Kon Knueppel just picked up his first piece of NBA hardware.
Following an impressive start, the Charlotte Hornets forward was named as the Eastern Conference Player of the Month on Tuesday. He leads all rookies in scoring at 18.4 points per game and the 69 3-pointers he made through this past Sunday’s action ranked first among rookies and sixth overall in the league.
With the Hornets (6-15) besieged by injuries once again, Knueppel has been relied on more than initially projected and is handling the added responsibilities, putting him in line as the current favorite in some sports books to claim the rookie of the year honors in the spring. Even ahead of fellow Duke product and No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg of the Dallas Mavericks.
Among the other areas where Knueppel has excelled among his rookie class peers: he’s tops in 3-point percentage (41.3) and free throw percentage (89.8). He’s also in the top five in total minutes played (669), points (367), field goals (127), rebounds (114), assists (59) and free throws (44).
Furthermore, the 20-year-old is the first player in NBA history with 50 made 3-pointers made through his initial 15 games, and he also tied the franchise rookie record for 3-pointers made in a single game with seven.
Off the court, he’s also quietly becoming a vocal presence in the locker room, as evidenced by his thoughts to The Charlotte Observer following Monday’s loss in Brooklyn, when the Hornets became the first team the Nets beat at Barclays Center this season.
“It’s frustrating when we don’t come out and play the same way,” Knueppel said. “I can live with losing games, winning games when you’re playing a certain style, the style that we want to play. And to come out and not play how we play, and to score, I don’t know, 100 points, you’re not going to win in the NBA. And that’s unacceptable.”
“We’re 6-15,” he added. “We’re not good enough for a team to come in and (act like) we’re just going to come in and beat somebody. We’re not good enough. We got to be who we are. We got to play hard. We got to compete to win every game we can in this league. We didn’t do that (Monday) and that’s truly disappointing.”