The Los Angeles Lakers may have gotten the steal of the draft when Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht fell to them at No. 17 in the 2024 NBA Draft.
Knecht was widely considered to go in the lottery, but fell down to the Lakers due to reported concerns over his age and defense.
However, Knecht is already making teams look foolish for passing on him as he’s lit up the NBA Summer League so far.
Knecht is averaging over 20 points during the Las Vegas Summer League and looks poised to have a rotational role for head coach JJ Redick once the 2024-25 NBA season tips off.
The rookie patterns his game after several different players, but he’s acknowledged that Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant is his favorite player of all time.
In a recent video with The Players Tribune, Knecht blind-ranked different versions of Durant.
Lakers rookie Dalton Knecht does a blind rank of these 4 versions of Kevin Durant 👀
⭐️ Finals MVP KD
⭐️ 2014 MVP
⭐️ Social media clap back KD
⭐️ Scoring champ KDThoughts? 🤔
(via @PlayersTribune/ TT)pic.twitter.com/AMiSEvrhQV
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) July 20, 2024
Durant’s Finals MVP runs with the Golden State Warriors deserve to be No. 1 as he was at the peak of his powers and led the team to consecutive championships.
His MVP year is a worthy selection at No. 2 as it was an indication that he had ascended to the top ranks of the league and there was no doubt of his ability to lead a team to the Finals.
The last two are up grabs as Knecht seemingly jokes that Durant’s social media posts should be No. 1 but puts it at No. 3.
There are many sides to Durant and it’s interesting to see how players like Knecht view him.
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