Dalton Knecht Discussion: Summer League - The Struggle Is Real

Just finished the game.
Wow. This kid is a spectacular offensive weapon.
Now, he just needs to learn how to play League Average D.
He’s comparable to Klay on offense, but not on D. Thompson was top level for his position starting early on in his career.

 

Oooh, that’s a much more accurate comp.
I see a little “Thunder” Dan Majerle in him as well( but without the tan).

 

With this current CBA it is more important than ever to have some of your core players on cost controlled contracts. Him and Austin next to AD and Bron are a fantastic foundation to building a championship team this season. I really hope Rob makes the right moves and is able to add some complimentary 2-way pieces. If he does, we could be up to something.

If the team can keep up the good play and be in the PO range up until the trade deadline, we should also be able to negotiate not from a position of weakness / desperation for once. I feel like some good moves are coming, we just have to be patient (and hope for the team to not falter in the meantime).

 

Absolutely. I think Dalton unlocked this team to a whole other level. He'll be in rookie contract and extension for a few years while being an absolute lock 25 to 30mpg, worst case scenario.

He's making me consider giving out the picks for the right move to win now, figure out later. I'm not sure how you play Dalton and Reaves together in the long term, but it's a problem for later.

We are in a great position to attack this year and nobody would believe in that a couple months ago. Ball is on Rob's side, let's see what he does.
DLo, Gabe, Rui, Max and the scrubs are all on the block and we "only" need a couple pieces to have a shot in the West.

West is very top competitive but with Denver getting worse, I don't fear anyone in the playoffs, with the right moves I see us coming out on top.
But Boston is a really tough team to beat. Not sure anyone can do it in a 7 game series. They shoot and defend 1 through 5, it's just a whole different proposition that it's hard to match. It's the only thing that can make me wary of throwing out the farm for one more shot at the title

Another thing is that Reddish is great for us in regular season and unlocks Reaves, but he will be hunted in the playoffs, making him barely unplayable.

 

in two years, we'll only have AD, max, vando, and knecht under contract. that totals 82 million. reaves will almost certainly be a bird rights FA then, but his cap hold will only be 25ish. that's 107. then we'll have about 10-14 in roster charges, putting us at about 120ish with the cap projected up near 170 million that year.

luka donic has a player option that year (SGA is set to be a FA, but i'm guessing okc locks up an extension). we could give him the max if we could unload max or vando, and get pretty close to it without doing so.

just sayin'...

 

LOL

 

Luka's gonna be twice the size of Zion by then.

 

counterpoint: a generational talent will be entering what is most nba players' prime era (age 28) and possibly entering free agency at the same time, and we will have a (aging) star and two very good starters already in place in a glamor destination.

 

Bleacher Report in June said his NBA comp was Wally Sczerbiak.

I can see that

https://bleacherreport.com/articles...g-report-pro-comparison-updated-lakers-roster

 

Wally was a threat. In the slower era he averaged 14/4/2 on 48/40/86 splits. Yeah... Although he was less of a drive threat, IIRC.

 

Yeah Wally was a bit of a stiff - more like Glen Rice. Again what makes Dalton possibly really special is he will put you on a poster after a hitting a 3 in your face

 

i mean, rice wasn't a non-athlete:



18ppg career, 27 peak, 3 all star games. it's a reasonable aspiration.

 

Could you find a dunk highlight real for him? I couldn't at all. His highlight videos are the jumpers and the man could shoot.
Glen Rice was a great player and getting Glen Rice at 17 would be amazing in any draft.

That being said Dalton is intriguing because he's just not like dudes like Rice and Wally. I guess the way I would be thinking about this is Knecht would have been someone who likely would have been drafted if his shot looked good but didn't quite go in a lot like Max due to his size and ability to finish at the rim. He's looking to go in with bad intentions that you would expect more from similar-size guys like Richard Jefferson or Christian Braun. I guess to get to the point - you don't get guys who play like they want to compete in both 3 point contest and dunk contest in the same package

 

You really think that Max and Vanderbilt will be here two years from now? What's your projection on a new deal for Austin?

 

i'm just going based on current facts. they're under contract. good chance they're moved, and it's possible we add salary between now and then via trade or FA.

i just noticed that our books are pretty clear the first time luka might come free, and dalton being on a rookie deal and reaves having a small cap hold relative to his ability could make a max FA signing a reality.

it's highly unlikely, but so was the thought of lebron coming here back in 2016.

 

Luka would be leaving a whole bunch of cash on the table, if he left Dallas though.

 

true. but at the amounts they make now...does it matter that much? we're talking quarter billion contracts. what's 20 million? if you have a good business manager, it's probably almost nothing.

when you've already banked 10 figures, what's the thing you can't buy? the ring. the statue in la next to magic and kobe.