Kon Knueppel wasn’t thought of as a home run pick when the Charlotte Hornets selected him with the fourth overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. _For whatever reason_, there were questions about his ceiling and his ability to impact the game beyond his outside shooting despite plenty of evidence at Duke that he’s more than just a shooter. He came in and immediately proved there is a whole lot of depth to his game. The knockdown shooting is just a part of it.
Through the first two months of the season, Knueppel is first among rookies in points per game, sixth in rebounds, and eighth in assists. He’s made more 3-pointers than the next rookies combined and is third in the entire league in that stat. He’s flirting with a 50/40/90 season; he just needs to up his overall field goal percentage a couple of points. He’s already over 40% from three and 90% from the line.
There is one rookie in NBA history that has played a full season and averaged 19 points per game while shooting 45% from the field and 40% from three. That player was this dude in 1980 named Larry Bird. While we’re making reckless comparisons, Knueppel’s stat line compares favorably to Luka Doncic’s through this part of his rookie season.
PPG
RPG
APG
SPG
BPG
FG%
3P%
FT%
Kon Knueppel
19.0
5.4
3.5
0.7
0.2
47.2
40.5
92.1
Luka Doncic
18.2
6.7
4.6
1.1
0.3
43.5
35.8
76.7
To look at this outside of the shooting ability, here is the list of rookies that have averaged 19 points, 5 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game (in chronological order):
* Kon Knueppel
* Victor Wembanyama
* Paolo Banchero
* Luka Doncic
* Blake Griffin
* Tyreke Evans
* LeBron James
* Grant Hill
* Larry Johnson
* Mitch Richmond
* Michael Jordan
* Larry Bird
* Alvan Adams
* Sidney Wicks
* Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
* Earl Monroe
That’s the entire list, and that’s quite a list. And as I mentioned before, only Bird has matched Knueppel’s shooting splits at the same time.
The Hornets haven’t been good, and they never get any spotlight, so the average NBA fan probably isn’t aware of what Knueppel is doing on a night to night basis. The stats are by no means empty stats on a bad team. Knueppel plays some of the best basketball you’ll see. His decision making and feel for the game are elite. He’s constantly under control and almost never makes a bad play. While he doesn’t generate a lot of stocks, his positional defense has been way better than expected. He takes perfect angles and uses his body to cut off driving angles, and he never switches off away from the ball or when shots go up. The Hornets are better on both ends of the floor when Knueppel is on it, and that’s not a coincidence. He might be the best player on the team already.
Cooper Flagg has been getting a lot of attention because he’s doing things at his age that we haven’t seen since LeBron James. Getting on lists that are basically just you and LeBron is going to get the talking heads talking. That’s overshadowed how rare of a rookie season Knueppel is having so far. While Flagg’s parallels LeBron, Knueppel’s has paralleled other all time greats like Bird and Doncic.
Flagg has seemingly taken the lead in the Rookie of the Year race, but I think that’s more because of his pedigree than it is merit. Knueppel has been the best rookie in the league so far this season, and he’s getting better with each game. I’d like to see the national media take more notice. Knueppel deserves more praise than he’s been getting. And at some point we might need to revisit those conversations about what his “ceiling” is.
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