The Lakers draft failure! The No. 17 pick in the first round of 2024! The transaction value is almost zero

Question: If time could go back to February 2025, would the Los Angeles Lakers still cancel the swap deal between Mark Williams and Knecht? This can be said to be a very intriguing topic.

On the trade deadline of the 2024-25 season (February 6, 2025), the Los Angeles Lakers and Charlotte Hornets reached a 4-for-1 deal. The Lakers sent Dalton Knecht + Cam Reddish + a 2031 unprotected first-round pick + a 2030 first-round swap to get Mark Williams from the Hornets. But just when everyone was expecting this young center with super athletic ability to perform frequent aerial work with Luka Doncic in Angel City, bad news suddenly dropped!

Because the new center failed to pass the Lakers' team physical examination due to many injuries, the Los Angeles Lakers finally publicly announced on February 10 that they had canceled Marwick Necter's swap deal. At this point, Mark Williams has returned to the Charlotte Hornets, and Dalton Knecht has returned to Los Angeles to continue playing for the Lakers.

There is no doubt that the deal was reached but was rejected by the Lakers due to physical examination issues. This is undoubtedly a very bad thing for Mark Williams, who is eager to show off his ambitions in Los Angeles! Because this will inevitably trigger various speculations about his injury, his reputation will decline sharply. As everyone knows, the victim of the cancellation of this transaction is not just Mawei. Dalton Knect, the No. 17 pick in the first round of 2024, who was used by the Lakers as the core bargaining chip in trading Mawei, is also among them.

Because Knect returned to Los Angeles to play again, he seemed to have lost his soul from then on, appearing out of body at any time on the court. To make matters worse, Knecht has gradually lost the shooting percentage that a shooter can survive. The elite shooting touch he showed in the Lakers games in the past is gone forever.

This summer, second-year Knecter played a total of 6 summer league games for the Lakers, averaging 27.6 minutes per game, scoring 11.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.2 steals, shooting 32.1% from the field and 23.7% from the three-point range.

In 6 preseason games, Knecht averaged 25.5 minutes per game, scoring only 8.7 points, 4.2 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 0.2 steals and 0.3 blocks, shooting 32% from the field and 23.5% from the three-point range. There is no doubt that Knecter's current shooting is disastrous, it is simply unbearable to watch!

Recently, Lakers team reporter Jovan Buha wrote an article about Lakers guard Dalton Knecter. Jovan Buha said that Knect's trade value assessment is relatively "negative". He has a poor reputation in NBA circles and his trade prospects are bleak. As a young asset, Dalton Knect’s value on the trade market is next to zero.

The Lakers hope that Knecht can regain his touch on the offensive end in the new season to help the team win games, which may become a key bargaining chip for future reinforcement transactions.

Frankly speaking, I can’t believe that Dalton Knect, who was used as a core bargaining chip by the Lakers in exchange for power center Ma Wei for a few months, has now fallen into such a miserable state. It only took Knecht more than half a year to go from being a promising stock with the potential to become a high-quality shooter to being completely reduced to a "blacksmith".

There is no doubt that Knecter, who was selected with the 17th pick in the first round in 2024, has now become another major draft failure for the Lakers! Schiffino, whom the Lakers selected with the 17th overall pick in the first round in 2023, has become a joke in the league. Will Knecter, who will be selected with the 17th pick in the first round of 2024, follow in his footsteps? So sad!