Dalton Knecht gets NBA Combine invite, considered a top-10 prospect by NBA teams
Dalton Knecht was one of 78 college basketball players invited to the 2024 NBA Draft Combine, with the league announcing the list Friday night. More than that, though, the league considers Knecht to be one of the top-ten prospects in this summer’s draft.
According to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony, the network’s NBA Draft analyst and founder of DraftXpress, “the NBA sent teams a composite ranking of the Top 10 draft prospects, as determined by a blend of publicly available rankings, a panel of experts and a retained scouting service.”
“This determines which teams will received medical results,” Givony reported, “based on which tiers players fall in.”
NBA Draft: Thursday, June 27, New York
Knecht fell into the third of three tiers. Alexander Sarr was the No. 1 overall prospect according to the list and in a tier of his own. The second tier included Matas Bezels (G League Ignite), Stephon Castle (UConn), Donovan Clingan (UConn), Zaccharie Risacher (Bourg, France) and Nikola Topic (Craven Zvezda, Serbia).
The third tier had Knecht alongside Kentucky’s Rob Dilingham and Reed Sheppard and Ron Holland II, another G League Ignite prospect.
According to Givony, the only teams that will have access to Sarr’s medical, biochemical testing and functional movement information are ones picking in the top ten. Teams picking 1-15 will have access to the information from players in the second tier and teams picking 1-25 will have access to the third-tier players.
Knecht this season averaged 21.7 points per game. He scored 30 or more points eight times during his 36 games in a Tennessee uniform. He scored 37 or more five times, with two 39-point games and a career-high 40 on his senior day against Kentucky.
He scored 20 or more points 19 times and scored 25 or more points 13 times.
Dalton Knecht widely projected as a lottery pick in NBA Draft
His 37 points against Purdue and set a new program record for scoring in an NCAA Tournament game and his 103 points scored over four NCAA Tournament games broke another record for the Vols.
Knecht has been widely projected as a lottery pick — one of the top-14 selections — in the NBA Draft on June 27 in New York. ESPN last month projected Knecht at No. 8 overall to the Utah Jazz.
“Knecht emerged as Tennessee’s go-to scorer after transferring from Northern Colorado,” ESPN’s Jeremy Woo wrote at the time, “putting himself on the map as a first-round pick while carrying the Volunteers.
“He was not on the radar this time a year ago but legitimized himself with three-level scoring instincts and the ability to shoot off screens as well as off the bounce.”
