Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
Los Angeles Lakers rookie Dalton Knecht has been one of the more impactful first-year players so far in the 2024-25 regular season. The No. 17 overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft has provided the Lakers with a solid scoring punch at times while averaging 20.9 minutes of playing time per contest.
He’s scored a lot of his points so far from 3-point range, as he’s averaging 1.6 made 3s per game. His teammates LeBron James and Austin Reaves are the only two players on the current roster averaging more makes per game from deep.
But Knecht has still made his fair share of mistakes this season as rookies tend to do, and he seemingly got chewed out by head coach J.J. Redick in the team’s ugly loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday.
The apparent lapse by Knecht was actually one of his lone blemishes in the contest. Knecht was the Lakers’ second-leading scorer behind only James. The rookie had 24 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the floor and 5-of-8 shooting from deep.
What was particularly impressive about Knecht’s big scoring night was that he logged just under 23 minutes of playing time versus the 76ers, meaning he scored better than one point per minute of action.
Maybe the biggest knock on Knecht’s game from an offensive standpoint right now is that he simply doesn’t shoot enough. One day before he torched Philadelphia, he scored only two points against the Charlotte Hornets and attempted three shots from the field.
Before Tuesday, Knecht hadn’t scored 20-plus points in a single contest since all the way back on Nov. 29 when he hit six shots from 3-point range in a loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. He totaled a season-high 37 points against the Utah Jazz on Nov. 19, and that still stands as the best scoring output from any rookie this season.
Knecht will look to have a solid showing when the Lakers play the Washington Wizards on Thursday. Washington owns the worst record of any team in the NBA and has picked up losses in 14 straight contests. The squad is 6-39 this season.
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