Rookie seasons don’t come much more chaotic than the one Dalton Knecht had with the Lakers.
It’s hard to imagine a rookie year filled with more drama than the one Dalton Knecht experienced. He started games, came off the bench, was a fixture in the rotation, fell out of the rotation and was traded off the dang team at one point.
Everything that could happen seemingly did happen to Knecht. He navigated it all and came out the other side with lessons learned.
After the team’s loss to the Wolves in Game 5, Knecht spoke about what his takeaways were from his rookie campaign.
“Anything can happen,” Knecht said. “Like, anything can happen. Got traded, come back. Just lucky I got good vets around me, starting with [Anthony Davis], [D’Angelo Russell], Bron and, obviously, I had Vando and [Austin Reaves] throughout the whole year then Kieff, so I had a lot of good vets in my corner to really talk to me, just learn from them as much as I could.”
The highs were really high for Knecht this season and they all came very early on. His best stretch of the season came in November, peaking with his 37-point outburst against the Jazz.
As the season went on, his time in the rotation fluctuated, which is not uncommon for a rookie on a contending team. However, nothing could have prepared him, the Lakers or the fans for the trade deadline, when he was traded and untraded in the span of just a few days.
While he did bounce back and return to the team and rotation, his role diminished as the importance of the games increased late in the season. In all, it was a crash course in how unpredictable life can be in the NBA. It’s hard to imagine Knecht having a year more chaotic than his first in the NBA.
Whether he takes those lessons learned and applies them to the Lakers or to a team he’ll be traded to this summer remains to be seen. But wherever he’s at next year, it has to be a more normal year for him.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.