NEW YORK — Dalton Knecht was selected 17th overall by the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Draft on Wednesday night at the Barclays Center.
Many were surprised he was selected that late in the draft. Many mock drafts had him as a top-10 pick. ESPN's Jonathan Givony reported that general managers of NBA teams told him Knecht's age was the reason why he wasn't taken sooner. Knecht is 23 years old.
He became the 12th Vol to be taken in the first round of the NBA Draft.
Knecht is the highest-drafted University of Tennessee basketball player since Marcus Haislipin in 2002 when he was taken 13th overall by the Milwaukee Bucks.
Knecht was named a first-team All-American and SEC Player of the Year in 2024 after a superb season. He averaged 21.7 points and 3.9 rebounds per game. He shot 38.7% from three-point range.
Knecht was the first Tennessee player to earn SEC Player of the Year honors since Grant Williams did so back-to-back in the 2017-2018 season and 2018-2019 season.
He also was the winner of the Julius Erving Award given to the nation's best small forward and the Riley Wallace Award as the nation's top transfer.
In his one season at UT after transferring from Northern Colorado, he finished the season with a 40-point game against Kentucky, marking a season-high. He became the first Vol to score 40 since Grant Williams did so in 2019. He had five 35 or more points games, including his final time wearing a Vol jersey against Purdue in the Elite 8 when he dropped 37.
He led the league in scoring this season at 25.5 points per game in SEC play. It's the most points per game in SEC play by a player in the conference since South Carolina's Devan Downey put up 26.2 points in 2009-10.