The NBA announced its rookies of the month for October and November on Tuesday, and to no one’s surprise, Kon Knueppel was the recipient for the Eastern Conference.
Knueppel has outperformed even the highest of expectations he had coming into the league. He’s averaging 18.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 3.0 assists per game while shooting 41.5% from three on unprecedented volume for a rookie. He’s first among rookies in scoring, sixth in rebounds, and eighth in assists. He’s averaging 1.5 more threes made per game than the next best rookie and is on pace to shatter the rookie record for 3-pointers made in a season.
There was a lot of talk about Kon’s ‘ceiling’ at draft time, and he’s very quickly dispelled the notion that he was some low upside player. He’s already the Hornets’ best player on a lot of nights, and he’s shown he can take on whatever role is needed given the available players on any given night. He should be the favorite for Rookie of the Year, but he’s going to have to overcome the fact that former Duke teammate Cooper Flagg was kind of pre-anointed with that award before the season even began.
Flagg was the Western Conference Rookie of the Month. There were two other nominees for Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month. VJ Edgecombe and the Hornets’ very own Ryan Kalkbrenner. These rookies are good.
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