{"id":151731,"date":"2025-07-23T10:51:31","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T14:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=151731"},"modified":"2025-07-23T10:51:31","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T14:51:31","slug":"lakers-should-send-dalton-knecht-to-the-g-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/07\/23\/lakers-should-send-dalton-knecht-to-the-g-league\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers Risk Losing Dalton Knecht \u2014 Time To Act\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES<\/strong> \u2013 Dalton Knecht<\/a> looked like a steal when the Lakers grabbed him with the 17th pick. His rookie year teased real promise. In November, he torched defenses for 13.6 points a night and drained threes at a 46% clip. By February, though, his numbers fell off a cliff. He put up only 5.1 points per game. Despite closing the regular season shooting over 42% from deep, Knecht found himself on the bench come playoff time. JJ Redick\u2019s message was clear. The rookie hadn\u2019t earned trust when it mattered. People inside the Lakers hoped he\u2019d address his flaws in the offseason. The verdict is in after Dalton Knecht\u2019s performance at the Las Vegas Summer League, and the Lakers need to send him down to the G-League once the season to salvage the situation.<\/p>\n

Lakers Risk Losing Dalton Knecht \u2014 Time To Act<\/h2>\n

Summer League Setback<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"Dalton
Jul 10, 2025; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Dallas Mavericks forward Cooper Flagg (32) shoots against Los Angeles Lakers guard Dalton Knecht (4) in the first quarter of their game at Thomas & Mack Center. Mandatory Credit: Candice Ward-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

His struggles started during the California Classic. He bricked nine straight threes in his first two games. Then he bounced back with 25 points and eight boards on four triples. Then he struggled in Las Vegas where he averaged just 10.3 points in nearly 30 minutes. Not awful, but not what you want from a second-year first-rounder.<\/p>\n

Summer League isn\u2019t the final word, but borderline lottery prospects in their second year should dominate there. Knecht didn\u2019t. He still drives only right. He stops ball movement. His defense is shaky at best. For a guy once hailed by LeBron James<\/a> as the steal of the draft, that\u2019s rough.<\/p>\n

LeBron didn\u2019t hold back when he praised<\/a> the rookie: \u201cThe other 16 teams f–ked it up. Did anybody watch him? S–t. They just didn’t f–k it up. You don’t ‘find’ a SEC Player of the Year.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

A Falling Stock<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Now, insiders see his value differently. Jovan Buha dropped<\/a> a reality check: \u201cSummer League has not helped Knecht’s stock, and I don’t think at this point he is valued as a first-round pick, in terms of an asset valuation,”<\/em> Buha said on Sunday<\/em>. “That was what I heard in Vegas from talking to multiple people, non-Lakers people, just gauging what would you give for Dalton Knecht? Or if the Lakers are putting Dalton Knecht in a trade, what is he worth? And the feedback I got was, no longer worth a first-round valuation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

With Marcus Smart<\/a> and Jake LaRavia<\/a> in town, the Lakers sending Knecht down the G-league path seems obvious. He needs minutes and freedom to grow, something Redick won\u2019t give him with veterans fighting for playoff roles.<\/p>\n

The kid has talent. He showed it when he hung 37 on Utah<\/a> and drilled nine threes, a rookie record. But right now, his raw edges scream for polish.<\/p>\n

Send Him Down, Build Him Up<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Lakers can\u2019t afford passengers. If Dalton Knecht can\u2019t fix his game with the Lakers’ big squad, he must do it in the G-league with South Bay. Let him rediscover the form that made him the SEC\u2019s best. Then he might return as the threat LeBron once raved about.<\/p>\n

The Lakers don\u2019t have an abundance of assets to build around Luka Don\u010di\u0107<\/a>. If Knecht keeps regressing, he\u2019ll become another draft miss for the Lakers. They already whiffed on Jalen Hood-Schifino<\/a> and Maxwell Lewis<\/a> in 2023. They can\u2019t afford to waste another prospect.<\/p>\n

For Knecht, it\u2019s not over. But it\u2019s time to get real. The Lakers owe him that shot. The G-league is the path.<\/p>\n

LOS ANGELES \u2013 Dalton Knecht looked like a steal when the Lakers grabbed him with the 17th pick. His rookie year teased real promise. In November, he torched defenses for 13.6 points a night and drained threes at a 46% clip. By February, though, his numbers fell off a cliff. He put up only 5.1 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5018,"featured_media":151735,"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":[62,1608,26,3],"tags":[49212,1332,1224],"class_list":["post-151731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-basketball","category-lakers","category-news","tag-dalton-knecht","tag-nba-g-league","tag-nba-summer-league"],"modified_by":"Frederick Okocha","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151731","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=151731"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151738,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151731\/revisions\/151738"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}