Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick is not wasting time planning for the 2024-25 NBA season.
The Lakers selected small forward Dalton Knecht from the Tennessee Volunteers with the 17th overall pick in the first round of the 2024 NBA Draft on Wednesday, June 26, and the 40-year-old first-time head coach began doing work immediately.
Lakers vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka shared that Redick was already drawing up pin-downs and ATO (after-timeout) sets on a whiteboard involving Knecht, where he could shoot around screens for game situations next season.
The 54-year-old executive added that the Lakers view the 23-year-old as a 3-and-D wing capable of defending both shooting guards and small forwards.
The Lakers had Knecht unanimously ranked as a top 10 player on their scouting boards, so they were delighted to see him available at the 17th pick.
Dalton Knecht was the best college small forward in the country
During the 2023-24 NCAA season, Knecht won the 2024 Julius Erving Award, an honor given to the most outstanding college small forward in the country.
Knecht was also named Consensus First-Team All-American, SEC Player of the Year, SEC Newcomer of the Year, and the Riley Wallace Award.
He averaged 21.7 points, 4.9 rebounds, shot 39.7% from three-point range, and played 30.6 minutes per game during his junior season at Tennessee after previously playing for the Northern Colorado Bears in his freshman and sophomore years in the NCAA.
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