After a short but newsworthy tumble out of the lottery, Tennessee wing Dalton Knecht was scooped up by a team that can absolutely use his scoring versatility. The Los Angeles Lakers landed Knecht with the No. 17 overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, acquiring a high-volume shooter to work alongside LeBron James next season.
Knecht took an extremely unconventional path to the NBA. He began his post-high school career at Northeastern Junior College and Northern Colorado before landing at Tennessee last season. He emerged as one of the nation's best scorers once joining the Volunteers, leading the program to a 27-9 record as the consensus SEC Player of the Year.
Now, the North Dakota native -- and one of the best offensive weapons in the draft -- is moving to Hollywood.
"We would have never imagined a player as skilled and perfect for our needs would be there [at 17]," said Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka, who noted that Knecht was among the top 10 prospects on the franchise's draft board.
Knecht's offensive skill set is going to be immediately valuable in L.A. He averaged 21.7 points last season and hit nearly 40% of his 3-pointers on high volume shooting at Tennessee. That will prove to be a boon for the Lakers as JJ Redick attempts to build an offense that emphasizes the long ball more than it did under Darvin Ham and Frank Vogel.
So, why did Knecht -- frequently mocked in the middle of the lottery -- fall all the way to No. 17? The easiest explanation is age with Knecht entering the draft at age 23.
Teams typically prefer to draft younger players in the lottery because of the perception that they will have more room to grow and more time in their careers. However, the Lakers are a team with win-now ambitions; they didn't need to focus as much on long-term upside. L.A. is just happy to add a young, cheap player who can contribute right away alongside James.
Knecht is also a relatively weak defender, and at 6-foot-5, he doesn't quite have the height you want for someone playing forward. The Lakers do have perimeter defensive issues, but with Anthony Davis at the rim, they can afford to take chances on offense-first players.
The Lakers kicked off a new era when they hired Redick a week ago, and the messaging from the team since then has been about the importance of player development. For years, Los Angeles has traded away draft picks for the sake of winning in the short term with LeBron and AD. Now, though, with James nearing his 40th birthday and Davis hitting what should be the last few years of his prime, the Lakers are beginning to plan for whatever comes next.
That starts with acquiring players like Knecht.
Fortunately, the Lakers are among the better drafting teams in basketball outside of the lottery. In the past decade or so, they've identified Kyle Kuzma, Josh Hart, Ivica Zubac and Larry Nance Jr. in the middle of boards, and they've developed undrafted players like Alex Caruso and Austin Reaves into valuable NBA contributors. The Lakers tend not to have many picks at their disposal, but when they keep a player in their system for multiple years, they frequently become consistent contributors.
Knecht, on paper, is a perfect fit for the Lakers. Shooters have thrived playing off of James for more than two decades. He may have slipped further than he would have hoped, but it seemingly worked out for the best as Knecht lands on a team positioned to maximize him from the start.
