The Lakers have assigned Dalton Knecht and Adou Thiero to their G League affiliate team, the South Bay Lakers, as they are set to face the San Diego Clippers tomorrow night.
Both Knecht and Thiero have fallen out of the Lakers’ minutes rotation recently due to a fully healthy roster, and the front office believes they could be better utilized in the G League at present.
While seeing it as a developmental move for Thiero, some NBA fans also saw this as a bad sign for Dalton Knecht due to the timing of this move.
“This has been a complete disaster. He is playing his way out of the league.”
“Dang, his confidence is going to plummet.”
“The Lakers are trying to drive up his trade value by showcasing Dalton in the G league lol.”
“Wow, what a failure on Knecht and the Lakers’ part to develop him into an NBA player.”
“Damn, Dalton is cooked.”
December 15 marks the beginning of the most crucial part of the trade season, as it signifies the day that all the free agent contracts that were signed during the offseason are now eligible to be traded.
Therefore, some fans believe that this move likely means the end of Dalton Knecht’s time with the main roster, as he could potentially be on the way out of the franchise in any potential trades for these newly available trade options for the front office.
Other fans also tried to see the silver lining of this move and are still optimistic that these reps could help Knecht find his confidence and an eventual spot on the roster with significant minutes in the rotation for the future.
“Love the move…they both need to dominate and improve their three-point shooting.”
“Should be noted, the Lakers don’t play till Thursday. More reps, the better.”
“It only makes sense, especially since they picked up his option. Gotta continue to develop him.”
The Lakers picked up Dalton Knecht’s $4.2 million team option in October, thus indicating that the franchise still sees value in the former first-round pick.
When the Lakers lacked size in the paint, it made sense to give up on a good perimeter shooter to get a big man like Mark Williams. But now with that trade getting rescinded and the Lakers finding Deandre Ayton, they should not look to trade Knecht simply for two reasons.
Firstly, in the modern era of basketball, the three-point shot is a key tool for any contending team. The Lakers as a team are currently 20th in the league in three-point shots made per game (11.8) and 21st in three-point shot attempts (33.5).
This shows that, as compared to other teams, the Lakers rely significantly less on perimeter shooting to generate their offense. Unless they can replace Knecht (37.4% from the three-point line in his career) with a better shooter, they should not look to trade him.
Secondly, Knecht is only in his NBA career’s second season. The Lakers should not be impatient with him, as he could still develop into a solid role player for this team, if not more.
So far in his career with the Lakers, he has averaged 8.5 points and 2.6 rebounds while shooting 47.3% from the field. Therefore, this move to the South Bay has spiraled into a concerning decision for the franchise’s future.
The Lakers play their next game on Thursday against the Jazz on Thursday, December 18. It will be interesting to see if they recall both Knecht and Thiero to the main roster for that game.
