The Los Angeles Lakers have experienced their share of turbulence early in the 2024-25 season, but Dalton Knecht has been a consistent beacon of hope. For an organization that has all but disregarded the NBA Draft as a source of meaningful growth, Knecht represents the opportunity to right the ship.
Unfortunately, the structure of the roster around him has begun to cost the Lakers' promising rookie the opportunity to receive consistent playing time.
Knecht is off to a strong start to the 2024-25 regular season. Through 26 games and 12 starts, he's averaging 10.6 points, 3.7 rebounds, 1.1 assists, and 1.9 three-point field goals made in just 23.6 minutes, shooting at a clip of .468/.376/.714.
Those numbers translate to 16.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, 1.0 offensive board, 1.7 assists, and 2.9 three-point field goals made per 36 minutes.
In addition to producing well individually, Knecht has been a net positive for the Lakers. Thus far, Los Angeles is 1.1 points per 100 possessions better when he's on the court than when he isn't.
Despite the strong start to his NBA career, Knecht has struggled to secure consistent playing time—due all but entirely to the flawed structure of the Lakers' roster.
Dalton Knecht is losing minutes because Lakers won't defend
Lakers head coach JJ Redick recently stated that his preferred fifth starter would be a point-of-attack defender who doesn't need the ball to be effective on offense. It's a logical preference for a complement to Anthony Davis, Rui Hachimura, LeBron James, and Austin Reaves.
It's also a product of the woeful defensive inconsistency displayed by that four-man unit—the source of a problem that's come to define the Lakers' season.
The four-man lineup of Davis, Hachimura, James, and Reaves currently ranks in the 36th percentile in defensive rating, per Cleaning the Glass. It's a statistic that likely surprises no one, as the Lakers' starting lineup has become a one-way street of production.
Knecht could become the two-way player who emerges as the prototypical glue guy, but expecting a rookie to solve a problem that the veterans shouldn't allow to exist would be irresponsible at best.
Jarred Vanderbilt missing time due to injury and Max Christie slowly finding his footing play a factor here. Even if they were both either available or simply at the top of their game, however, Knecht would likely still be excluded from the starting lineup.
Davis is an All-Defense mainstay, and Hachimura has played hard in 2024-25, but there's no way around the fact that the Lakers' four-man core is atrocious on defense—a longstanding trend.
With this in mind, the Lakers are inevitably pushing Knecht out of the starting lineup and into a bench role that's dampened his impact. For perspective: He's averaging 14.3 points on 39.3 percent shooting from beyond the arc as a starter, but is down to 7.4 points on 34.7 percent shooting from distance as a reserve.
Despite Knecht performing better as a starter and the team benefiting from him being on the court, however, he's on pace to spend the rest of the season as a reserve.
Knecht continuing to improve on defense would go a long way toward bolstering his odds of starting. The Lakers seem to be repeating the mistakes that have routinely cost them in the past, however, by placing more on a rookie's plate than they can stomach and inadvertently punishing them for not being able to fill the voids that the veterans should've already addressed.
Unless the Lakers decide to shuffle the starting lineup in its entirety, it appears as though Knecht's intriguing play as a starter will take a backseat to the attempt to cover up the veterans' defensive flaws.