Dalton Knecht has the kind of profile that can trick you into seeing a fit where there may not be one. A 6-foot-6 wing, he has hovered near 40 percent from three in college and the pros, can slip behind defenses for easy finishes, and has enough bounce to get above the rim when the lane opens.
On paper, that sounds useful anywhere. In reality, it comes with a lot of baggage.
For the Knicks, that baggage matters. A team trying to win back-to-back championships under Mike Brown is going to demand precision, and Knecht’s game is too messy in too many places to trust right away.
He can put up numbers if you drop him into a game today, and he might even look decent at first glance. But the deeper you look, the more the flaws pile up.
The biggest issue is that his shooting would have to be far more than good. He would need to become the kind of elite, movement-based marksman who can bend a defense by firing from anywhere.
Think Duncan Robinson. Even that comparison comes with a warning label, because Robinson - taller and one of the league’s best shooters - still gets benched at times for defensive issues.
And while Knecht is younger and more athletic, Robinson is much more dependable when it comes to being in the right place on both ends.
Knecht, by contrast, has plenty to clean up. His defensive rotations are shaky.
He doesn’t consistently help off his man. On offense, there are moments when he looks lost in the play itself.
Those kinds of mistakes can happen, but for a young player trying to make every minute count, they become a real problem fast.
Even when Knecht showed signs of usefulness with the Lakers, his game stayed narrow. He could shoot, and he did a nice job cutting behind defenses when LeBron James and Austin Reaves had defenders ball-watching or overcommitting.
He also picked up the occasional fastbreak basket. But that was about the extent of it.
He didn’t do much attacking closeouts. There was no reliable midrange answer.
He wasn’t a crafty finisher at the rim. And he didn’t have the handle or passing to create much for himself or others.
Put that together with the defense and the inconsistent focus, and it’s hard to picture him earning steady minutes.
That depth-chart reality is just as rough. Knecht sits behind Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, Miles McBride, Landry Shamet, Jordan Clarkson, and Mohamed Diawara. He may not be clearly buried behind Pacome Dadiet or Tyler Nickel, but he also can’t be said to be ahead of them with any certainty.
Both of those players know Brown and the Knicks’ system better. Nickel, in particular, offers some reasons to stay in the conversation: he’s younger, taller, a better shooter, and has shown more defensive activity in limited preseason minutes than Knecht has for much of his career.
Still, the Knicks’ logic for making the move makes sense. Kevin McCullar Jr. had been around the organization for a couple of years and had his moments, but he never really locked down a consistent role.
McCullar may have had the higher floor because of his defense and rebounding, but Knecht brings the shooting and size that always grab attention. He also carries the higher ceiling.
For a team hunting cheap, young depth with some development upside and a chance to help this season, it was a worthwhile low-risk swing. Even so, the expectation here is clear: barring major trades or injuries, Knecht doesn’t look like someone who is about to carve out a real role right away.
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