NBA draft: Lakers select Tennessee's Dalton Knecht with 1st-round ...

EL SEGUNDO — As Dalton Knecht walked from the NBA draft podium after shaking hands with NBA commissioner Adam Silver to ESPN’s interview area at Barclays Center in New York, he revealed his basketball accolades stitched on the inside of his suit jacket.

Now, he has one more to add: the newest Laker.

The Lakers selected Knecht with the No. 17 pick in the NBA draft on Wednesday night.

Knecht, a 23-year-old, 6-foot-5 wing who spent the last season with Tennessee, was expected to be selected in the top 10 by most major pre-draft prognosticators.

But as the draft’s first round progressed, and the possibility of Knecht falling to the Lakers increased, the Lakers knew the direction they wanted to go.

“We would’ve never imagined a player as skilled and perfect for our needs would be there for us as Dalton Knecht,” Lakers general manager and vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka said. “We had him as a top-10 player unanimously across our scouting boards.

“I was at the SEC Tournament scouting him extensively. In my mind, there is no way a player like this will be available for us to pick on draft night. Across the board, just couldn’t be happier.”

After not receiving any Division I scholarship offers as a senior in high school in 2019, Knecht started his college basketball career at Northeastern Junior College (2019-21) and Northern Colorado (2021-23) before playing his final season with the Volunteers.

He was the 2023-24 SEC Player of the Year.

“I would say just playing with a chip on my shoulder,” Knecht said in New York. “Every time I touch a basketball or walk into a gym, I always feel like I got something to prove and it doesn’t matter where I’m at, it’s always going to be there and have that chip on my shoulder for feeling like I’ve been underrated my whole life. So it’s going to be something that I’ll carry with me for the rest of my career.”

Knecht averaged 21.7 points (45.8% shooting), 4.9 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 36 games with the Volunteers last season. He shot 39.7% from 3-point range on 6.5 attempts per game.

“He’s a three-level scorer, a guy that’s going to defend,” Pelinka said. “He’s physical. He’s athletic, really a 3-and-D player, which every roster craves. But he’s also a really good athlete. He’s got the ability to go off the bounce, attack the rim when teams run him off the line. So, that versatility is really hard to find. And we just think he fits so well with our pillar pieces in [Anthony Davis] and hopefully, if things work out in free agency, with LeBron [James].

“But to have a guy that will cause gravitational pull because of his shooting and also when you run shooters around the court like he can do, it morphs the defense. It just opens up driving lanes. So, there’s just a lot of versatility to his game and I think he gives us a weapon that we currently don’t have on our roster.”

He is considered superb at shooting off screens and can light it up in a hurry, like he did while scoring 37 points against Purdue in an Elite Eight game of the NCAA Tournament in March. Knecht is considered close to a finished product who should be able to contribute right away.

“That’ll ultimately be a Coach [JJ] Redick question, but I think our discussions upstairs were, ‘wow, we just found a player that we can see playing on next year’s team and having a real impact,’” Pelinka said. “And that’s exciting. He has a lot of upside left in his game.

“Of course, his journey, he started out in junior college and made it all the way to Tennessee. So at every step, he’s improved and we’ll expect that improvement at the next level as well.”

Redick, the Lakers’ new head coach and one of the most prolific 3-point shooters in NBA history, knows a thing or two about how to use a shooter.

Pelinka said Redick was already drawing up offensive actions to take advantage of Knecht’s ability as a movement shooter.

“That’s really exciting,” Knecht said. “At Tennessee, I watched a lot of JJ Redick with Coach [Rick] Barnes and just the way he moves and paces himself and was able to create space. So, hearing that, it’s really exciting and it’s going to be real special.”

James, who has a Saturday deadline for his player option for the 2024-25 season, previously mentioned Knecht while talking about the growing popularity of women’s college basketball after Tennessee’s tournament run ended against Purdue on March 31.

“We watched that Purdue-Tennessee game because of Zach Edey and Knecht,” James said after the Lakers’ April 3 road win against the Washington Wizards. “Players, depending on who they are, will drive the attention when it comes to viewership.”

Knecht was in disbelief when he saw the clip of James mentioning him.

“Yeah, I remember that clip,” Knecht said. “I woke up and rolled out of bed and I thought it was fake because tons of people were texting me. I was just like, ‘there’s no way.’

“And when I watched that video, it just brought a smile to my face. And also my parents, they called me right away and told me about it. So that’s just gonna be special. And it’s gonna be fun just to be sharing that court with both of them, A.D. and Bron. Bron’s one of the greatest. So it’s gonna be real special.”

The Lakers entered Wednesday with three first-round picks – the one they used to draft Knecht, their 2029 pick and 2031 pick – at their disposal to use in a potential trade. While Pelinka admitted he explored trade possibilities to upgrade the roster, he said he was pleased with how Day 1 of the draft played out.

“We explored every upgrade we could to make our team better,” Pelinka said. “If you polled all 30 GMs across the league, just in general, trades have become more difficult because of the new [collective bargaining agreement] system. And so, there’s less access, I think, to making those big moves than maybe there was under the old system.

“But it didn’t keep us from trying to look at everything and ways to put ourselves in ways to be in [a] position to be better. But even this pick alone, I feel like gives us a big boost and we’re excited about it.”

The draft will resume with the second round on Thursday, beginning at 1 p.m. PT.

The Lakers have the No. 55 pick.