Bronny James has managed to tick off a few boxes on what Los Angeles Lakers fans hope will be a long career checklist.

The second-round rookie has seen preseason action. He has even made history by sharing the floor with his father, LeBron James.

These are small stepping stones, but they are important ones. They are also ones that folks around the Association remain dubious that James deserves to take.

As ESPN’s Baxter Holmes relayed, “interviews with nearly two dozen front office executives, coaches and scouts across the league” yielded a two-part consensus: “that Bronny James…not only isn’t ready for the NBA but was also drafted by the one team that presents the most challenging dynamic for him to succeed.”

None of this is new, by the way. Not the constant attention, nor the fervent skepticism. At Lakers media day, James noted the “criticism and backlash” that have come his direction and how he hoped to “turn it into something that can fuel me.”

That’s the best possible approach James can take. For now, at least.

Ignoring all of the outside noise is impossible at this decibel level. And while some might say he’s better off letting his play do the talking, that’s only possible if he’s actually playing enough for folks to notice. Save for the preseason, it feels highly unlikely that will happen this season at the NBA level.

Ideally, the kind of lengthy G League stint James needs—”in a normal world, he would’ve been a really good four-year college player,” an Eastern Conference scout told Holmes—would offer him some out-of-sight, out-of-mind relief from the spotlight. But when the son of an all-time great (perhaps the all-time great) starts plotting his own NBA journey, that attention never goes away.

It’s good, then, that James isn’t running from it. He knew this scrutiny was coming, and he embraced the journey anyway.

“Bronny is serious,” Rich Paul, longtime agent and CO of Klutch Sports Group, told Holmes. “This isn’t a f—ing game to him. He wants to play in the NBA, and he wants to play well within his role.”

While the last eight words of that quote weren’t its most colorful part, they were the most important. James isn’t trying to become his father. He isn’t laser-locked on the idea of stardom. In other words, he isn’t chasing false goals that his game will never deliver.

Even if he maxes out his potential, he might have trouble growing beyond the limits of a rotational role player. If you buy the aesthetics of his jump shot more than the underwhelming results it has produced to this point, you can see him perhaps finding his niche as a three-and-D player with a high IQ.

The ceiling only stretches so far for that player type, but James has recognized as much. At the combine, he laid out hopes of following the paths of Derrick White, Jrue Holiday and Davion Mitchell, three support players who do their best work on the defensive end.

“He knows who he is,” a scout told Holmes. “He knows what he can do.”

James is saying and doing all the right things. If you believe the doubters, though, that may never be enough.

“Analytically, if you just had the numbers on a page and had no name attached to it, he doesn’t project in any way, shape or form to be an NBA player,” a Western Conference executive told Holmes. “His measurables don’t project as an NBA player. There’s literally nothing about him on paper—if no name is attached to it—that makes this make sense.”

That’s a scathing review, and it’s hardly the only of his kind. For any rookie (let alone the No. 55 pick) to draw such a fervent response is mind-boggling.

Or rather, it would be if we were discussing any other rookie. For James, though, this has been his reality for a while now. The fact he’s still forging ahead highlight the kind of drive and determination that might one day allow him to silence the doubters for good.