The Los Angeles Lakers and Dalton Knecht don’t appear to be a good fit.
The Tennessee alum showed flashes of an NBA-level sharpshooter in his rookie season, but fizzled out of the rotation in his sophomore year, spending most of his time either in the G League or warming the bench. That was despite Lakers head coach JJ Redick hyping him up as a key piece of their future on several occasions.
With 16 players on the roster, the Lakers need to trim the fat entering the new season. One intriguing Lakers trade idea won’t cut down the roster size, but would add a piece that could really help Redick’s team fill a void at the wing position.
Lakers Trade Idea Lands Saddiq Bey
Lakers would receive: Saddiq Bey
Pelicans would receive: Dalton Knecht
The straight up one-on-one trade would see the Lakers acquire Bey’s expiring $6.5M salary while sending out Knecht, who has a $6.4M team option on his rookie contract for the 2027-28 season. As such, the New Orleans Pelicans would essentially be taking a flyer on a young prospect for a year before reassessing his fit next summer.
Why the Lakers Do It
Why not?
The 6-foot-8 Bey is coming off a career-best year where he averaged 17.7 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.5 assists on 45% shooting. Notably, he made a 2.1 made threes at a decent clip of 37%. The latter number is crucial since Bey was pigeonholed as an ISO scorer earlier in his year who struggled to thrive in catch-and-shoot situations. That’s precisely why the Detroit Pistons and Atlanta Hawks gave up on his despite his innate ability to put the ball in the hoop. To that end, Bey averaged 14.5 points in 204 games (165 starts) for the Pistons, and 13.1 points in 88 games (55 starts) for the Hawks, but failed to establish himself as a key core piece in either franchise.
The Lakers have nothing to lose by taking a flyer on Bey, who is still only 27 and can still turn into a system player that coaches can rely upon. Some have also branded him as a poor defender who lacks the IQ or lateral quickness to guard top perimeter scorers, and thus he has neve been pegged as a traditional 3-and-D player. All that said, Bey has the inherent advantage of being 6-foot-8 and 220 pounds and can turn into a good help defender if surrounded with versatile athletes.
Why the Pelicans Do It
Written off in just his second year, Dalton Knecht is playing with a chip on his shoulder—and the Pelicans’ shooting-starved second unit offers the perfect launching pad. It is easy to forget that despite an underwhelming start to his pro career, Knecht entered the league as a polished product after three college seasons. Armed with a fluid jump shot off the bounce and on the move, he was widely projected to follow in the footsteps of movement sharpshooters like Buddy Hield and Luke Kennard.
The Pelicans have little to lose by making a one-year investment in Knecht. They can simply waive him next summer if the experiment bombs.
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