Bronny James made his NBA debut in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 124-107 preseason loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday, but two other rookies stole the show. Rob Dillingham scored 21 points for Minnesota, and Dalton Knecht scored 16 points for the Lakers, including two 3-pointers.
Knecht, a sharp-shooting 23-year-old who fell 17th to Los Angeles, was 7 of his first nine from the floor. Hopefully that type of aggression continues when LeBron James and Anthony Davis, who missed this game, are on the floor. Because Knecht can really help the Lakers as a shot hunter and microwave scorer off the bench.
Knecht scored from all three levels Friday, starting with a pull-up midrange jumper from Carl Root.
Here, the ball is barely in his hands before he hits a 3 in transition.
Remember, Knecht is 6 feet 9 inches tall and has a vertical jump of 39 inches. This is not just a stationary shooting game. Here, he made the catch on the baseline, immediately went to the ground and slammed home on contact.
Bronny James looks unstable
After an 0-for-5 start in the preseason, James needed until the final moments of the game to record his first bucket, a left-handed scoop layup off a broken play.
James looked pretty nervous in his first action. His first pass, a basic entry to the side to launch an attack, was almost intercepted, and his second pass was also intercepted. However, Brony was able to get a recovery block from the trade.
James punctuated the sequence shortly after with a well-timed swipe from behind for his second block, then found Rui Hachimura on the other side for a corner 3 and his first assist of the preseason.
Brony didn’t look very comfortable offensively. He went 1-of-6 from the field and threw an air ball on an awkward attempt from the baseline. But as the match progressed, he established a bit of a rhythm. The pass to Hachimura in transition was simple, but it was a correct play, on time and on target. This was a sweet hockey-assisted dumpoff from the high post to start a tic-tac-toe bucket.
Rob Dillingham is a bucket.
Dillingham, a 6-1 guard who was taken eighth overall by the San Antonio Spurs and then traded to the Timberwolves, looked as if he had been in the league for 10 years. To say I’m confident would be an understatement. This guy has a ball on a string and is ready to pull the trigger in an instant. He has easy NBA range and is a feather-smooth runner.
In fact, Dillingham’s runner conversion rate ranked in the 88th percentile as a freshman at Kentucky, and his catch-and-shoot percentage ranked in the 98th percentile, according to Synergy Sports. We’ll see how the defense holds up, but it looks like he could potentially be an electrifying scorer, at least down the stretch from the jump.
Minnesota was in dire need of shot creation from sources other than Anthony Edwards last postseason, and Dillingham certainly looks like he could eventually provide help in that area.