The Los Angeles Lakers selected who many believe was the steal in the first round of the 2024 NBA Draft on Wednesday. Picking Tennessee star Dalton Knecht with the No. 17 overall pick after he took home the SEC Player of the Year Award last college basketball season.
Knecht has a unique college basketball journey that started at the junior college level and ended with his lone, breakout season for the Volunteers. With the age of the 23-year-old prospect possibly causing him to slip during Wednesday’s draft.
The fall of Knecht in the draft worked in the favor of the Lakers, who are in win-now mode following two postseason eliminations by the Denver Nuggets and the hiring of new head coachJJ Redick. And Thursday on The Pat McAfee Show, NBA insider Shams Charania detailed draft night for Los Angeles and their experienced, high-scoring rookie.
“The age thing is the one factor when I talked to NBA teams since day one of the draft ended last night,” Charania said. “So you get to the point where you’re 22 and beyond, I mean I guess they want to hold that against you. The Lakers had no idea, I mean truly.”
“Teams say it after the draft, ‘We didn’t know he’d get here, this is the guy we wanted all along.’ I don’t think anyone in that Lakers’ war room last night had any idea that Dalton Knecht would be available for them at 17.”
Last year for Tennessee Knecht averaged 21.7 points and 4.9 rebounds per game on 45.8% from the field and 39.7% from behind the three-point line. A three-level scorer who was one of the best in college basketball and grabbed the attention of his most notable new teammate last season.
“When I talked to people around the league about him, I mean this is a guy that is a gym rat. Obviously plays the right way, you see the way he shoots the ball. LeBron James literally gave him a shoutout two months ago and that obviously rings true. You have to think about that when you think about the Lakers,” Charania explained.
Knecht had 18 20+ point games last season, which includes seven 30+ point scoring games and a 40-point performance against Kentucky in the SEC Tournament. As one of the draft’s most prolific shooters will now join forces with a former dead-eye shooter in the NBA who’s eager to set him up for success immediately for the Lakers.
“Rob Pelinka said last night JJ Redick’s already drawing up pin down plays for him, out of bounds plays for him of screens,” Charania revealed. “So he’s someone that has some moxie to him, he’s got some swag to him, and I think you need that if you’re a player that’s going to play for the Lakers and try to be someone that’s going to play immediately.
“And they view him that way. Last year their rookie Jalen Hood-Schifino, he was not that way. But they really view Dalton Knecht as someone that can play for them from day one,” Charania concluded.
Charania compared Knecht to a young Bogdan Bogdanović, and it will be fascinating to see how he meshes with the Lakers as seemingly a perfect fit for the franchise.
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