The Los Angeles Lakers are going to need to free some cap space to complete the reported signing of veteran guard Marcus Smart. One way to do so would be via a trade, but don’t expect Dalton Knecht to move the needle in those talks.<\/p>\n
“Summer League has not helped Knecht’s stock, and I don’t think at this point he is valued as a first-round pick, in terms of an asset valuation,” Lakers reporter Jovan Buha said Sunday [30:53 mark]. “That was what I heard in Vegas from talking to multiple people, non-Lakers people, just gauging what would you give for Dalton Knecht? Or if the Lakers are putting Dalton Knecht in a trade, what is he worth? And the feedback I got was, no longer worth a first-round valuation.”<\/p>\n
In three games of the Vegas Summer League, Knecht has averaged 10.3 points in 28.4 minutes per contest to go along with 4.7 rebounds and 1.3 assists. Those aren’t shabby numbers, but the expectation for second-year players at Summer League is that they look like they are too good to be there.<\/p>\n
That simply hasn’t been the case for Knecht thus far.<\/p>\n
As a rookie, the 24-year-old averaged 9.1 points and 2.8 rebounds per game, shooting 46.1 percent from the field and 37.6 percent from three, appearing in 78 total contests. <\/p>\n
He was an afterthought in the playoffs, however, making just two appearances and averaging 2.5 points per contest. <\/p>\n
It perhaps didn’t help that the Lakers had agreed in February to trade him to the Charlotte Hornets alongside Cam Reddish, a 2030 pick swap and a 2031 first-round pick for center Mark Williams, only for that trade to be nixed when Williams failed his physical. <\/p>\n