The Los Angeles Lakers are expected to be active in terms of seeking to make a trade that will upgrade their roster ahead of this winter’s trade deadline. While they currently have a roster that looks deeper and better than the one they ended last season with, most would agree it isn’t quite a championship-caliber one.
If the Lakers are to successfully execute a trade, Dalton Knecht is one player who will likely be involved. He was included in that trade attempt for Charlotte Hornets center Mark Williams in February, only for the trade to be rescinded when Williams reportedly failed his physical.
Some believe that February’s failed trade mentally broke Knecht, who showed signs of promise at times last season as a rookie. But he did poorly during summer league play and didn’t hit his shot consistently in L.A.’s first two preseason games last weekend.
According to an article in The Athletic, scouts and executives across the NBA feel Knecht has little real value on the trade market right now.
“But even as Knecht was scoring, scouts around the NBA couldn’t ignore the holes in his game, particularly on the defensive end, where he was often out of position,” wrote Dan Woike. “Concerns about his ability to handle those concepts — one of the reasons he was available to the Lakers at No. 17 in the draft — were reaffirmed in the eyes of NBA evaluators.
“… The Lakers desperately need a player whom teams desire close to as much as they desired the team’s lone tradable first-round pick.
“But scouts and executives, almost unanimously, felt that the Lakers wouldn’t be able to recoup comparable value to the No. 17 pick they used when they selected Knecht. Some felt the team might be able to get its hands on multiple second-round picks, while the most critical felt Knecht would return just a lone second.
“The Lakers didn’t move Knecht this summer, with anything the team possibly able to get for Knecht not worth giving up on the potential that’s still there. But after a rough preseason debut where he shot 1 of 12, scouts left Palm Desert as pessimistic as ever, one even calling Knecht a ‘negative asset,’ meaning the Lakers would need to attach pieces to incentivize a team in a trade.”
There was some real hope one calendar year ago that Knecht, who was a steal with the No. 17 pick in the 2024 draft, would become a gem. But so far, other than a couple of scattered stretches of hot shooting, he has proven to be nothing more than a ball of dirt.
His 46.1% field-goal accuracy and 37.6% 3-point accuracy last season look respectable, but those shooting splits were largely boosted by hot spurts in November, March and April. It may be hard for Knecht to get any real playing time, especially considering how lost he looks on the defensive end, but with LeBron James expected to miss a few weeks of action, the window may be open for the University of Tennessee product to prove his worth.