When the 2024 NBA Draft occurs Tennessee's Dalton Knecht will be one of the most intriguing players to see where he lands. He was the biggest breakout star of college basketball season last year and helped the Tennessee Volunteers make the Elite Eight.
That performance helped turn Knecht into a potential top-ten pick. He would make for a great fit with the San Antonio Spurs or Chicago Bulls.
Spurs get more shooting
Knecht is one of the best shooters in this year's draft. In three seasons of college basketball with Northern Colorado and Tennessee, he shot 38.3% from three on 7.4 attempts per-40 minutes. Knecht's scoring ability flows from that particular skill. He has a solid handle that allows him to put the ball on the deck as leverage when teams run him off the three-point line.
His skillset is one that the Spurs really need. They finished 28th in the NBA in three-point percentage this season at 34.7%. On top of that, the Spurs had just four players to play in at least 10 games and shoot above 35% from deep.
Keldon Johnson and Jeremy Sochan were third and fourth in minutes per game on the team, but neither were reliable shooters. Johnson shot 34.6% from three this season and has one season out of five above the 35% threshold. Sochan is a career 28.5% shooter from deep.
San Antonio has to do a better job of creating space for Victor Wembanyama. That's where Knecht can come in and be a factor immediately. He can make teams pay for loading up on Wembanyama and can free him up for easier looks in action involving those two.
The Spurs could use a point guard as well, but they can address that and their shooting deficit with the two first-round picks they have. Knecht would be a great option for San Antonio with the eighth overall pick.
Bulls add offensive diversity
If there's a team that needs to shake things up, it is the Chicago Bulls. They have lost in the play-in tournament in each of the last two years. DeMar DeRozan is poised to be a free agent this summer. On top of that, Zach LaVine has been the subject of trade rumors for months. After three years of being stuck in the middle, now would be a good time for Chicago to rebuild and feature a young player like Knecht alongside Coby White.
Drafting Dalton Knecht would allow the Bulls to pursue whichever path they want. They should look to trade LaVine and Alex Caruso for pieces that can help in the future. However, Chicago has shied away from that every time it has been presented to them. The expectation should be that the Bulls opt to run this team back.
Knecht can improve the Bulls' roster if they go that route as well. They badly need an infusion of shooting in their own right. Chicago ranked 26th in the NBA in three-point attempts this season. Only the Denver Nuggets, Orlando Magic, Los Angeles Lakers, and Detroit Pistons took fewer threes than the Bulls.
On top of their lack of shooters, Chicago simply doesn't have many playable wings. Their rotation consists of almost exclusively guards and centers. Knecht measured in at 6-foot-5.25 and 212 pounds at the NBA combine. Patrick Williams, Torrey Craig, and DeRozan were the only members of the Bulls' rotation to reach those measurements that weren't centers.
It isn't even a lock that Knecht will be available for the Bulls at 11. But if he is, he'd make a lot of sense for them for a number of reasons.
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