They Should’ve Never Let the Lakers Get Dalton Knecht…

They Should’ve Never Let the Lakers Get Dalton Knecht…

the Los Angeles Lakers might have just drafted the biggest steal of the 2024 NBA draft in Dalton connect the 23-year-old drafted out of Tennessee was all over the place in terms of where people had him mocked pre-draft but not many people expected him to fall all the way to the Lakers with the 17th overall pick just glancing at his college production it’s definitely eye popping 21.7 points in 4.9 rebounds a game while shooting 39.7% from three on eight and a half attempts per game is impressive stuff but the big knock against him is the fact that he’s going to be a 23-year-old rookie this could explain why he wasn’t drafted higher because especially in a draft that was considered quote unquote weaker teams drafting in the lottery were probably looking for more upside bets rather than safe win Now options but the Lakers aren’t in a position to be worrying about upside they don’t really have that luxury they need players that can help them win now and that’s exactly what Dalton connect is going to be able to do we’ve started to see a trend in recent years with teams seemingly being more open to drafting older rookies with the understanding that those rookies are going to be able to help them win in the shortterm instead of being more long-term projects even looking at a guy as recent as the 2023 NBA draft in haime hakz he was an older rookie coming into the league after playing four years in college but Miami took him betting on the fact that he’d be able to contribute to winning fresh out of the box if you’re a team with championship aspirations or even just aspirations to be competitive then drafting an older rookie with seamless fit is exactly what you should be trying to do and that’s exactly what the Lakers did by drafting connect there is a ton to love about his game but where you’re really going to see his impact in year one is his ability to slide in as a spot up shooter on the wing operating as a knockdown guy when LeBron and Anthony Davis are demanding a ton of defensive attention operating in their two-man game he shot 47.8% from three on spot UPS this year on 69 total attempts and he scored roughly 1.2 points per possession on spot UPS good enough to put him in the 94th percentile in spot up points per possession that is some really nice efficiency and exactly what you want from more of a complimentary piece you can have him hang out in the corner and around the perimeter so that when the defense helps off of him to help onto the ball he’s going to be wide open for easy looks and it’s a double-edged sword especially when you’re talking about his fit with the Lakers because if you help off of connect we know LeBron’s going to be able to find him but if you don’t help off of connect then you’re just going to be giving LeBron more space to work with so regardless having connect on the floor plays right into the Lakers hands what’s great about connect as well is that he isn’t just some spot up three-point shooter he is fully capable of leveraging those aggressive Closeouts that teams are going to have to make onto him into driving opportunities and he can finish at The Rim through contact and create some difficult finishing angles really well and not to mention he is a really great vertical athlete being able to throw down some vicious slams now continuing in the vein of his perimeter shooting ability he also showcased some ability as a movement shooter something that is almost definitely going to be taken advantage of by JJ reic look at some of this film of JJ coming off screens in the NBA and getting into these difficult movement threes now watch some of this tape from connect in college and you can see that the blueprint is there for him to operate in some similar ways getting these little flare screens on the wing to capitalize on the little bit of the space that the defense surrenders as they try to process the action additionally we know how much JJ reic loves Baseline out of bounds plays and Tennessee gave him plenty of options to look at for ways to use connect as a shooter in these situations he’s going to be a great option for LA to draw a play for to try and get some easy looks coming off of an inbound pass aside from just knocking down his threes in attacking Closeouts we’re really going to be able to see what connect can do off ball as a cutter as that was something he excelled at during his time in college connect is an excellent cutter knowing exactly when to make timely cuts to the basket to create release valves for his teammates to find him on he’s great at recognizing when his teammates are in trouble and looking for a pass to get out of a bad situation and connect knows how to warp a defense and capitalize on how they’re set up in order to generate high percentage offense of the 34 shot attempts that connect had coming off of cuts he made 27 of them which tells me not only is he really good at converting on these cutting opportunities but he’s also able to make cuts that are more likely to result in open looks at The Rim Tennessee would off set up as though they’re going to have him come off of a pin down on the weak side of the floor only to instead have it actually be a flex screen allowing him to cut to the rim and get good looks in the middle of the paint he thrived in these situations where you have a big in the high post and from a defense’s perspective it’s possible that they’re setting up for a high post triple handoff feeding the big so that connect can come and get the handoff and you end up with an empty side pick and roll the defender here is going to try to top lck connect so that he’s not able to get any pass coming off of a