The Los Angeles Lakers selected what some might consider one of the steals of the draft when they grabbed Tennessee guard Dalton Knecht with the 17th overall pick in the first round of the 2024 NBA Draft, held Wednesday night in Brooklyn.
Lakers Vice President of Basketball Operations and General Manager Rob Pelinka is excited and couldn’t believe Knecht was there for Los Angeles at 17.
“It’s an extremely exciting night for the Los Angeles Lakers,” Pelinka said in a press release. “We would have never imagined a player as skilled and perfect for our needs would be there for us. We had him as a top 10 player unanimously across our scouting boards.”
“His competitive nature stood out. He’s a three-level scorer. He’s a guy that’s going to defend. He’s physical, he’s athletic, and a 3-and-D player that every roster craves. He fits so well with our pillar pieces. There’s a lot of versatility to his game and he gives us a weapon that we currently don’t have on our roster.”
Knecht can fill up. He averaged 21.7 points (45.8 FG%, 39.7 3P%, 77.2 FT%), 4.9 rebounds, and 1.8 assists in 36 games (all starts) in his lone season at the University of Tennessee in 2023-24. A First Team All-America selection and SEC Player of the Year, the 23-year-old led the conference in points per game and ranked third in 3-point field goal percentage last season.
However, the 6-5 guard believes he has be underrated his entire life.
“I’d say my why is I feel like I’ve been underrated my whole entire life ever since I was coming out of high school I’ve always had a chip on my shoulder,” Knelcht said after the selection. “And to this day I’ll always have that chip on my shoulder to go out there and prove people wrong.”
Knecht will be teammates with LeBron James, who praised Knelcht on social media during the NCAA tournament. Knelcht discussed this on Wednesday night.
“Yeah, I remember that clip,” he said. “I woke up and rolled out of bed and I thought it was fake because tons of people were texting me. I was just like, there’s no way. When I watched that video, it just brought a smile to my face, and also my parents. They called me right away and told me about it. It’s going to be special and it’s going to be fun just to be sharing the court with both of them, AD and LeBron. LeBron is one of the greatest. So it’s going to be real special.”
In 103 Division I games (79 starts) across one campaign at Tennessee and two seasons at Northern Colorado (2021-23), Knecht posted averages of 16.9 points (46.1 FG%, 38.3 3P%, 76.8 FT%), 5.2 rebounds, and 1.5 assists in 29.8 minutes.
The Lakers need a player who can help them right now, and Knecht should be able to do just that.
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