LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Lakers grabbed their sixth consecutive win on Tuesday, defeating the visiting Utah Jazz, 124-116. But the talk of the night following the game was Lakers' rookie wing Dalton Knecht reaching a new career-high in points with 37. Lakers head coach JJ Redick, being a shooter himself, spoke after the game about why he is reminded of the Splash Brothers, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, when watching Dalton Knecht play.
“What I think has stood out to me over the last week or so is similar to how Golden State has always known where Steph is on the court. Or they've always known where Klay Thompson is. For me, when I was playing with DJ [Deandre Jordan] and he would get an offensive rebound, he always knew where I was. Blake [Griffin] knew where I was,” Redick said. “Our guys have a real understanding. . .we're not going to run more plays for Dalton, it's really just having his spacing, his threat.”
During the Lakers' win against the Jazz, Knecht dropped 21 points in the third quarter alone on an array of three-point shots. And it wasn't that they were necessarily running plays for him, it's as Redick mentioned, his teammates were simply aware of where he was on the court.
Knecht's big game came on the heels of his previous career-high which he set during the Lakers' win against the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday when he dropped 27 points. With Rui Hachimura dealing with an ankle injury, Knecht has stepped up admirably in the starting lineup.
Although Redick sees similarities between Knecht and someone like Stephen Curry in terms of teammates' awareness, he made sure to explain that there's no need for speculation regarding the former Tennessee star's ceiling as an NBA player.
“I'm not going to speculate on that. I think he is a guy that with incremental growth, can become a great player in the NBA,” Redick said.
Dalton Knecht's increased role with Lakers
From the beginning of the 2024-25 season, Knecht has been an integral part of the rotation. Against the Sacramento Kings in only the third game of his career, he dropped ten points off the bench including a crucial three-point shot that sparked a Lakers' surge in the fourth quarter.
He had been in a little bit of a shooting slump about a week ago, but he broke out of it with a 19 point effort against the Memphis Grizzlies during which he shot 5-of-5 from the three-point line.
But since moving into the starting lineup, his game has taken off. He's dropped 14, 27 and 37 points respectively. Following the Lakers' win against the Jazz, Knecht spoke about how he was locked in from the moment his first shot dropped.
“Every time I see one go in, I think the next one's always going in, even if I miss it,” Knecht said. “I always have the confidence that my next shot is going in. My dad always told me that, so that's just my confidence.”
On the season so far, Knecht is averaging 11.3 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.1 assists with splits of 52.3 percent shooting from the field, 46.4 percent shooting from the three-point line and 92.3 percent shooting from the free-throw line. He's top five among rookies in points per game and he's actually got the best three-point shooting percentage when factoring in three-point attempts.
