With the draft less than a week away, stories have started to surface regarding a fall for Ace Bailey. With that, VJ Edgecombe is getting tied to the 76ers, while the Charlotte Hornets end up with Kon Knueppel.
Knueppel is a different kind of prospect than a lot of his peers. He’s not a plus athlete, but he’s an elite shooter. However, his reputation as an elite shooter seems to be overshadowing the all around game that he has.
**Height:** 6’5″
**Wingspan:** 6’6.25″
**Standing reach:** 8’5.5″
**Weight:** 219 pounds
**Vertical:** 31.5″ no step, 36.5″ max
**Outside shooting, secondary play making, winning play style**
If nothing else, Knueppel profiles as an elite 3-point shooter. He connected on 40.6% of his 3-point attempts and 91.4% of his free throws in his lone season at Duke. He was remarkably consistent as well, rarely stringing together consecutive games with outside shooting struggles. His technique is pristine and repeatable with no wasted movement. He’s capable of getting shots off on the move and has a knack for sliding to open space off the ball.
He complemented his outside shooting with a better than expected 2-point game. He’s not an explosive athlete by any means, but he still managed to shoot about 62% at the rim both in transition and in the half court. He uses angles and physicality to create space for himself and has extraordinary patience for a player of his age. He was a better finisher at the rim than a lot of players with significant athletic advantages.
Beyond the tangible skills, Knueppel just plays winning basketball. He excels at “.5 basketball,” shooting, passing, or attacking quickly once the ball touches his hands. He’s unselfish, makes extra passes, and has a strong motor. It’s not a flashy thing to talk about, but a team full of winning players wins a lot of games.
**Athleticism, shot creation**
Knueppel’s athleticism provides quite a bit of drag on what would otherwise be an elite scouting report. His vertical leap tested better than expected, but his speed and agility testing was lackluster, and that shows up on the court. He doesn’t have a lot of pop and he struggles with suddenness as a defender. He had a concerning lack of steals and blocks at Duke. All that said, he was successful in areas that you’d expect his athleticism to hold him back. He was still a good team defender and finisher around the rim despite his athletic limitations. Whether he can maintain that in the NBA is a whole different problem, but there’s reason to be hopeful.
Some of this may be the situation he was in at Duke, but Knueppel didn’t show much in the way of primary shot creation. He doesn’t have a whole lot of flash with his dribble and doesn’t have the burst to beat defenders from a standstill. He makes good decisions and takes care of the ball, but he profiles more as a secondary or tertiary ball handler that takes advantage of unset defenses rather than a guy you give the ball to and ask to make a play.
Knueppel doesn’t have the flash and perceived upside as some of the players projected to go in his range, but I think that undersells how good of a basketball player he is. [Hoop Intellect compared him to Desmond Bane](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZ-61pesaSY), and I don’t hate that as an optimistic ceiling for Knueppel. Both are below the rim players that are knockdown outside shooters, crafty secondary play makers, and savvy finishers around the basket.
If the Hornets were to draft the Duke product, he’d fit well as a complementary shooter alongside Brandon Miller and LaMelo Ball. It shouldn’t take long before he takes on more offensive responsibility, and he seems to have the Hornets DNA as a winning player that can shoot threes, make plays for others, and try hard all the time.
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