The Los Angeles Lakers were severely shorthanded on Monday night against the Portland Trail Blazers, missing five players from their regular rotation. That meant more minutes for players like Bronny James, Nick Smith Jr. and Dalton Knecht in head coach JJ Redick’s lineup.
Knecht has been in and out of the rotation for the majority of the early stage of his career, as he has been unable to find his footing from beyond the arc. But he received 25 minutes of action on Monday, and put up 16 points with two steals, shooting just 5-of-13 from the field and 2-of-8 from deep.
Despite the shooting numbers, Knecht had a few plays during the loss to Portland that inspired some hope in the second-year sharpshooter. Although he is not a regular rotation player if everyone is healthy, Redick still has belief in the young player and liked what he saw from him.
“Yeah, I think he can build off this,” Redick said of Knecht. “I mean, it wasn’t a perfect game, but had a really good stretch there. And it wasn’t just making shots. It was playing with some tenacity, getting out in transition. And just continue to believe in him as a player, and understand that it’s gonna be a process with him. And he understands that, and I talk about that all the time. But I have a very high belief in him.”
The Lakers would certainly love for Knecht to find some sort of rhythm, as his shooting could be hugely beneficial in lineups next to the elite passing of Luka Doncic and LeBron James. He also has enough size to not be a complete negative on the defensive end, even if he isn’t stellar on that end.
Trading Knecht for positive value is going to be difficult at this stage, meaning L.A. is either going to need to throw him into a bigger deal or try to make the most out of what they have with him.
JJ Redick acknowledges lack of ball-handlers led to Lakers loss
The Lakers went into the second night of a back-to-back — a matchup with the young and scrappy Trail Blazers — significantly shorthanded. JJ Redick had to formulate a 48-minute game plan without Luka, LeBron, Marcus Smart, Gabe Vincent, Jaxson Hayes, Maxi Kleber or rookie Adou Thiero.
The result was Austin Reaves scoring 41 points in 39 minutes and a bench of only Bronny, Smith Jr. and Knecht in a 14-point loss to move L.A. to 2-2. Of the eight players the Lakers played for more than five minutes on Monday night, only one — Reaves — has ever been asked to run an NBA offense.
Bronny is more of a combo guard that plays a secondary creator role offensively, while Smith and Knecht are more pure shooters than initiators and everybody else was either a forward or center. And that’s the main takeaway that Redick had from the Lakers’ loss.
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