Since LeBron James announced he wasn’t going to return to the Lakers in late June, there have been questions around the NBA whether his son, Bronny James, will follow him to his next team. 

While LeBron and Bronny could be teammates for the 2026-27 season on LeBron’s next team, it also isn’t guaranteed the Lakers will trade the younger James to his father’s next destination. 

As has been described to the California Post, there’s a real possibility the Lakers will keep Bronny on their roster going into next season, even as they continue to tinker with their roster to be compliant with the league’s roster rules before Opening Night in October. 

If the team signing LeBron is also looking to acquire Bronny, they would likely need to send the Lakers a real asset as part of a trade. 

Bronny is well-liked throughout multiple levels of the organization. 

The Athletic first reported that assumptions of Bronny and LeBron being linked moving forward being false. 

Since the Lakers drafted Bronny out of USC with the No. 55 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, making him and LeBron the first father-son duo in league history, the Lakers have developed the 6-foot-2 guard into a reliable shooter with defensive upside.

Bronny spent significant portions of his rookie and sophomore seasons with the Lakers’ G League affiliate, the South Bay Lakers who have been rebranded as the Coachella Valley Lakers.

He improved significantly during his second season, upping his field goal percentage (50.5% from 41.9%), 3-point percentage (37.6% from 33.6%) and assist-to-turnover ratio (4:2.6 from 4.6:3.3).

Bronny played 42 regular season games for the Lakers in 2025-26, and was a full-time rotation player after Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves suffered their regular season-ending injuries. 

He averaged 5.6 points and shot 35.7% on 3s in the final 10 games of the regular season. 

Bronny also played in eight of the Lakers’ 10 playoff games, with the highlight being the 10 straight points he and LeBron scored during the second quarter of the Lakers’ Game 3 win in their first round series victory over the Rockets.

The Lakers guaranteed Bronny’s $2.3 million salary for 2026-27 when they kept him on the roster after June 29. 

He also has a $2.5 million team option for the 2027-28 season. His salary for 2027-28 doesn’t become fully guaranteed until Jan. 10, 2028.

If the Lakers keep Bronny on the roster going into the season, he’s expected to compete with newcomer Collin Sexton, rookie Cameron Carr and recently-acquired Jaden Hardy for reserve backcourt minutes.