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Should Lakers Pursue Vucevic As Ayton’s Backup?

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Luka to sign 4-year $220M contract with Lakers Saturday

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On Dalton Knecht

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Michael and my discussion on the Lakers Fastbreak show yesterday got me thinking: how concerning are Dalton Knecht’s summer league struggles? Outside of a 4th quarter outburst in the first game of the California Classic, Knecht no-showed summer league. He missed outside shots, he missed inside shots, he missed contested shots and he missed open shots.

Let’s put this in perspective. It’s summer league, not the NBA. So, while one would hope he would dominate the fact of the matter is it’s borderline meaningless. While it would’ve been nice, and certainly helped his trade value, struggling in summer league does not determine one’s NBA trajectory. Austin Reaves struggled in his sole summer league affair, he turned out fine.

“But Bronny looked much improved and Dalton is a second year player…” and this would certainly be a valid point. It would be far more comforting and encouraging to see Dalton dominate rookie and G league talent. However, something to consider is that Dalton was likely the focus of every “defensive” scheme to stop him and take the ball out of his hands and run off him the three point line.

So now it gets down to Dalton and the summer league coaching staff not adjusting. That switches the biggest concern to missing open shots. Ok, not ideal, but not end of the world.

In some ways this might add fuel to his fire, and we’ll see what kind of fire that truly is come camp. It would be great if he came into camp and created a situation for the coaches where they can’t keep him off the floor.

He needs to focus on his defensive fundamentals and keep getting shots up. His rebounding has always been underrated so if he can stay active on the glass that will only help.

He may or may not want to stay a Laker, he can help his case for either a trade a bigger redemption role by playing solidly in camp and preseason. The Lakers could yet include him in a sign and trade for a player this summer (Brogdon comes to mind) or a trade (Thybulle is probably gettable but Vincent seems the more likely candidate there).

At any rate, the sky isn’t falling. It would have been great if Dalton dominated but he didn’t. All he need do now is not let this moment define him but rather let it fuel him and push him to greater heights.