MORE: Sixers-specific Knueppel scouting report
The case against picking Knueppel
• Defense: Knueppel is a tweener defensively, and that is intended to be a negative comment. He does not have quite enough quickness to stick with guards and is a bit too short to handle wings with regularity. His lack of a clear position will present challenges for whichever team drafts him, and his best fit would be on a team with a defensive infrastructure featuring not just high-caliber defenders, but multi-positional ones.Knueppel gives considerable effort on the defensive end and his smarts help him get by. But the impact of a perimeter defender without much playmaking is capped significantly, and Knueppel even had subpar production as a defender at the collegiate level. The following numbers come from Databallr.com:
Category Kon Knueppel 2024-25 Percentile
Steal percentage 2.0% 49th
Block percentage 0.6% 16th
Defensive rebounding percentage 10.3% 18th
With his limited mobility and short arms, it is tremendously difficult to imagine Knueppel ever topping out as anything more than an average defender. If he can reach that level -- or at least never be too exploitable as a weak link -- he can left his offense do the talking. But teams would be right to worry about Knueppel's viability on the defensive end of the floor. • On-ball scoring upside: While Knueppel is better than many realize as a ball-handler and passer, the constant skepticism regarding his chances of achieving stardom stem from the fact that he is not a great self-creator. Knueppel has real craft and great feel, and that gets him to a decent place. But can a player without a ton of burst ever be an on-ball star?Some of the red flags in Knueppel's statistical profile, also courtesy of Databallr:
Category Kon Knueppel 2024-25 Percentile
Free throw attempts per 100 possessions 6.4 33rd
Shot attempts at the rim per 100 possessions 6.1 40th
Mid-range shot attempts per 100 possessions 2.5 7th
It is harder to imagine Knueppel developing into the primary scorer of a good NBA team than players like Ace Bailey and Tre Johnson. Even VJ Edgecombe, whose offensive skill is vastly inferior to that of Knueppel, has so much more athletic juice that could enable a star outcome if he develops considerably as a ball-handler and his shot continues to come along.At the same time, it almost feels impossible to imagine a world in which Knueppel is not a very good NBA player for many years. And so, the decision of whether or not he should be in consideration here -- or how seriously they consider him -- will depend on how badly the Sixers feel they need to land a future star as opposed to securing a no-doubt-about-it rotation staple.