While the regular season is still a few months away, Bronny James is finally getting a chance to showcase his potential at the ongoing Summer League. But the start of his Lakers tenure has not been too great maybe because of the early jitters or the massive pressure he is under. In the first three games, Bronny has only scored a total of an underwhelming seven points. Amid his early struggles, Lakers head coach JJ Redick tried to ease his pain by making a bold comparison for him, highlighting an underrated aspect of his game.

Joining the ESPN commentary panel for the first time since taking the Lakers job, JJ revealed how he has evaluated Bronny thus far and what he expects from the kid, “What I’d like to see is a lot of ball pressure. The example I used, we were at the Canada-USA exhibition, obviously I’m not comparing Bronny at 19 to Lu Dort who is an All-NBA defender, but you watch that game and Lu Dort or Jrue Holiday, there’s 8 or 9 possessions a game where they just completely take the offense out of what they’re trying to do because of their disruptiveness.”

While Dort and Holiday are not known for their offensive prowess, they make up for it with their effort and tenacity on the defensive end. And that has even earned Holiday multiple All-Defensive nods and two championships. Moreover, with Bronny averaging only 4.8 points during his freshman year at USC and now a similar number at the Summer League, it has become clear that he needs to improve his scoring ability significantly.

But he can solidify his place in the league by turning into an elite perimeter defender like Holiday and Dort. While it might be too early to make that comparison, JJ claims that he sees a lot of potential in Bronny, “There’s a conditioning element to being able to play that way defensively. But overall, we like what we’ve seen in practice, we like what we’ve seen in the Summer League.”

JJ Redick has important advice for Bronny James about handling pressure

Amid the high expectations, the first three Summer League games for Bronny were rather disappointing. Scoring only four points in his debut, he missed the following game due to knee soreness, and then returned for the game against Miami only to score just three points. Moreover, the Lakers suffered defeat in all three of those games. Even during today’s game against the Rockets, Bronny struggled to get going on offense. While he had his highest scoring game so far with 8 points, it took him fourteen shots to reach that number and he missed all eight of his three-point attempts.

Seeing his rookie clearly struggling on the court in the first few games, JJ Redick had this advice for Bronny to deal with the scrutiny and pressure that he is facing from fans and the media, “I think you just have to let go of outcomes, and you just have to enjoy the process of being in the NBA… He’s obviously case study No. 1. He’s going to be a big part of what we do in our player development program. We’re going to invest heavily in him. He’s got to fall in love with that process and let go of outcomes.”

Although scoring does not look like Bronny’s strong suit, he has shown glimpses of being a great defender as he had two steals in today’s game. Even against Miami, the rookie added two steals and three blocks to the stat sheet. So, if he continues to build on this aspect of his game, JJ’s comparison with Holiday and Dort could actually come to fruition some years down the line. Do you agree?