Former Lakers center blames LeBron James for getting in the way of players' progress

1 week ago 13

Ever since LeBron James joined the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018, he has helped the team return to prominence. After a few years of struggles, James made the Lakers a perennial team in the Playoffs. In fact, he led them to a championship in 2020.

Unfortunately, building around James requires having players who fit well alongside him. Certain players were not good fits, and a player like Dalton Knecht was affected by both the pressure and the lack of opportunity.

Kwame Brown calls out LeBron James for getting in the way of players' progression

As Knecht entered the league in the 2024 NBA Draft, he was projected to be one of the best shooters from his class. In fact, he was seen as an immediate contributor because he was an older rookie out of Tennessee.

Unfortunately, Knecht struggled despite some promising numbers in his rookie year. Halfway into his rookie season, he was part of a trade to the Charlotte Hornets for Mark Williams, which was stopped because of a bad physical for the latter.

MORE: How Bronny James can stay with the Lakers over Dalton Knecht

Knecht never truly recovered from the mental blow stemming from that trade. In his second season in the 2025-26 campaign, his numbers dipped, even his efficiency from beyond the arc. This has led former Lakers center Kwame Brown to pin the blame on LeBron.

"LeBron is a machine; it’s a marketing machine. He’s not an individual. And so, once I realized that, when you go up against a machine, it gives off toxic waste. So what makes it look good? It destroys things around it," Brown said about James on The Basketball Show.

"If you look at the careers that he’s destroyed: Westbrook, all the various things before he even started. You got Dalton Knecht, because of his son, he didn’t get a chance to develop."

It is a bold claim for Brown to make because Knecht's struggles with the Lakers can also stem from that failed trade to the Hornets. This is definitely a nuanced situation, and with Knecht on the fringes now, he might just not be the right fit with the Lakers despite his talent.