LOS ANGELES – Amid the Los Angeles Lakers’ solid start to the 2025-26 season, and coupled with a few new roster additions, Dalton Knecht has found himself largely out of the rotation and now on assignment in the G League. Knecht’s assignment will begin on Tuesday night for the South Bay Lakers’ final home game of the month, and Lakers head coach JJ Redick acknowledged that he would be on hand for the game.
Following Lakers’ practice on Tuesday, JJ Redick explained what the team’s thought process was in assigning Dalton Knecht to the G League, and what he’s hoping the second-year wing is able to get out of the opportunity.
“When we first kind of talked about it as a staff, we ran it by RP [Rob Pelinka]. RP had communicated to Dalton and his agents early before we kind of made the final decision,” Redick said. “I just told him, he needs to play He’s gonna get opportunities on this team. He’s already had some opportunities, played well in some. He’s gonna help us at some point. Right now, he needs to play and he needs to have fun playing.”
When the Lakers first drafted Knecht, the prevailing thought was they had grabbed a lottery talent who ended up slipping to the mid-first round. He started off his rookie year strong, earning a spot in Redick’s rotation almost from the get-go.
Article Continues Below
But amid the rescinded trade at the deadline that would have seen Knecht sent to the Charlotte Hornets, he fell out of the rotation and seemingly struggled to get his confidence back. His summer league performance caused a mini-panic among Lakers fans. But Redick chalked up Knecht’s slow summer as burnout from an workout overload.
This season, Knecht has appeared in 20 games, including one start, at a little over 15 minutes per game. He’s been averaging 6.4 points and 1.9 rebounds with splits of 47.1 percent shooting from the field, 36.2 percent shooting from the 3-point line and 66.7 percent shooting from the free-throw line.
His most impactful game this season was back on Oct. 29 against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the matchup in which Austin Reaves knocked down the game-winner. Knecht came off the bench to score 15 points while shooting 7-of-12 from the field.
Redick didn’t mention whether or not Knecht’s South Bay assignment is going to be a regular occurrence throughout the season. But it certainly couldn’t hurt to continue getting him meaningful development reps.