Toronto Raptors assistant general manager Dan Tolzman said on Tuesday that the range of options for the team in the upcoming NBA Draft is massive.
He added that the Raptors may go with the best player available but keep the long-term future in mind when they’re on the clock as well.
With Bronny James’ agent, Rich Paul, saying last week that Toronto loved the 19-year-old, Tolzman was unsurprisingly asked about the group’s interest in LeBron James’ eldest son.
Tolzman is clearly keeping the Raptors’ possible pursuit of the USC product secretive, but he at least wasn’t ruling Bronny out.
Paul confirmed in late May that the younger James wouldn’t be returning to college and was keeping his name in the 2024 draft, which begins on Wednesday.
Bronny decided in early April to declare for the draft, enter the NCAA transfer portal and maintain his college eligibility. The move gave Bronny a fallback option to return to school for one more year should his pre-draft workouts not go as planned.
He arrived at USC ranked 20th in the 2023 ESPN 100 rankings and as the sixth-rated point guard in the class of 2023. Bronny suffered cardiac arrest during a July practice with the Trojans, however, and was rushed to the ICU of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
He worked his way back onto the court late last year and was medically cleared at the end of November.
Bronny averaged only 4.8 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 19.4 minutes per game across 25 contests (six starts), while recording a .366/.267/.676 shooting line. Despite the freshman-year struggles, teams could have interest in selecting the teenager in hopes that he’d be one half of a package deal that lands them his four-time MVP father as well.
ESPN.com’s most recent mock draft (published on Monday) has Bronny being selected by LeBron and the Los Angeles Lakers with the 55th overall pick.