screen or a handoff this allows connect to turn the action into an easy high low with the big getting the high post entry and connect leaving his defender in the dust on the way to the rim for the easy finish it looks here as though they’re going to clear out to create a postup opportunity with connect making this entry pass and starting to exit the strong side but he catches the defense slacking a little bit cutting up the middle to get the pass and finishing at the basket it’s worth pointing out that he was not a high volume cutter during his final year in college but even though it wasn’t a major part of his role I think the tape here shows that if he prioritizes that in the NBA he’s going to be able to contribute in that department immediately all of the off-ball stuff is great for allowing kect to set himself up for a long career in the NBA but he was projected in some mock drafts as a top 10 pick so how much upside is there for him in terms of not just being a plug-and-play role player but anything above that this is where it’s kind of tough to say my opinion might be a little bit polarizing as of right now I don’t think his handle is quite where you need it to be to really want him doing a ton of on ball creation against NBA level defense he might have gotten by in college against generally weaker Defenders but he’s probably going to have to deal with better coverage on average On Any Given night in the NBA I mentioned earlier that connect is a solid vertical athlete but I don’t think he leverages that athleticism in to getting by the defender in front of him on a consistent enough of a basis for him to be a high volume on ball driver it’s definitely worth experimenting though with putting the ball in his hands with some bench lineups to see what you can get out of him there’s some flashes here and there of a mid-range pull-up shooting ability when he’s able to get separation from his Defenders after getting ball screens and he can punish drop coverage pretty well when he’s coming off those screens he was also an incredibly efficient postup player scoring 1 Point .2 points per postup possession during his final year in college so this is an area where when he’s running with these bench units they have a little bit of offense that they can go to in certain situations I’ll be interested to see how he develops as a passer while connect can definitely score I wouldn’t say he’s the best passer in the world so defenses can comfortably load up on him to try and get the ball out of his hands and force him to make quick and difficult reads I’m not saying he can’t make reads against more aggressive defensive coverages but it’s definitely something that he’s going to need to develop to improve as an overall Dynamic offensive piece another point of discussion people have with connect is his defense he’s 6’6 with a 6’9 or higher Wings span so it’s surprising that his defense doesn’t pop more given the physical gifts that he has at his disposal the Lakers almost certainly are more interested in what he’s going to bring to the table offensively rather than defensively considering that they already have pretty decent defensive infrastructure but connect growing into a competent defensive player is going to directly impact whether or not you keep him on the floor for 15 minutes a game or 25 minutes again it’s worth acknowledging that he was the go-to guy during his final year in college and with a higher usage offensively we typically see players have decreased defensive engagement so the question is going to be whether or not connect shortcomings as a Defender are a byproduct of having to shoulder a larger offensive load or if they’re more deeply rooted issues with him as a player one one thing is for sure though he’s not going to have that excuse of high offensive burden in the NBA this pick makes a ton of sense from the Lakers perspective they’re in win now mode around LeBron and AD and they don’t have time to try and develop project players they need guys who can come in and contribute from day one and that’s exactly what Dalton connect is really hope you guys enjoyed this video if you want to see more stuff like this be sure to hit that subscribe button and leave a like it seriously helps me out so much regardless thank you all so much for watching watching and I’ll see you in the next one [Music]

The Los Angeles Lakers drafted Dalton Knecht with the 17th overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, and he might just be the biggest steal of the draft. The 6’6″ shooting guard out of Tennessee was mocked all over the place heading into the NBA Draft, with most mock drafts having him in the top 10.

Somehow, Dalton Knecht fell all the way to the Los Angeles Lakers outside of the lottery, and they might’ve just tricked the entire NBA. Under new head coach JJ Redick and alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the Lakers just got a lot better, fast.

➥ 𝙎𝙪𝙗𝙨𝙘𝙧𝙞𝙗𝙚: https://www.youtube.com/c/AlexHoops?sub_confirmation=1
➥ 𝙏𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧: https://twitter.com/AlexHoops_
➥ 𝘽𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙖 𝙋𝙖𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙣: https://patreon.com/AlexHoops

➥ 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙢𝙚
Providing NBA analysis by making film digestible and using analytics thoughtfully to contextualize on-court production. I cover the NBA in various capacities as a writer and digital content creator. If you love basketball and the NBA, be sure to subscribe to my channel.

DISCLAIMER: I do not claim ownership of any footage or clips used in this video. The use of these clips is protected under Fair Use Policy.

#LosAngelesLakers #Lakers #DaltonKnecht