All Hornets

Analyzing Dalton Knecht's Fit With the Charlotte Hornets

Matt Alquiza

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Knecht's connection to the Hornets is gaining steam as we barrel towards draft night. The 2023-24 SEC Player of the Year went from innocuous mid-major bucket-getter to sure-fire lottery pick in less than a year. What does Knecht bring to the table? Let's take a look.

Dalton Knecht's path to the NBA draft has been unconventional. Poor grades and a late growth spurt in high school led Knecht to play his first two years of college hoops at Northeastern Junior College. He continued to grow, literally in height, and, as a basketball player, at Northeastern, parlaying that growth into a scholarship at the University of Northern Colorado.

His second season at Northern Colorado, his true senior year, was his breakout. Knecht averaged 20.2 points per game (leading the conference) and 7.2 rebounds in a season that put him on the national radar as a hooper. The University of Tennessee came calling, and Knecht answered.

His only season as a Volunteer was magical. He was a first-team All-American, the SEC Player of the Year, the SEC Newcomer of the Year, and a nightly highlight reel of scoring from all over the floor. Let's break that offensive game down.

Offensive Strengths

Knecht is a pure scorer at his core. He possesses the ability to score at all three levels.

His ideal size (6'6", 212 lbs) makes him a threat at the rim. He doesn't look it, but he's as explosive of a leaper as anyone in this draft class. Knecht doesn't have the deep layup package that some elite wing scorers do, but his ferocity at the rim makes up for it. Check out this slam against Michigan State.

His leaping ability is underrated, but it's a real part of his game.

Outside of the paint, Knecht is a true marksman. His shooting ability is his biggest strength, and he proved at Tennessee that he can do it in a number of ways. Knecht is comfortable pulling up for jumpers with the ball in his hands,

Or coming off screens and getting shots up off the catch.

His ability to set his feet and line up for jump shots is unparalleled in this class of shooters. If nothing else, Knecht will walk into the NBA and provide spacing to an offense that needs it, sound familiar? Charlotte is desperate for some juice on the wings, and Knecht will bring that in spades.

He's a true three-level scorer. Everything that he can do from deep he can do within the arc from the mid-range as well. Tennessee allowed Knecht to handle the ball and shoot from all over the floor, and he did so efficiently.

The most impressive part about his senior season at Tennessee was how he scored on a condensed court. Knecht was the only above-average shooter on the roster, and he carved up defenses that knew he was the first, second, and third option.

His piece de resistance was in the Volunteer's Elite Eight matchup against Zach Edey and the Purdue Boilermakers. Knecht was a one-man wrecking ball in the loss. Check the highlights below for a full picture of his offensive prowess at work.

Offensive Weaknesses

Our very own James Plowright and Chase Whitney did a great job detailing this on a recent episode of the All Hornets Draft Show, but it’s pretty much everything but scoring. 

First off, Knecht is an older prospect. His dominant college season came when he was 22 years old. For reference, that’s the same age as LaMelo Ball is right now. Sure, Knecht can fill it up, but where is the upside in his game? He’s not a finished product at 23, but he’s much closer to finished as a ball player than a younger prospect like Reed Sheppard or Stephon Castle. His floor is high because of his scoring and shooting abilities, but his ceiling is limited. 

Knecht showed solid playmaking ability in transition, but he offers next to nothing when it comes to playmaking for his teammates. His assist/turnover ratio at Tennessee was 1.2, one of the lowest in this class. His first, second, and third options were to score the ball, and his passing skills failed to develop a meaningful amount in his one season as a power conference player. One-dimensional players don’t last long in the NBA and if Knecht fails to add a second or third layer to his game, he may fall flat. 

Defense

Normally this is broken up into strengths and weaknesses, but his defense deserves a holistic conversation. 

Tools-wise, Knecht has what it takes to be a good defender. He’s got solid size for a wing player. Knecht will rarely be matched up against someone who has the ability to bully him physically. Jonathan Givony has compared Knecht to to Klay Thompson. Size wise, that's completely fair. Athletically, he has the goods too. He had quickest shuttle run out of all Combine attendees, and as we stated in the offensive strengths portion, he’s underrated as an athlete.

On paper, Knecht has what it takes to become a league-average defender at minimum. 

He’s far from that right now. The Thompson comparison falls apart when you actually watch Knecht play defense. He's rigid, too upright in his stance, and his agility and athleticism fail to translate on that end. Klay Thompson is praised for his shooting ability, but his defensive prowess matched his shooting touch.

Knecht's defensive deficiencies were hidden at Tennessee because he shared the court with a litany of dogged defenders. Knecht was never asked to take on the opposing team’s best offensive player because he never had to. Zakai Ziegler and Jonas Aidoo would man mark the opposing teams scoring threats and Knecht would be relegated to lesser offensive players. Even so, Knecht struggled. 

He’s never had to be an average defender to succeed on a basketball court. Especially last season. However, if he can’t at least become even a slightly below-average defender at the NBA level, he will be target every single time down the floor on defense. 

Luka Doncic was famously targeted by Charles Lee and the Celtics offense in the NBA Finals. Doncic struggled, but his supernova offensive skill balanced out his defensive shortcomings. Knecht is (obviously) not Doncic on offense, and if he gets targeted like Doncic did, how does he stay on the floor late in games? 

Fit with the Hornets:

I love the idea of Knecht coming off the bench for an NBA team to provide juice to a second unit. Charlotte struggled mightily for offense when LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller weren’t on the court, so adding scoring punch to the second unit is a task near the top of Charles Lee’s to-do list. 

Knecht can be an impactful bench scorer from day one in the NBA, and if that is Charlotte’s vision for him, I fully support it. 

In a draft that lacks true, top-end, superstar talent, I am perfectly fine with drafting an older prospect like Knecht to fill a specific niche. The problem arises if Charlotte drafts Knecht to start and play a truly meaningful role on day one. 

He’s not an NBA starter yet, and there a chance he never develops into that. He doesn’t create well for others, he is an average defender on his best day, he doesn’t impact the game on the glass, and do you really want to take touches from Ball and Miller in the starting lineup to get Knecht going? I don’t. And if the only meaningful skill he’s bringing to an NBA team as it stands is scoring, it’s going to have to happen, and that’s bad news for Charlotte. 

In summary, if Knecht gets drafted to be a spark plug scorer to lead Charlotte’s second unit, I’m in. His defensive woes and lack of secondary skills don’t matter as much off the bench playing against like-competition. If Charlotte envisions Knecht as the missing piece in the Miller/Ball/Williams core as a starter, I’m dubious, and would go in a different direction to draft a player that can do more than just score. 

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Matt Alquiza
MATT ALQUIZA

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