Lakers draftee Dalton Knecht thinks Kevin Durant is the GOAT and that the Nuggets are the best team in the NBA.
Lakers draftee Dalton Knecht answered a round of rapid-fire questions where he picked Kevin Durant as the best NBA player of all time before confirming the Nuggets as the best team in the NBA.
Knecht went to college in Colorado before Tennessee, so it’s not surprising to see him pick the Nuggets as his favorite team. He’s seen the Nuggets dominate over the Nikola Jokic era, but he didn’t pick Jokic as the best player in the NBA. Knecht’s shout for that was Kevin Durant, one of the greatest scorers of our generation.
His Nuggets’ fandom was available for everyone to see on social media before the Draft, as he had retweeted multiple posts and videos of the Nuggets hoisting the 2023 Championship.
The video was taken before the Lakers drafted Knecht, so it’s nice to see his true self picked one of LeBron James’ biggest rivals as the best player in the NBA and the team that has eliminated him in consecutive seasons as the best team in the NBA.
As long as he delivers on the court, LeBron or the Lakers won’t care about who Knecht roots for. The 17th overall pick is expected to significantly boost their scoring, as the 6’5″ guard averaged 21.7 points per game in college while shooting 39.7% from three.
The Lakers Have Whiffed In The Offseason
The Lakers 2024 offseason is not going according to plan. They have been repeatedly turned down by players and coaches all summer long, a worrying trend for a franchise whose only notable offseason move so far has been drafting Knecht and Bronny James.
They spent the first few days of free agency trying to persuade Klay Thompson to join the franchise, but Klay elected to take less money over fewer years on the Mavericks than his hometown Lakers. If that wasn’t embarrassing enough, they were getting turned down by assistant coaches before signing Nate McMillan and Scott Brooks to join JJ Redick’s new coaching staff.
After the Thompson pursuit fizzled out, the Lakers decided to give LeBron James a two-year max contract because the team failed to use the paycut he offered to take to use the space and sign somebody else. Now they’re hard-capped at the second apron and have less flexibility to make the moves they need.
At the end of the day, there don’t seem to be any moves available to the Lakers. They’ve made it clear they won’t be offloading picks or young players, so what could they even offer? D’Angelo Russell’s trade market has never been that intriguing, with even players like Rui Hachimura likely bringing negligible upgrades back.
At this point, it seems the Lakers are committing to giving their current roster a chance with JJ Redick as head coach because their offseason inactivity might have taken all real prospects they could have signed out the window.
