Oct. 19 at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT is the deadline to have roster sets for NBA Opening Day. Rob Pelinka will surely know that much. No player on the Los Angeles Lakers may be as aware of that looming checkpoint as third-year wing Dalton Knecht.
If the third-year wing has any hope of sticking around in Los Angeles beyond that date, this upcoming week is pivotal for him. The Lakers will play the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday. They follow that up with a matchup against the Denver Nuggets on Friday. Those will be the last two opportunities for Knecht to make his case to Pelinka and JJ Redick on why he should be kept around.
Those two games could just as easily turn out to be auditions for his next team. Whether it be via trade or just an outright release, Knecht represents the easiest person for the Lakers to rid themselves of in an effort to trim the roster down to 15 before time runs out on them.
Avoiding that fate falls firmly on the shoulders of the former first-round pick at this stage. Knecht needs to let his play do the talking.
Lakers' roster deadline approaches with Dalton Knecht still being the odd man out
It is fair to say that not all hope is lose for Knecht. There is reason to narrow this roster decision down to a two-man race between him and Jaden Hardy. In that competition, Hardy has not really done much to make himself irreplaceable for the Lakers either.
"Behind that evaluation of who's emerging in camp, there's also consolidation trades that could still be looked at, trading two guys out, bringing one in," Pelinka said at the start-of-season press conference in September, alongside Redick.
One would imagine that is the preferred route for the Lakers. Swapping out two of their guys for a ready-made player who is a lot closer to the rotation would serve the team well. That could help Los Angeles upgrade a spot like backup center.
In those instances, there would still be an expectation of Knecht being in the outgoing package. The Lakers reportedly tried to float him and Jarred Vanderbilt in those types of moves throughout the summer. No one bit on that trade package.
If Knecht wants any hopes of avoiding all these different scenarios in which the Lakers pave the way for his next team to swoop in, this is an important week. Without a sample of encouraging play that forces Redick to value him as a spot minutes guy, Dalton is likely to be done in Los Angeles.
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