Knecht was never that good man - there’s a reason why he fell so far in the draft. People were overhyping him up after the 37 point game because he’s on the Lakers, if he dropped it on any other team like the Pelicans for example, no one would’ve given a flying fuck.

The reality is that he was a 23 year old older player drafted in a relatively weak draft that was given so many opportunities by the coaching staff; who’s very low IQ player who doesn’t even try on defense, literally gets destroyed navigating screens doesn’t understand defensive concepts or rotations.

While I understand the trade hurt his confidence and Dalton plays best as a microwave scorer - it’s also on him to work on his weaknesses. Problem is he’s not good enough to be given those chances because he doesn’t pass well enough, create for others and has a very shaky handle.

He was always overrated, there’s a reason he dropped in the draft, and it wasn’t just because he has a low ceiling.

Lots of Lakers fans and casuals were blindsided by his failure, but the draft models always hated him.

As I said at the time (downvoted, of course):

Players who only became good college players once they were older and more experienced than all of their opponents are huge red flags.

There’s a reason nearly every draft model was low on him.

For example, ESPN’s Kevin Pelton has been projecting draft prospects for decades. His stats-only model had Knecht as the 76th best draft prospect, and stats/scouting combined model had him 35th.

In addition to the top 30, it’s worth digging into this year’s most notable projection: Knecht, a sure top-10 pick, rated below replacement level based on his stats. One of the factors that makes my projections unique is weighing earlier seasons more heavily because of the importance of excelling at a young age. Knecht didn’t emerge as an above-average college player until his second season at Northern Colorado, after two in junior college, and wasn’t considered a first-round NBA prospect until averaging 21.7 PPG last season at Tennessee.

Beyond that, Knecht’s low rates of assists, steals and blocks hurt his projection. His combined rate of those three nonscoring contributions is lowest for any player ranked in ESPN’s top 30. Of the 10 players in my database whose statistical profile were most similar to Knecht’s, just two (Joe Harris and Danuel House Jr.) played 1,000 minutes in the NBA.

https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/40394709/nba-draft-2024-pelton-updated-top-30-prospects

Amazing comment thread from my link:

Dude is so fun to watch, I don’t know why there seems to be a weird subset of people that want him to flame out

it’s cause he plays for the lakers

It’s not. They’ve been hating on him since before the draft. They just don’t want to admit they were wrong.

I never understood it. If people actually watched him play in college they’d have seen a can’t miss nba prospect likely to have a 10+ year nba career. Absolutely wild he slipped so far.

Because he was until he completely forgot how to play basketball post nixed trade

He was top 3 in the ROTY ladder in November when he was shooting the fuck out the ball and starting for us. Sad how quickly he fell

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People thought “hey he kinda looks like jj reddick, jj reddick might be able to turn him into jj reddick”

It was a pretty bad draft.

Lakers rookies always get overrated

He’s 100% not done in the NBA, he has multiple chances left, even if he fails in the next team he’ll get another chance probably

He’s still not a bad shooter, those types of players get multiple chances

He is one of the dumbest players in the league apparently. Like can’t grasp and remember the offense or rotations. He plays horrific D.

He’s going to be lucky to get a 2-way.

I actually believe he’d thrive on a team like Charlotte next to Kon. With another proven dangerous shooter, his looks could be more open and relaxed.

LA is not for everyone. Plus, nobody cares about defense in Charlotte. (/s just a jab)

What’s the upside, he can be a great shooter but what else would he bring

I thought he’d be bigger

The year is 2035, laker fans are still talking about the one time Dalton got hot vs the Jazz and his upside potential

It was a 6 week long exit interview.

They can play him in the preseason even if they are at 16 and plan on cutting him, no?

Makes sense to give him that last shot, maybe he performs and someone else is a let down.

Exactly.

Lakers FO probably liked him for reasons not related to basketball. Did you see the other players their FO decided to sign and trade for?

Based on what? He’s just not very good