With the regular season far behind us and only two rounds of the 2025 NBA Playoffs left to run, the majority of the NBA is gearing up for next season. And that begins with tying up any loose business in the previous one.
To that end, the NBA today announced the results of the voting for the league’s two All-Rookie Teams, an accolade for anointing and celebrating the ten best first-year players throughout the most recent season. And while many of the recipient names were obvious, Los Angeles Lakers rookie Dalton Knecht was snubbed.
Rookie Of The Year Castle Voted Unanimously
For the voting, 100 selected media members are given five votes for who they think should feature on each of the All-Rookie First and Second Teams. First Team votes count as two points, and Second Team votes count as one. From there, it is a straightforward tally system.
San Antonio Spurs guard Stephon Castle had been announced as the NBA’s Rookie of the Year for the 2024-25 season back in April, and was a unanimous selection on the first team accordingly with a maximum 200 points Along side, first overall pick Zaccharie Risacher of the Atlanta Hawks (99 first-placed votes out of a possible 100) and Jaylen Wells of the Memphis Grizzlies (96) were also nearly unanimous.
Thereafter, things are less clear-cut. With 54 first-placed votes, Alex Sarr of the Washington Wizards was the lowest-voted-for player on the first team, but with 42 second-team votes, he still managed to appear on all but four ballots. Conversely, Sarr’s Wizards teammate Bub Carrington was the lowest-scoring player on the second team – he managed only three first-team votes, and 47 second-team votes, for a score of 53.
For Knecht and the Lakers, though, that score still proved to be too much. Indeed, in a vote for the ten best players, he finished 14th.
Lakers Feel The Snub, For A Change
If Knecht was passed over, it does not mean he was a disappointment. As a ready-to-work rookie, he understood the assignment, and delivered some solid offensive player.
In his rookie season, Knecht appeared in 78 games for the Lakers, enough for the team lead. Across 19.2 minutes per game with 16 starts, he averaged 9.1 points and 2.8 rebounds per game, shooting 46.1% from the field and 37.6% from the all-important three-point range. Admittedly, those numbers hide his defensive struggles, which were profound at times. Yet for Knecht – a non-lottery pick – to come in, playing nearly 1,500 minutes for a third-seeded team and string together a slightly above average 0.1 Value Over Replacement Player mark for the season, is a decent return on investment.
By contrast, Carrington averaged more numbers in less efficient ways. He played all 82 games for the Wizards, starting 57 of them, and recorded greater than 400 minutes of action more than anyone else on the team, yet his basic counting stats of 9.8 points, 4.4 assists and 4.2 rebounds per night came with a .515 true shooting percentage, a -1.6 VORP and an 18-64 season. Carrington demonstrated more versatility, much better defense, and more upside, but less in the way of immediate impact.
With his 14 second-place votes, Knecht finished some way off the pace of Carrington, as well as the Utah Jazz’s Isaiah Collier (51 points) in eleventh place. He nevertheless offers a difference look to both of those defence-first players, and his combination of size and shooting should be well-positioned to thrive going forward when catching feeds regularly from Luka Doncic. And if Knecht can improved his all-around game, as he promises to, even better.
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