{"id":110380,"date":"2024-12-03T08:30:25","date_gmt":"2024-12-03T13:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=110380"},"modified":"2024-12-03T07:15:03","modified_gmt":"2024-12-03T12:15:03","slug":"how-pelicans-and-honesty-allowed-lakers-to-draft-dalton-knecht","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/12\/03\/how-pelicans-and-honesty-allowed-lakers-to-draft-dalton-knecht\/","title":{"rendered":"How Pelicans And Honesty Allowed Lakers To Draft Dalton Knecht"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dalton Knecht<\/a> has taken the NBA by storm, especially lighting it up from behind the arc. Finding a perfect role on the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>, Knecht is staking a claim<\/a> for the Rookie of the Year award<\/a> early in the season. That\u2019s the sort of impact he\u2019s having. Already described by his coach, JJ Redick, as being in the top “1% of shooters\u201d, Knecht is averaging<\/a> 11.6 points on shooting splits of 47.6\/41.0\/77.3. He\u2019s become so valuable to the Lakers that he is now in the starting lineup<\/a>. However, Dalton Knecht wasn’t even supposed to be available for the Lakers to draft in the first place.<\/p>\n

How The Pelicans And Honesty Allowed Lakers To Draft Dalton Knecht<\/h2>\n

A Long-Standing Problem Finally Solved<\/h3>\n

How did the Lakers luck out at pick 17 and draft the answer to a very specific problem? For the past three years, the Lakers have pursued a laser-shooting sidekick for LeBron James<\/a>. This would allow the team to prioritize other ways to round out the roster as trade season approaches. After all, as long as LeBron is on the team, their championship window is always open.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe, as a front office, have sort of chased in theory the exact player he is, a movement shooter,\u201d Lakers<\/a> Vice President of Basketball Operations and General Manager Rob Pelinka<\/a> told<\/a> ESPN.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then not only is he a movement shooter, but a movement shooter with athleticism, which is a really unique combination.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Unlikely Journey to Pick 17<\/h3>\n

Exactly how did this solution fall into their laps? According to ESPN\u2019s<\/em> Dave McMenamin<\/a>, Pelinka initially believed the Lakers had no chance at drafting Knecht.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018Yeah, Dalton. There\u2019s no way. He\u2019s a top-five pick. I am not going to spend all my time there.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Lakers faced uncertainty about their first-round pick in June. The New Orleans Pelicans controlled its rights as part of the Anthony Davis<\/a> trade five years ago. The Pelicans could defer the pick to 2025. At the time, the Lakers were stuck in mediocrity, struggling in the Western Conference and at risk of missing the playoffs. However, their performance wasn\u2019t poor enough to secure a high lottery pick for a prospect like Knecht.<\/p>\n

Serendipity Strikes<\/h3>\n

For miracles to happen, multiple things must align perfectly. First, the Pelicans decided to defer their pick, finding the 2025 draft class<\/a> deeper and more attractive.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s noteworthy that Dalton Knecht never worked out with the Lakers during the draft process. His agency, Excel Sports Management, prioritized him working out with teams selecting higher. So how did teams pass on Knecht despite knowing his talent? Honesty. Knecht\u2019s brutal honesty during interviews apparently worked to his detriment.<\/p>\n

Teams evaluate players from every angle, even considering seemingly unrelated factors like hobbies. Knecht, however, didn\u2019t care about such things.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s focused on basketball,\u201d Polinsky, a Tennessee Volunteers<\/a> assistant coach, said<\/a>. \u201cIf you think he is going to woo you with his worldly nature or talk about how he speaks three languages, think again. He doesn\u2019t care about that. DK, he\u2019s a baller, simply stated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess some team asked him if he liked to read, and he told them no,\u201d Clark (a Volunteers assistant coach) ESPN. \u201cAnd I\u2019m like, what does that have to do with playing basketball? All he\u2019s doing is just being himself and telling the truth, like, \u2018No, I don\u2019t like to read.\u2019 Which, I\u2019m pretty sure there\u2019s a lot of people that don\u2019t like to read.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Additionally, Knecht\u2019s age\u201423 years old after spending five years in college\u2014contributed to his freefall on draft night.<\/p>\n

The Lakers\u2019 Decision<\/h3>\n

When Knecht kept dropping in the draft, Rob Pelinka called Excel Sports Management<\/a>, trying to uncover any potential red flags.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like, \u2018You\u2019re giving me your word?\u2019\u201d Pelinka told ESPN. \u201cI had to do a trust call of, \u2018There\u2019s no red flags, right? You\u2019re giving us your word.\u2019 And that\u2019s when it started to unfold.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

By 10 p.m., the Lakers had their guy. Heading into draft night, all Lakers scouts had Knecht in their top 10. They were ecstatic to draft him, with high-fives all around in the draft war room\u2014a rare occurrence.<\/p>\n

Knecht summed it up perfectly:<\/p>\n

\u201cTeams passed up on me, and the Lakers thought they got the steal of the draft,\u201d Knecht said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd they did.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Lakers Drafted Dalton Knecht Due To The Pelicans and His Honesty<\/h3>\n

The Lakers<\/a>\u2019 selection<\/a> of Dalton Knecht underscores the complexities of the NBA draft process. It\u2019s a reminder of how seemingly unrelated factors\u2014like a player\u2019s honesty in interviews or a rival team\u2019s strategic decision\u2014can dramatically shape outcomes. For the Lakers, it was a rare moment of serendipity that solved a long-standing roster need.<\/p>\n

In Knecht, they may have found their own version of Klay Thompson<\/a>, a player they unsuccessfully pursued last summer. The Lakers selected a sharpshooting gem who could define their future as they continue their championship chase with LeBron<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dalton Knecht has taken the NBA by storm, especially lighting it up from behind the arc. Finding a perfect role on the Los Angeles Lakers, Knecht is staking a claim for the Rookie of the Year award early in the season. That\u2019s the sort of impact he\u2019s having. Already described by his coach, JJ Redick, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5018,"featured_media":110433,"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":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,1608,26,33],"tags":[49040,49375,240,49212,979,2279,70,38,3073,759,1763],"class_list":["post-110380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-basketball","category-lakers","category-pelicans","tag-2024-nba-draft","tag-2025-nba-draft","tag-anthony-davis","tag-dalton-knecht","tag-espn","tag-jj-redick","tag-klay-thompson","tag-lebron-james","tag-nba-rookie-of-the-year","tag-rob-pelinka","tag-tennessee-volunteers"],"modified_by":"Kenny Kluska","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110380","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\/5018"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110380"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110434,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110380\/revisions\/110434"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}