{"id":108013,"date":"2024-11-20T08:58:47","date_gmt":"2024-11-20T13:58:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=108013"},"modified":"2024-11-20T08:58:47","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T13:58:47","slug":"lebron-james-lakers-front-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/11\/20\/lebron-james-lakers-front-office\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James Praises Lakers Front Office"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It is a rarity, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LeBron James<\/a> sometimes praises the Lakers front office. He usually tries to stay away from commenting on the job the front office does, but after the win against the Utah Jazz, the NBA\u2019s leading scorer shared his thoughts.\u00a0In an interview with ESPN&#8217;s Dave McMenamin, James talked about how valuable <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/k\/knechda01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dalton Knecht<\/a> is and how the organization did well to draft him.<\/p>\n<h2>Lebron James Praises Lakers Front Office<\/h2>\n<p>Speaking to Dave McMenamin, LeBron simultaneously praised the Lakers front office and threw shades at other organizations.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">LeBron James on the Lakers front office drafting Dalton Knecht: \u201cThey didn\u2019t find DK \u2026 the other 16 teams f\u2014-ed it up\u201d <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/agmO547mnW\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/agmO547mnW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dave McMenamin (@mcten) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mcten\/status\/1859124126268461512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 20, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Many experts believed Knecht is a major steal for the Lakers at Number 17. So far, he has proven this to be true. James has had full trust in Dalton\u2019s abilities since the <a  href=\"https:\/\/bleacherreport.com\/articles\/10138236-lebron-james-praises-dalton-knecht-after-lakers-preseason-debut-hes-ready-for-nba\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">preseason<\/a>. He and the other members of the team have been urging the 23-year-old to shoot as much as possible. Dalton has the ultimate green light and he has been making the most of his opportunity.<\/p>\n<h3>What was Dalton&#8217;s Realistic Spot?<\/h3>\n<p>After a battle, everyone is a general. While Knecht looks like the steal of the draft with his recent play, the truth is that he was never a top-10 pick to begin with. The one team where he might have ended up was the Memphis Grizzlies, who already had a talented roster and could have used some shooting. But they decided to fill the hole at center with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/e\/edeyza01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zach Edey<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Other teams in the lottery usually try to draft a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/27\/lakers-dalton-knecht-rookie-of-the-year-dark-horse\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">young prospect<\/a> with higher potential, not just a shooting role player. Knecht is 23 years old and quite older than usual lottery picks.\u00a0For now, Knecht enjoys his shooting stretch. For the past four games, he has averaged 24.3 points on 67.7% shooting from beyond the arc. Against the Utah Jazz, he <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/news\/lakers-dalton-knecht-ties-rookie-record-nine-3-pointers\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tied<\/a> a rookie record for most threes in a single game with nine.<\/p>\n<h3>LeBron Changing His Mind<\/h3>\n<p>We have to note while LeBron praises the Lakers front office now for drafting Knecht, things were quite different in the summer. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/5588906\/2024\/06\/25\/lakers-win-now-develop-jj-redick-lebron-james-anthony-davis\/?source=emp_shared_\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Athletic<\/a> reported that LeBron and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/davisan02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anthony Davis<\/a> wanted the organization to go all-in for a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/25\/analyzing-lakers-rumored-trade-targets-fit\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">third star<\/a> rather than trying to build a sustainable winner in the long run. According to the report by the Athletic, the difference in opinion was a major point of conflict between LeBron and AD and the Lakers front office.<\/p>\n<p>However, Lakers GM Rob Pelinka and their new coach at the time, JJ Redick, didn\u2019t sound <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/26\/nba-business-pelinka-is-right-to-preach-restraint-for-the-lakers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">desperate<\/a> about trying to trade for a third star. Instead, both highlighted the importance of the group rather than the stars. Pelinka and Redick believed they could get more out of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hachiru01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rui Hachimura<\/a>, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/reaveau01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Austin Reaves,<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/chrisma02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Max Christie<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/russeda01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">D\u2019Angelo Russell<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Did the Lakers Do Well With LeBron?<\/h3>\n<p>To be fair, the Lakers did almost everything LeBron wanted this summer. While they didn\u2019t get him a third star, they did hire his podcast buddy to serve as a head coach. They also drafted his son, making his wish to play with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesbr02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bronny James<\/a> a reality. They also drafted him a \u201csniper\u201d in Knecht. While he is not a star, Knecht so far proves to be a valuable rotation player. That is more than teams can hope with the 17th pick in a weaker draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is a rarity, but LeBron James sometimes praises the Lakers front office. He usually tries to stay away from commenting on the job the front office does, but after the win against the Utah Jazz, the NBA\u2019s leading scorer shared his thoughts.\u00a0In an interview with ESPN&#8217;s Dave McMenamin, James talked about how valuable Dalton [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5291,"featured_media":108031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,26,62],"tags":[240,4572,307,49212,38,4916,1749,4741],"class_list":["post-108013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-lakers","category-nba","tag-anthony-davis","tag-bronny-james","tag-dangelo-russell","tag-dalton-knecht","tag-lebron-james","tag-max-christie","tag-rui-hachimura","tag-zach-edey"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5291"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}