The Los Angeles Lakers currently have the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference playoff race ahead of the Feb. 6 trade deadline.
As the Lakers continue to tweak their lineup and explore trade options to bolster the roster before the second half of the season, the Los Angeles front office is reportedly making a big statement about VFL Dalton Knecht while speaking with other teams.
The Lakers’ first-round pick doesn’t seem to be trade bait.
According to Bleacher Report’s Eric Pincus on Monday, executives around the league believe that Knecht is not on the trading block moving forward.
“Competing executives have also told B/R that the Lakers (at least to date) have shown no interest in discussing trades that include Rui Hachimura or Dalton Knecht (or, obviously, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Austin Reaves, Bronny James, etc.),” Pincus wrote.
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Pincus then went on to draw up a potential trade between L.A. and Utah with the Lakers giving up a slew of rotational players including Gabe Vincent, Christian Wood, Jalen Hood-Schifino, Cam Reddish, and Jaxson Hayes. Rather than Knecht, those seem like the names that the Lakers could part with over the next month.
Of course, though, with the NBA as it is and not discounting LeBron James as a player-GM, anything could happen. But as far as Pincus’ report on Monday goes, the Lakers look to be making a statement from the front office and head coach JJ Redick that the team believes the first-round draft pick from Tennessee is still a key piece to the puzzle of Los Angeles making a run to the playoffs with an aging James.
Knecht burst onto the scene in his first 30 games of the season and averaged more than 23 minutes on the court in the months of November and December. Knecht’s numbers have trailed off a little bit with a rookie wall, though. In three games through January, Knecht is averaging just 16.3 minutes on the court and six points per game.
On the season as a whole, Knecht is averaging 9.7 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.0 assists per game on 46.1% FG shooting and 35.4% shooting from three.
