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NEW YORK — In April, Dalton Knecht rolled out of bed to a ton of text messages. He also got a call from his parents. Everybody wanted the Tennessee wing to see the video of LeBron James talking about him.
“I thought it was fake,” Knecht said Wednesday at Barclays Center.
Knecht’s name had only come up briefly in a lengthy clip of James discussing the relative popularity of the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, posted by ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. But it was clearly a big deal. James said he’d watched Tennessee’s game against Purdue “because of Zach Edey and Knecht.”
Now, Knecht and James are teammates, assuming that the superstar re-signs with the Los Angeles Lakers this offseason. Los Angeles selected the 23-year-old wing with the No. 17 pick in the draft.
“This is going to be special,” Knecht said. “And it’s going to be fun to be sharing that court with both of ’em, AD and Bron.”
Shortly before Knecht reminisced about the video clip in Brooklyn, Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka told reporters in Los Angeles that he couldn’t believe their luck.
“We would’ve never imagined a player as skilled and sort of perfect for our needs would be there for us as Dalton Knecht.,” Pelinka said, via The Athletic’s Jovan Buha. “We had him as a top-10 player unanimously across our scouting boards. I was at the SEC Tournament scouting him extensively and in my mind was like, ‘There’s no way a player like this could be available for us to pick on draft night.'”
Knecht, the oldest player selected in the first round on Wednesday, was projected by ESPN, CBS Sports and other outlets to be drafted in the top six. That would have been abnormally high for a prospect his age, but Knecht was one of the best scorers in college basketball this past season (and this is an abnormal draft).
More specifically, Knecht was one of, if not the best movement shooter in college basketball this past season. Tennessee ran him off tons of screens, and he was excellent at reading the defense, finding open space and getting into his shot. He made 42.3% of his…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/2024-nba-draft-is-lakers-draftee-dalton-knecht-perfect-for-jj-redick-and-lebron-james/
Author : James Herbert
Publish date : 2024-06-27 05:04:28
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