DJ's a point guard with good height, infectious toughness and a devastating instinct that pairs with his speed in transition. The 16-year-old doesn't have nearly the same build as his father did when Dajuan was the nation's No. DJ Wagner is a joy to watchĮasily one of the three best players I watched over the course of four days was DJ Wagner, the son of former Memphis star Dajuan Wagner, and the No.
But since his last name is James, tabbing him and removing who his father is, well, it's a very hard thing to do. He's either 6-1 or 6-2, and evaluators I sat with pegged him mostly as someone in the top 75-100 of his class. He's regarded as a high-major player, but the biggest question is how much he'll grow over the next two years. Bronny is a situation without parallel being the son of one of the two best basketball players in history, and choosing to play basketball, is going to pin an unrelenting spotlight on you. As for Bronny, the opinions on his development and forecast vary. It was a big weekend for the James family, what with "Space Jam: A New Legacy" opening in theaters as well. What’s up, Bron? /I9gZsijKXB- Matt Norlander July 18, 2021 The team isn't that good, at least for the level it's playing at. After playing with Duren on Team Final earlier in the spring, Bates is back playing with his father's program, Bates Fundamentals, in North Augusta. (Aside: Duren is his own story, and in a separate story I detailed his potential to reclassify and play college basketball this fall.)īates has grown a few more inches and put on, minimally, 10 pounds of muscle.
#Bronny james pro#
In speaking with multiple sources over the weekend, the general opinion on Bates is that he's still a much better pro prospect than Duren. 1 spot in the Class of 2022 rankings (he was usurped by Duren) it expectedly prompted some discussion regarding Bates' trajectory and development. When 247Sports made the decision earlier this month to take Bates out of the No. He's currently not in the top 20 in rebounds, assists, steals or blocks either. 1 spot on the leaderboard for turnovers (No. But the lanky 6-foot-9 (bordering on 6-10) forward is closer to the No. Bates remains a must-see prospect who can produce two, three, four plays a game that lift your eyebrows. Tabbing Bates or anyone else as a once-in-a-generation type of player at the age of 15 or 16 dubious, because the truth is nobody knows - not a single person can say - what these players will be when they are 22 or 23 years old, let alone 10 years removed from their junior year of high school. This humanistic impulse to bank on the future and seek promise for bigger and better in youth basketball has only worsened with the evolution of how social media is used to sell those alternate realities. And the thing they all have in common - through no fault of their own - is they're victims of a basketball ecosystem that insists on overselling 14-, 15-, 16- and 17-year-olds way beyond what they deserve. (Hell, I myself felt compelled to feature Bates two years ago, when he was 15.)īates, Bronny James and Jalen Duren are the three biggest names in high school/grassroots basketball right now. Will we - media, scouts, the basketball-loving public who tracks recruiting - ever stop trying to one-up ourselves when it comes to hyperbolic promotion of high school basketball players? Maybe I'm yelling into the void. The issue here is much larger than Bates, who is terrific in his own right but emblematic of some of the worst tendencies of media and hype culture in youth and collegiate sports.
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