(Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
There were plenty of rumors and uncertainty regarding the Los Angeles Lakers and their first-round pick.
Some thought they would trade it, others claimed they would use it to get Bronny James, and pretty much every single analyst had them picking a different player.
At the end of the day, they wound up taking Tennessee standout Dalton Knecht, who wasn’t the youngest player in the class by any means, but he was definitely one of the most NBA-ready.
Following the first day of the draft, GM Rob Pelinka addressed the media and talked about how excited they were for their first-round pick (via Mark Medina).
Rob Pelinka said he and the rest of the Lakers’ front office ranked Dalton Knecht as a top 10 pick pic.twitter.com/EpWCF7BMjf
— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) June 27, 2024
He claimed that they didn’t even know whether they would be picking in the first round because of the Anthony Davis trade, but once the picture became clearer, they always had Knecht ranked as a top-10 selection.
Pelinka added that Knecht is the kind of player who fits all of the Lakers’ needs, and he’s right on point, at least when it comes to offense.
Knecht can shoot the lights out and is an efficient three-level scorer.
More than that, he’s an NBA-ready prospect who has already learned the fundamentals of the game, and while he spent way more time in college than the average NBA player, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
This wasn’t an impressive class by any means, and the Lakers did the right thing by getting the guy who could help them the most right now, knowing that there was that much upside at No. 17 anyway.
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