last was the inbounds turnover.
Not being able to beat a press should be a wake up call to the bench unit. Redick had every reason to not trust that unit to even just get it across half court successfully.
It would have killed their confidence even more if they were kept in and turned the ball over a few more times, literally giving the game away
Awful take. They need to be better and deserved to be subbed out. Let that sink in and marinate in them to know the errors they made.
These aren’t bench players, these are garbage timers.
Jesus Christ Bronny. Played 1:44 and a net rating of -11… fuck me
This is like that Futurama episode where Fry blew a 35-point lead against the Globetrotters with just over 2 minutes left in the game.
Jesus he should go to college and make something of himself instead of getting embarrassed every week on national TV
JJ can yell all he wants but this is also on the coaching staff. 15 point lead is nothing in today’s pace.
How many insane comebacks we’ve seen in the last two playoffs and so far this season?
Teams coming back from 20-30 points déficit like it’s nothing and 15 points comeback was more than viable with 2 minutes left.
Nothing wrong with the coaches decision in this. Raptors had already waved the white flag a min or two earlier and had emptied their bench against our starters. Any coach would take out the starters and let it go bench vs bench in garbage time with 2-min left and a 15-pt lead…but our scrubs still screwed it up lol.
If one of the Lakers starters had gotten hurt because they were still in the game with 2 minutes left up 15, then most people in this sub would be calling for the coaches to be fired.
Will GTA VI be the straw that breaks Bronny’s back?
we can only hope
The point is. The 3rd stringers were all trash, not just Bronny.
Because that was the first 59 seconds of Carr’s career in a real NBA game. Bronny is in year 3.
I know all that. The point is people having a hate boner for Bronny. Everyone sucked, not only him.
OP could say, “Bench unit threw away a huge lead” but that doesnt get clicks
Bronny is the point guard though. He literally threw the ball out of bounds on the inbound pass. If you lose a big lead it’s almost certainly because your key ball handles are fucking up big time. BUT, I hear your point. Pointing Bronny in the title gets clicks.
Hardy hate I get but I don’t even remember Carr getting the ball? It was turnover after turnover.
Weird how much JJ has tried to talk about Bronny like a promising prospect for 3 years in a row when he has made zero strides in becoming an NBA player.
Get that trash ass kid out of the Lakers
Or we do the oposite and we sign all the Laker legends kids + Luka
Dibs on boozers kid
The Lakers know they have depth problems. I have no delusions about this being a ready-for-contentions caliber team.
However I do actually enjoy the way they play now more than with Lebron. I think JJ is getting a lot out of his players. Obviously Luka is incredible.
I also enjoy the way they play now more than with Lebron.
AR 1⁄1 assist turnover ratio as a second option gang
The LeBron playing was so weird. It was like the guys were all second guessing themselves because they couldn’t figure out if they run everything through LeBron or if that would just get him injured.
When the bench came on without LeBron they instantly crumbled every time
Team still has gaps, but we have a starting center and play with some actual energy/movement.