Hot Takes on Lakers' Bronny James vs. Hawks with Dalton Knecht, Risacher Out

Bronny James has had a rough summer. Wednesday was a step in the right direction.

The Los Angeles Lakers second-round pick finished with 12 points, a rebound and a steal in his team's 87-86 win against the Atlanta Hawks.

He also finally hit a three-pointer after an 0-for-16 streak from beyond the arc this summer, finishing 5-of-11 from the field and 2-of-5 from three.

He was the main attraction on the evening, as teammate Dalton Knecht and top overall pick Zaccharie Risacher were held out of the contest:

It was the sort of performance from James that fans were waiting to see, and he earned some love on the socials following the contest:

It's basically unheard of for a second-round pick to be in the sort of fishbowl James finds himself in, but that comes with the territory when your father is one of the greatest basketball players of all time and may or may not have pulled some strings to ensure his team drafted you so the two of you could play together before he retired.

It's fair to question if declaring for the NBA draft after one unremarkable season at USC was the right decision for Bronny's development. He's not going to see the court for the Lakers this season outside of garbage time—he arguably wouldn't have even been drafted were it not for his father.

But this is the situation he finds himself in, and on Wednesday he finally looked like he belonged, at least at the Summer League level. It's a start.