The San Antonio Spurs just finished their first season of the Victor Wembanyama experience. Wembanyama was as good — if not better– as advertised and even came away with the 2023-24 NBA Rooke of the Year award and ended up runner-up to Rudy Gobert of the Minnesota Timberwolves for the Defensive Player of the Year honor in the same season.
Now comes another chance for the Spurs to get high-profile NBA prospects, as they have two picks inside the top 10 of the order in the upcoming 2024 NBA Draft.
Jonathan Givony of ESPN has the Spurs taking Tennessee Volunteers scoring machine Dalton Knecht at the eighth spot (via the Toronto Raptors).
“After addressing their point guard situation with the No. 4 pick, it might make sense for the Spurs to look at adding shooting to their roster to give Victor Wembanyama ample spacing to maximize his offensive gifts. The Spurs surely have eyes on being competitive sooner rather than later with Wembanyama about to become an MVP candidate in the near future, so picking a 23-year old plug-and-play shooter/scorer such as Knecht looks like an attractive option. His defensive shortcomings can be mitigated to an extent playing behind a future Defensive Player of the Year like Wembanyama.”
It can be noted here that Givony has the Spurs using their No. 4 pick on Kentucky Wildcats guard Rob Dillingham.
Dalton Knecht Could be an Intriguing NBA Draft Target by the San Antonio Spurs
At 23 years old, Knecht can be considered an “old” prospect, but that’s probably the Spurs can live with. Having a dangerous scorer to roam around Wembanyama could greatly open things up for the Spurs’ offense which finished just 22nd in the NBA this season with 112.1 points per game and only 28th with a 34.7 percent success rate from behind the arc.
In his only season with the Vols, Knecht averaged 21.7 points on 45.8 field goal percentage and 39.7 percent shooting from deep while winning both the SEC Player of the Year and SEC Newcomer of the Year (he transferred to Tenessee from North Colorado).
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