Los Angeles Lakers Media Day is a chance for fans to see the purple and gold for the first time since their disappointing playoff loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, as well as see what players have been up to in the months since then. One player that fans were particularly intrigued to hear from was second-year sharpshooter Dalton Knecht.
Knecht, after being ousted from the Lakers rotation at the end of last season, opted to play at both the California Classic and the Las Vegas Summer Leagues. However, he struggled mightily at both, shooting the ball inefficiently and not showing significant strides on defense. It was a concerning look, as second-year players typically perform well at Summer League.
Head coach JJ Redick — at his pre-Media Day availability — mentioned that part of Knecht’s struggles came from being exhausted by three-a-day workouts in the weeks following the 2024-25 season. Knecht corroborated that story when discussing his summer work.
“Yeah, right when the season ended I got with my trainer and told him we gotta be on the court next year during the playoffs,” Knecht said. “I just overworked myself, got burnt out by the time Summer League started. I was just completely drained. I think it was a great learning piece for me, and that’s something me and JJ talked about during the offseason, that this is a good thing. I get to really learn from that.”
To go directly from the NBA Playoffs to multiple workouts per day in preparation for the following season is bound to lead to burnout the way it did. And it’s likely for the best that that burnout resulted in poor play at Summer League. That gave him a chance to learn the lesson and reset before games start truly mattering for him next month.
As it’s only Knecht’s second NBA season, there is no expectation for him to be perfect. However, if the Lakers are going to have him be in the rotation, he is going to need to figure out the balance between hard work and staying fresh to give his best effort each and every time he gets opportunities.
Lakers’ JJ Redick explains biggest regret from Timberwolves series
Dalton Knecht is not the only one in the Lakers organization to look back on last season’s playoffs and figure out what can be done differently.
The Lakers battled all the way to being the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference, securing a three-team tiebreaker after strong showings against other top West teams. This gave them home-court advantage against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round. Many pundits picked the Lakers to advance, but they were ousted in just five games in a series that L.A. looked completely outmatched in.
Now with a few months to examine what went wrong in that series and prepare for the upcoming season, head coach JJ Redick was able to reflect on his biggest regret from the playoff loss.
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