Rick Barnes in attendance for Dalton Knecht’s first career NBA start

On By Littum

Dalton Knecht and the Los Angeles Lakers have traveled to Memphis on Wednesday night to play the Grizzlies in a Western Conference game. The Lakers announced Knecht would make his first career start Wednesday afternoon.

With Knecht’s return to the Volunteer State, where he rose to national status at Tennessee, he will make his first NBA career start with his former coach on the court.

Avery Braxton of ABC24 Memphis reported that Rick Barnes has joined Knecht at the FedEx Forum, home of the Grizzlies, for his first career start.

He joins familiar names in Los Angeles in the starting lineup. He will start alongside LeBron James, D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves and Jaxson Hayes.

Knecht has been a jolt of energy in the Lakers’ offense early in the season. He hasn’t put up crazy numbers, but he’s been a consistent force for the Lakers. Knecht averages 7.3 points per game. game in his young NBA career, shooting 47.4% from the field and 37.5% from three-point range.

He has been one of the top performing rookies in the association thus far based on +/- stats. Knecht reaches fourth among rookies with a +8 scoring margin. The only players ahead of him are Oklahoma City’s Ajay Mitchell (+22), Toronto’s Jonathan Mogbo (+17) and Phoenix’s Ryan Dunn (+13).

Coming to Wednesday night’s games, Knecht has also scored fourth most points by any rookie this season, with 18 against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Oct. 30. Rookies who have scored more points than Knecht so far are Zach Edey with 25, Kyshawn George with 20 and Jared McCain with 19.

The Lakers went into halftime trailing the Grizzlies 53-59. Knecht’s shooting wasn’t great in the first half as he went just one-for-four from the field with three points.