Lakers Rookie Dalton Knecht Tells His Story From Junior College to the NBA

A little more than 24 hours before he was drafted 17th overall by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2024 NBA Draft, Dalton Knecht was in our office taking a shot at the mini hoop.

While the SEC’s average scoring leader from last season has wandered into the 10 designated shooting spots we’ve put down, we’ve seen the last sticker get swept away by the chaos of the day. So instead, we gave him the option to shoot anywhere on the floor. He can go back to the faux free throw line, try another one off the couch or hit an easy layup. Instead, with the mindset of a pure shooter, Knecht took a few steps back into the hallway, put at least 25 feet between himself and the hoop attached to the opposing cement wall and installed the net.

“I felt the confidence come when I touched the basketball,” Knecht said. “My parents always made me more confident, they always told me [to] trust your hard work. I always felt that way. So no matter what, if I go on that court, I will be the most confident player on that court.

Knecht is a gym rat, whether that’s a legal-sized coupon or not. He is attracted to hardwood and its sights and sounds; patterned herringbone traction outsoles, the smell of polished floors and the sound of a leather ball falling between old nets. It’s an obsession he’s carefully nurtured over the past five years while on a special journey for himself.

“I would say it’s just like home. When you’re in the gym, you play your own music, whatever you want, and you just go out and have fun, whether it’s with other friends or just by yourself, you just go there to get out of reality, to be alone, to flow. with your things,” said Knecht.

Hailing from Thornton, CO, the 6-6 23-year-old is literally setting Thompson-Boling Arena on fire every single night as a fifth-year transfer from Tennessee. From JUCO to Big Sky play under head coach Rick Barnes, Knecht entered the SEC with a chip on his shoulder this past season, averaging a team-high 21.7 points and 4.9 boards a game while shooting an absurd 39.7 percent from deep. . He dropped a 40-point burger at Kentucky in early March, became the first player in the SEC since Shaquille O’Neal to score 35 consecutive points and took home SEC Player of the Year honors the same way.

Knecht’s story is an annual reminder that there are guys in every program who are in the middle and big on the big stage in college basketball. All they need is a chance to get a chance. And Knecht snapped his in no time.

Despite the influx of offers after graduating from Prairie View High School in 2019, Knecht chose to go the junior college route. Surrounded by acres of farmland in the high plains of Sterling, CO, he spent his days in the gym. After two seasons and a first-team NJCAA All-American selection to his name, he set his sights on Power Five conferences. Then there was an epidemic. So he adjusted, transferring from Northeastern Junior College to Northern Colorado in the Big Sky Conference.

As a junior, Knecht adapted to the competition of DI amidst constant injuries and a stacked roster full of top prospects. Enter his senior year, where his 8.9 points per game from last season jumped to 20.2 on the sidelines for the Big Sky scoring title, only confirming what he’s believed for years: the bet was worth it. So he decided to do it again.

On March 23, 2023, with a year of eligibility remaining, Knecht entered the NCAA’s transfer portal. Colorado, Oregon, Indiana and Tennessee all came knocking. But there was a big difference between the volunteers and the rest of the group: head coach Rick Barnes was coaching Knecht’s all-time favorite player, Kevin Durant.

Knecht will be the first to admit that he has thoroughly consumed all of KD’s best stuff on YouTube. He may not have the same exciting warm-up routine as the two-time NBA champion, but Knecht has drawn a bond between their games.

“I tried to use as much as I could in my game, and it just continued to watch—at Tennessee with Coach Barnes—a lot of Kevin Durant’s highlights, and Devin Booker’s,” Knecht said. “So, I’m just trying to take as many players as possible into my game.”

Throughout the year, Barnes and his starting guards sat in the film room and dissected Durant’s highs and lows from his one season in Austin. They studied his cadence with the rock, his timing and possession and his flexibility in iso conditions. But mostly, they were going to watch Durant’s memorable 37-point, 23-rebound performance against Texas Tech.

It didn’t even take a full game before Knecht started putting together his own mix of highlights that Barnes would show his students next time. “I would say the dunk was the coach’s favorite memory.”

“That dunk” was actually a full poster. With 15 minutes left in the second half of a “friendly” exhibition against Michigan State in late October, Knecht found himself picking up the pace in the backfield. In an instant, he turned on the jets, lost his defender with a neat roll back to the three-point line, took two steps, stood up with the ball wrapped in his right arm and threw down a quiet dunk. one Spartan rear guard. Direct pollution. The epitome of the body.

“The first thought was…I don’t even know. To be honest, I can’t even remember. But I just know before the game, one of my coaches, Rod Clark, told me to go hit somebody if you get a chance. And I had a chance in the first half,” he said. “The second time, he saw what happened, and saw the reaction of the players I work with, like Josiah. [-Jordan James] running to me, it was precious. It was fun, I’m just doing a show to show the world what I can do.”

The poster heard from East Lansing to Rocky Top set the standard for what was to come from No. 3 in Knoxville. Knecht has the ability to lead the conference in scoring. Go ask the NJCAA, the Big Sky and the SEC. Shooting the lights was a constant, curls in the middle were automatic, putback dunks came and went and dusted defenders at the three-point line while finishing contested layups became the norm.

“He also taught me on the offensive side about showing where there are gaps and learning my second guy, because Coach [Barnes] “Every time you tell me you can get your boy at any time, you have to worry about secondary people,” Knecht said.

With nearly 20 hours between him and his hometown, Knecht scored tons of buckets night and day, helping lead the Volunteers to the Elite Eight, where they fell to Zach Edey and the Purdue Boilermakers, despite Knecht dominating with 37 points and and 6 money. three.

After years of honing his craft and waiting for the opportunity to make his bet, Knecht saw his decades of belief and self-belief confirmed by the biggest business of all time on June 26, when the Lakers took him with the No. 1 overall pick. 17 picks.

Some say he came out of football last season, but the good people of Thornton, Sterling, Greeley and Knoxville have been pointed in the right direction for years. Meanwhile, Rob Pelinka told reporters that the new Lakers coach, JJ Redick, has begun drawing pindown and ATO actions on his rookie shooter.

“My journey is different than everybody else’s, and that’s okay,” Knecht told reporters in his first press conference as a Laker. “Making my own way is something special, and a lot of kids will accept that. It is really fun to write my story.”

Photos by Eli Selva. Photos via Getty Images.