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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Lakers 2024-25 season player grades: Dalton Knecht
A year ago, the Los Angeles Lakers seemed to be in a sort of malaise as a franchise. After a geyser of hope had emerged following their appearance in the Western Conference finals in 2023, they got run down in the first round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs in five games by the Denver Nuggets. Then-head coach Darvin Ham got exiled and was replaced by a neophyte in JJ Redick, and the franchise looked like it needed a serious injection of good fortune. It got just a bit of that in the draft, when it was lucky enough to take University of Tennessee stud Dalton Knecht with the No. 17 pick. Advertisement Knecht had been widely expected to be one of the first 10 players chosen, but for some bewildering reason, he fell into the Lakers' laps. His rookie season had plenty of ups and downs, but he got through it in one piece, and his potential hasn't been dampened. Dalton Knecht's season stats In 78 regular-season games with the Lakers, Knecht averaged 9.1 points, 2.8 rebounds and 0.8 assists in 19.2 minutes a game while shooting 46.1% from the field and 37.6% from 3-point range. Overall Analysis Bereft of depth, the Lakers needed Knecht to play significant minutes right away, and it wasn't long before he started to deliver. In the month of November, he averaged 13.6 points in 26.3 minutes a game and hit 50.7% of his shot attempts while going 46% from downtown. Advertisement But in early December, his shooting became as frigid as the weather at Mammoth Mountain, and his playing time went down, especially as the Lakers became more of a defensive-oriented unit. Just as it looked like he was perhaps perking up a bit in late January and early February, fate delivered him a weird curveball. The Lakers agreed to send him, forward Cam Reddish, a 2031 first-round draft pick and a 2030 pick swap to the Charlotte Hornets for Mark Williams, a young and promising center. It was thought that Williams would team up with recently acquired generational superstar Luka Doncic for years to come — until Williams reportedly failed his physical and the trade was rescinded. Knecht could've pouted and felt rejected, but he responded like a professional. He rediscovered his mojo in March and posted double figures in scoring in nine of 11 games, only to see his playing time almost completely disappear by the end of the month as Redick established his playoff rotation. Again, Knecht didn't complain, even though he got a total of three minutes and 40 seconds of playing time in L.A.'s five-game loss in the first round of this year's playoffs against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Advertisement Although he's first and foremost a 3-point specialist, he has shown at least a rudimentary ability to score adeptly from all three levels. He moves well without the ball and gets out in transition, and he finishes strong at the rim by dunking. His defense has been a problem, and it is presumably a big reason he has had trouble holding onto his spot in the rotation. However, he does possess ample athleticism, and therefore, he should have the physical tools to at least become a neutral defender. What's next for Knecht? Knecht is under contract for three more seasons, and the final two years of his contract are team options. In the meantime, expect his name to consistently come up in trade rumors over the next several weeks. He's a young talent whose ceiling could be relatively high but is still hard to discern at this point, and that presumably makes him an attractive piece to other teams. Overall Grade: C This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Lakers 2024-25 season player grades: Dalton Knecht
Los Angeles Times
16-05-2025
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
So far for the Lakers, it's been status quo in the offseason
CHICAGO — One year ago, the seats at the bar and the tables near the coffee shop inside the Marriott Marquis hotel and the seats and concourse in the adjoining Wintrust Arena were filled with people wondering what in the hell was going to be next for the Los Angeles Lakers. The team had fired its coach, Darvin Ham, after a second consecutive first-round playoff loss to Denver and rumors were everywhere that the team had zeroed in on broadcaster JJ Redick. At the same time, LeBron James, his wife Savannah and their security team filed into the stands to watch Bronny James try to earn a spot in the NBA draft. They were an inescapable topic of conversation, their position at the center of the NBA's universe certainly annoying to the other 29 teams but inarguable. This year, though, under those same roofs, the Lakers haven't been the main event. They took their turn in the spotlight earlier this year when they traded for Luka Doncic. They've got their coach in Redick and Rob Pelinka has a promotion and a contract extension. By NBA standards, they're operating fairly status quo. This week at the NBA draft combine in Chicago, people have buzzed about the 2025 draft class led by Duke's Cooper Flagg, the kind of sure-thing prospect that eliminates any suspense. Winning the lottery, termed by multiple people as an 'all-time' crazy one, could help undo some of the goodwill the Mavericks surrendered