The Los Angeles Lakers were one of the teams expected to be active at the NBA trade deadline this year as they had a number of expiring contracts to part with in potential deals.
That is not exactly how it played out, however, as only one transaction came to fruition with Gabe Vincent and a future second round pick going to the Atlanta Hawks for Luke Kennard. There was a bit of wishful thinking that more moves were on the horizon before the deadline, but nothing else materialized.
The reason behind it was general manager Rob Pelinka attempted to offload players but was unable to find any takers, with second-year guard Dalton Knecht being at the top of that list, via Dan Woike of The Athletic:
They were unable to offload any other players, including Dalton Knecht, who league sources say the Lakers shopped aggressively.
The Lakers needed to attach draft compensation to get off of Vincent’s contract to acquire Kennard, so the same likely would have needed to be the case for other players like Knecht.
It’s an unfortunate situation for Knecht as he looked very promising at the start of his rookie season after being drafted 17th overall in 2024 out of Tennessee.
He was traded at last year’s deadline to the Charlotte Hornets for Mark Williams, although the deal got rescinded and Knecht was sent back to L.A.
Since then, he hasn’t looked or played like himself, likely lacking the confidence he showed to begin his career. All parties knew that a change of scenery was needed at this year’s deadline, but as the report states, the Lakers weren’t able to find any takers for Knecht despite shopping him aggressively.
Now, the Lakers still have Knecht on the roster for the rest of the season, so hopefully he can regain his form and provide some value to the team before likely being back on the trade block this summer.
Lakers picked up Dalton Knecht’s option for 2026-27
Earlier this season, the Lakers announced that they had picked up Knecht’s third-year rookie scale team option for the 2026-27 season.
That likely complicated things in trade talks as teams would prefer to acquire expiring contracts to maintain financial flexibility going into the summer.
Given Knecht’s decline as a player and that fact he is under contract for another season, teams weren’t willing to take a flyer unless the Lakers attached draft compensation with the 24-year-old, which they did not have at their disposal.
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