Winners and losers from Lakers preseason: Bronny James, Dalton Knecht on different paths

The Los Angeles Lakers concluded preseason play late Friday night with a 200-point loss to the Golden State Warriors. That's a lie, but not by as much as you might think.

As always, the Lakers had an eventful offseason, with the firing of Darvin Ham and a lengthy subsequent hiring process that replaced him with former long-range marksman and now-former LeBron James podcast co-host JJ Redick being the A plot of this particular season of the purple and gold soap opera.

Not far behind the league's most prominent head coaching search in terms of entertainment value was the drafting of the son of the league's most prominent player. The Lakers surprised absolutely no one by selecting Bronny James in the second round, a decision we'll get into shortly.

LeBron and Anthony Davis also took home gold medals from a thrilling Olympic basketball tournament, and they'll now set their sights on trying to hang another banner in the Staples Center., whether it be from the Play-In Tournament or an NBA championship. Before they begin their pursuit on Tuesday night, let's take a look at the winners and losers from the preseason.

Lakers preseason winner: Dalton Knecht

We're only talking about the Lakers today, but there may be no bigger preseason winner in the league than Dalton Knecht, the rookie out of Tennessee that the Lakers took with the 17th overall pick.

Knecht slid in the draft despite a terrific final season with the Volunteers that included being named a First Team All-American and leading Tennessee to the Elite Eight. His loss was the Lakers' gain, though, as it appears that GM Rob Pelinka got the steal of the draft.

Knecht entered camp with questions about his defense and whether his multi-faceted collegiate scoring ability would translate to the pros. We can't speak on the defense part yet, but if the preseason is any indication, his offensive abilities might be so good that the rest is moot.

Knecht tore up the preseason, and his 35-point explosion on Thursday night, in which he led the Lakers to an overtime win while scoring 20 straight points in the fourth quarter and overtime, is the moment that we might look back on as the place where a great career began.

Nobody knew if Knecht was going to be able to crack the regular season rotation a few weeks ago, but he's become such a valued member of the team that only six players got the night off in L.A.'s final preseason game on Friday: himself, and the five starters.

Lakers preseason loser: Nepotism

Like nearly all NBA fans, I'm usually game for a little bit of LeBron slander, but don't let anyone try to blame him for the team drafting Bronny with the 55th pick. Pelinka would certainly have taken someone else if LeBron were in Cleveland, Miami, or still riding a boat down the Seine in Paris, but people forget that the Lakers have a rich tradition of nepotism that predates LeBron by decades — in fact, they're built on it.

Anyone who has followed the Lakers over the past nearly half-century or watched Winning Time on HBO (no, I'm not calling it Max, just like I'm not calling the Staples Center "Crypto.com Arena") knows what I'm talking about. The late, great Dr. Jerry Buss is the man most responsible for ushering in the Showtime era in the 80's, and he presided over many great teams throughout the years. He eventually passed the team on to his kids, who have been somewhat less successful than their old man.

All this is to say that just because Bronny doesn't look ready for his close-up just yet, don't go blaming LeBron, because this is nothing new in Laker land. Bronny has been mostly invisible in the preseason, with a total of just 25 points over six games.

Bronny shot only 20% through the first five games of the preseason, resulting in a grand total of eight points. He dwarfed that total in Friday's final preseason game against the Warriors, putting up 17 points on 7-of-17 shooting, but it wasn't exactly a signature performance, as he finished the 58-point loss with a ghastly minus-37.

Bronny would be served well by getting some run in the G League, but he'll probably get some time in the big leagues before that happens so that he can share the court with his dad first.

Lakers preseason winner: Dan Hurley

Dan Hurley has to be feeling pretty good right now. He won the last two NCAA championships as the head coach of the UConn Huskies (the first college coach to pull off that feat since Billy Donovan led the Florida Gators to titles in 2006 and 2007), and instead of allowing himself to be sucked into the tabloid vortex of the Lakers, he gets to stay in Storrs, Connecticut and chase ring number three while continuing to land top recruits.

Hurley is the current king of the college basketball mountain, whereas if he took the Lakers job this summer he'd be in close to a no-win situation. Fail to improve on last year's seventh-place Western Conference finish and everyone would start wondering if you were actually a quality coach or if the Lakers would have been better off sticking with Darvin Ham. Win with LeBron James and Anthony Davis and fans would yawn and say, "Been there, done that."

This is a job much better suited to JJ Redick, someone with no previous head coaching experience that is close to LeBron but also has a strong grasp of the pro game after a long playing career and his post-retirement gig as an analyst and podcaster. As successful a post-playing career as Redick was enjoying, taking the Lakers job is an upgrade no matter how you slice it.

Hurley may well have worked his magic in L.A., but the range of outcomes had he taken the job was wide, and many of the possible results could have taken some of the shine off of his star. As coach of the Huskies, he can do no wrong right now. Staying in school and out of Tinseltown makes him a big winner.

Lakers preseason loser: Sports fans that are tired of hearing about the Lakers

Fans of the NBA's other 29 teams have a common complaint when it comes to the Lakers — they're tired of hearing about them all the time, especially when their play on the court doesn't warrant so much discussion.

They do have a point, as even when other, better teams are in action, the talking heads on radio and TV still spend an inordinate amount of time spilling the latest Lakers tea. It's the same reason people meet at the water cooler to discuss The Bachelor every week. Gossip sells, and the Lakers, for better or worse, are never short on storylines.

There's the JJ Redick of it all, the Bronny drama, and inevitably, the trade rumors. Even all of that is just icing on the LeBron cake, because we all know that everything LBJ says and does is deemed newsworthy. Colin Cowherd is probably missing out on some good sleep at this very moment as he maps out his latest LeBron hot take.

To all the NBA fans out there that want less Lakers coverage, all I can say is that I apologize, because this season is going to batter you with Lakers news and rumors from start to finish.

Lakers preseason winner: D'Angelo Russell's real estate agent

We went over this a bit on Friday, but D'Angelo Russell is not long for L.A. It's through no fault of his own, but his expiring contract, combined with the Lakers' limited palette of options at their disposal to improve between Opening Night and playoff time means that Russell will almost certainly be flipped to another team at some point this season.

It's never wise to read too much into preseason results, but it seems clear that at this point in time, the Lakers are not true championship contenders. For LeBron, who has been chasing the ghost of Michael Jordan relentlessly for years, that's not going to fly. Moves will have to be made, even if he's been giving off the vibe that he can still be satisfied even if he doesn't win another ring (I'm not buying it and you shouldn't either).

Russell will be on the move at some point, possibly for outside shooting help, possibly for a player in the post that could absorb some wear and tear and help Anthony Davis preserve his body, or possibly, as our own Christopher Kline posited, to Atlanta in a blockbuster that would bring Trae Young to L.A. Without knowing which way Pelinka will spin Russell, the only one we can truly declare as a winner is his real estate agent. Enjoy the commission, pal.