when they dealt Doncic to the Lakers. There's been a lot of speculation about Giannis Antetokounmpo and his future in Milwaukee and where Kevin Durant will land, assuming his time in Phoenix is over. People have started to speculate how Boston will approach a season without Jayson Tatum and the ripple effects of that. But it's the Lakers and something will eventually break through. When people have wanted to gossip, they've pointed to the Lakers' strength and conditioning job posting that somehow carried an ESPN segment on 'Get Up' earlier this week. (According to people with knowledge of the situation, the team routinely posts jobs like this on LinkedIn and TeamWork online and did so last summer when they were hiring an assistant strength and conditioning coach.) The method of the job posting, more than anything else, caught some people in Chicago off-guard — 'We'd never post a job like that,' one rival team executive said — most people have lost the general thread, which is the Lakers trying to reimagine their strength and conditioning program. The Lakers and strength coach Ed Streit parted ways last week, people with knowledge of the situation told The Times. Streit, a well-liked presence in the organization, joined the team in 2019 as an assistant strength coach and earned a promotion in 2021. Following the season, though, Redick said he felt the team needed to be in 'championship shape' next season. The Lakers' two biggest stars, like most, work with their own strength and medical teams. Whoever joins the Lakers' staff will be leaned on to help the rest of the roster, most notably Austin Reaves, who is set for free agency next summer and in line for a massive raise. A new voice around the weight room could jolt the team as it tries to get to a different level with conditioning. People, including the Lakers' scouts and executives here in Chicago, have openly spoke about the team's needs at the center position — an obvious priority for Pelinka and Redick. The team has shown no interest in using Reaves in a trade that nets them anything less than a top-tier big, and there really aren't any of those available, with the two most common names linked to them in the earliest stages of the offseason — Brooklyn's Nic Claxton and Dallas' Daniel Gafford. Neither is a lock for a variety of reasons. In Claxton, the Lakers would have the prototypical rim-protecting, lob-catching center that's tailor-made for Doncic. Claxton's due more than $66 million over the next three seasons and is two years removed from his most impactful stretch as a pro when he averaged 12.6 points, 9.2 rebounds and 2.5 blocks on a league-best 70.5% shooting from the field. This season in 70 games, those numbers dipped to 10.3 points, 7.4 rebounds and j1.4 blocks with 56.3% shooting. An optimistic read on the situation would point to the Nets' losing as a reason for his dip in production. A pessimist would point to his narrow frame (just 215 pounds), the two straight years in which his numbers have slumped and the high salary. Gafford, we know, is a surefire Doncic fit because of their time together in Dallas. He's about to enter the final year of his deal and plays on a roster with Dereck Lively and Anthony Davis, making it unlikely that there's more cash headed his way from the Mavericks. The trouble, of course, is that people around the NBA wonder how it would look if Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison engaged Pelinka and the Lakers on another trade after the last deal between the teams was so unpopular that it caused protests. According to rival scouts and executives, the Lakers best' assets (minus Reaves) are their 2031 first-round pick, second year wing Dalton Knecht and a bunch of expiring contracts. Some combination of them would be a must in any deal the team would make for a center. The free-agency options, like the in-season trade options, are considered to be pretty lean. Indiana center Myles Turner is set to be a free agent, but he was already out of the Lakers' price range before the Pacers' current run to the Eastern Conference finals. Brook Lopez is 37 and already had a one-year stint with the Lakers before leaving to play his best basketball elsewhere. Clint Capela could be an option depending on how the market reacts, but there are questions around the league about whether he's still a full-time starter. Jaxson Hayes, who started for the Lakers this season, is also a free agent, but the Lakers clearly had their doubts with him when they decided to bench him in the playoffs. You can assume that some bridges would need to be rebuilt if that were an option. Another possibility or two could develop on draft night depending on how teams value this group of young bigs. A player such as Duke's Khaman Maluach could be viewed as too good to pass up even if a team has a center on the roster, and that could create an opportunity for a player to unexpectedly hit the trade market. Otherwise, the Lakers are looking for what every team in the NBA is looking for — versatility, toughness, athleticism and shooting. Those markets are slowly starting to develop behind the scenes as agents meet with teams and as teams build out their offseason free-agency boards now that lottery has been settled. The Lakers are working on all of this too. Just this time, it's not what everyone is talking about.
