Coming into Summer League, many assumed that Los Angeles Lakers’ 2024 first-round pick Dalton Knecht would be the team’s best player. Even though he had a tumultuous first season, Knecht had a number of big games for the Lakers and Summer League provided an opportunity to show he was still a promising young player.
Unfortunately, Knecht struggled mightily in both the California Classic and Las Vegas Summer League, averaging just 11.7 points while shooting an abysmal 32.1% from the field and 23.7% from 3-point range. It was such a rough outing that some may wonder if the outlook on Knecht as a viable NBA rotation player has changed.
Despite the obvious struggles, however, that doesn’t seem to be the case for Knecht as Dan Woike of The Athletic believes that NBA evaluators aren’t putting too much stock into the Lakers guard’s Summer League performance:
I won’t go too in-depth on Knecht, other than to say that I think NBA evaluators haven’t put much stock into his summer-league performance.
Without a doubt Knecht’s struggles in Summer League were disappointing as teams hope to see a player going into their second season have a more dominant showing. But his issues don’t take away from the fact that he was a legit rotation player for the Lakers for much of his rookie season and had a number of impressive showings.
Knecht had seven games with at least 20 points as a rookie with two of those being 30-point outings. He has proven he can score at the NBA level and a few bad Summer League games don’t change that. The rescinded midseason trade that saw him return to the Lakers after being dealt to the Charlotte Hornets undoubtedly threw a wrench into things, but he still has plenty of promise with his shooting and scoring ability.
All it will take is one good preseason outing the concerns brought out from Knecht’s Summer League showing will be forgotten. There is always a need for shooting and the Lakers don’t have many who can shoot like Knecht so the second-year guard can still carve out a rotation spot this season with a good training camp and preseason performance.
Lakers’ rookie Adou Thiero expected to be ready for training camp
Another young wing that will be looking to find a spot in the Lakers’ rotation is rookie Adou Thiero, who would’ve been a Summer League teammate of Dalton Knecht but sat out as he recovered from a knee issue. This raised some concerns, but Thiero is expected to be ready once training camp kicks off.
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