Where has Bronny James’ offense gone for USC?

The freshman ‘combo-facilitator,’ as coach Andy Enfield calls him, has averaged 1.2 points in his past five games

Luca Evans (OC Register)  —  LAS VEGAS — A few stragglers remain after the USC men’s basketball team’s Tuesday practice at the Galen Center, trailing off and gathering on the sideline to collapse in jokes and fits of laughter, until Bronny James is the last player on the floor.

He waits beyond the 3-point arc, a team manager stationed under the basket to shag, assistant Jay Morris feeding him passes. Catch. Fire. Catch. Fire.

It is a familiar sight, James often lingering post-practice to work on his jumper, the work ethic that attracted USC to recruit James beyond the pomp and the circumstance and the family name the world will never forget.

Two days later, a few minutes into the second half of USC’s win over Arizona State, James lets a 3-pointer fly. It hits off rim.

It’s the first 3-pointer he’s taken in his past five games.

Since freshman point guard Isaiah Collier’s return in early February from a monthlong injury absence, James’ minutes have dwindled gradually, down to spurts of 10-15 minutes per game. Reports around his future in the 2024 NBA draft continue to swirl, and public vultures continue to circle, feasting upon mere morsels of statistical output from a rocky freshman season.

Trojans coach Andy Enfield was asked, after an 81-73 win over Arizona State on Thursday in which James took two shots in 16 minutes, if he would encourage James to be more aggressive at times with his shot.

“Sure, sure,” Enfield said, nodding Thursday. “But we want all our guys to take open threes, and make plays. But he has a tremendous assist-to-turnover ratio, he doesn’t turn over a ton, and he also sees the floor very well, and gets guys the ball when they need him.”

“So he’s kind of a combo-facilitator right now,” Enfield continued, “and as he keeps developing his offensive game, we never tell him not to shoot – put it that way.”

And USC does not need James to score, not when Collier and senior Boogie Ellis are healthy. James’ teams have often not needed him to score, dating to his first days on an AAU floor, a young career spent largely as amorphous putty inside an explosive frame and congealing in the gaps between games. But he always consistently flashed a spot-up jumper and off-the-dribble juice – flashes that have largely fizzled in the past month, when he’ll often attack on the catch and swing a pass in passing up an open look.

The tentativeness makes sense, at some level, a freshman leaning back into comfortable strengths in a continued adjustment to college basketball marred by a preseason heart scare. But his teammates issued him an emphatic public vote of confidence – and perhaps a public call to action – with Ellis jumping in on a postgame question about James’ slump posed to teammate Kobe Johnson.

“Keep shooting,” Ellis said, leaning into the microphone before a question was finished. “He works on it every day. We want him to come in the game and score for us, be a microwave off the bench.”

James, simply, has earned the right to shoot around USC. He works hard and plays harder. He thrives in the minutia, in playing gritty defense and smart basketball. So he could take whatever shot he wanted, Ellis said.

“He needs to come in the game,” Ellis said, “and take those shots.”

There is clearly untapped potential here, in a lithe frame and smooth jumper, for James to become a consistent scorer. Coaches acknowledge it. Teammates advocate for it. The question – whether James’ journey will continue long enough in college basketball to realize it.

“Once he gets settled in, he takes that next jump in his college career,” Johnson said, “he’s gon’ be a hell of a player.”

USC vs. Arizona, 7 p.m. Saturday, Galen Center, ESPN/790 AM

ocregister.com

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