Rookie small forward Dalton Knecht officially makes his presence known in the NBA.

In the Los Angeles Lakers’ win over the Utah Jazz, Knecht recorded 37 points, five total rebounds and one steal, single-handedly improving his Rookie of the Year odds from +1800 to +225.

Not only was this Knecht’s career-high in terms of points, but it also set the Lakers rookie record for most three-pointers in a game (9) and tied the NBA rookie record for most three-pointers in a game.

So far this season, Knecht has averaged 11.3 points, 2.5 total rebounds, 1.1 assists and 0.5 steals per game.

While this may have surprised some NBA fans and pundits, it didn’t surprise LeBron James, who has been watching Knecht since he played at Tennessee.

“I don’t know,” James said, according to Jovan Buha of The Athletic. “The same things I said last year. Everyone on the internet keeps calling me a liar. They say I lie about everything. So what am I now?”

When James was further asked how they found Knecht, he was candid. ‘They didn’t find DK. The other sixteen teams messed up.”

Anyone who paid attention to Knecht’s collegiate career would easily agree with King James.

Knecht first started at Northeastern Junior College in Sterling, Colorado. In his freshman year, Knecht averaged 13.3 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game. As a sophomore, he averaged 23.9 points, 7.5 rebounds and two assists per game.

Knecht continued his college basketball career at Northern Colorado where he averaged 8.9 points, 3.6 total rebounds and 0.9 assists per game.

In his senior year, Knecht almost doubled every statistic. He led the Big Sky Conference with 20.2 points per game, while also averaging 7.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists. He was named second-team All-Big Sky for 2023.

After that, Knecht decided to take the extra year of eligibility during the COVID-19 pandemic and transferred to Tennessee for the 2023-2024 season.

In his final NCAA season, Knecht averaged 21.7 points, 4.9 total rebounds, 1.8 assists and 0.7 steals per game. He received numerous accolades for the season, including first-team All-SEC, SEC Newcomer of the Year, SEC Player of the Year, the Julius Erving Award and a consensus first-team All-American.

Since being named the starter, Knecht has only continued to improve as a player. It will be exciting to see where he ends up at the end of the 2024-2025 NBA season.

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