JJ Redick and D’Angelo Russell continue to rely on Dalton Knecht

When the Los Angeles Lakers drafted Dalton Knecht, the first thought was that he could be an immediate contributor, leading to inflated odds for the NBA Rookie of the Year.

As one of the best pure shooters in his draft class, Knecht had an easy path to minutes, but so far he has struggled to shoot the basketball.

Although the results have not been satisfactory for Knecht, who is shooting 38.6% from the field and 28.9% from 3-point range in his first 10 games, head coach JJ Redick is still pleased with his shooting and believes that this will be the case at some point.

“I did,” Redick said. “To me he looks really good both organically and in the performances for him. I am unwavering in my belief that he is a top 1 percent shooter. I see it almost every day. Sometimes you go through things and because I played for 15 years, it’s always difficult for me at the beginning of the season when I didn’t have a good start shooting three-pointers at the beginning. It became more than it was and I just started focusing on the long term and just believing that the law of averages would work, there would be a regression to the mean and I would end up with a 40% C -Point shooter would be.

“But it’s hard mentally, I think, and I don’t speak for him, but I think for shooters it’s hard when you start shooting the ball slowly. It can weigh on you in some way. I talked to him about it and he thinks a shot goes in every time. And me too.”

D’Angelo Russell chimed in and said he believes Knecht’s time will come and will be ready for it when it comes.

“Every young player in the league wants it right away,” Russell said. “The basketball gods have a funny way of obscuring these blessings. So for him, just know that your time is coming and just be ready. I think he’ll be ready when his time comes.”

Rookies usually experience ups and downs in their first year in the league, so it’s best for Knecht to move on and stay confident. In the Lakers’ win over the Toronto Raptors on Sunday night, Knecht shot just 1 of 2, but it was a big shot as his corner triple gave LA the lead late in the third quarter.

JJ Redick praises the Lakers’ response to the coaching staff

In the Lakers’ recent win over the Toronto Raptors, the team was flat in the first half and struggled to get much going on either end. However, they managed to turn things around in the second half and JJ Redick praised the response of the players, including Dalton Knecht, to the coaching staff.

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