By 5 p.m. New York time on Monday, NBA teams had to trim their rosters down to 15 players on standard contracts just ahead of the start of the regular season. The Los Angeles Lakers entered Monday with 16 players on standard contracts, and they have reportedly been looking for a way to get down to 15 such players by making a trade.
However, nothing materialized. The player they were looking to trade was Dalton Knecht, who had a promising start to his rookie campaign two seasons ago but fizzled out shortly afterward.
On Monday, the Lakers instead waived Knecht, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
"The Los Angeles Lakers waived their 2024 first-round pick Dalton Knecht on Monday, the team announced," McMenamin wrote.
"... The Lakers pursued 2-for-1 trade opportunities to move Knecht and another player to acquire an additional big man, league sources told ESPN, but could not find a deal by Monday's deadline."
Knecht was the No. 17 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft out of the University of Tennessee. At the time, it was thought the Lakers had lucked out by getting to take Knecht, as he had been projected to be selected earlier in the draft. He had just completed a strong season during which he averaged 21.7 points a game while shooting 39.7% from 3-point range.
As a rookie, he averaged 13.6 points and shot 46% from downtown in November 2024. But that would just about do it as far as any good stretches of play he would display. His playing time gradually dwindled from that point on, until he was relegated to mostly spot duty in garbage time by last season.
Knecht had 11 points on 3-of-8 shooting in a Lakers preseason loss to the Golden State Warriors on Oct. 6, but he went scoreless in his three other preseason games.
This article originally appeared on Lakers Wire: Lakers have waived Dalton Knecht ahead of season opener