Cooper Flagg vs Kon Knueppel: Cards for Rookie of the Year candidates
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We're not even 20% into the NBA season but already there's plenty of chatter happening about who will take home the 2025-26 Rookie of the Year award. Cooper Flagg, the first pick in the 2025 NBA draft is certainly a top contender, but his former Duke teammate and 4th overall pick, Kon Knueppel is exceeding expectations and would be my top vote at this point for top rookie honors.
Below we dive into each players stats thus far plus their highest selling card to date.
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Cooper Flagg, Dallas Mavericks
Flagg has his work cut out for him over in Dallas. The team is off to a rough start, winning just 4 of their first 15 games. They also recently fired their general manager, Nico Harrison.
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Flagg has been transitioning from the forward position he held at Duke to playing point guard position as a Mav, which is no easy task. Adjusting to both a new position and the NBA has had a small but noticeable impact on his game, but he's still doing well.
At this point in the season he's averaging 15.5 points, 6.3 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and 2.2 turnovers per game. His shooting percentages are lower than expected, shooting 45.5% overall and 29.3% from deep, which is a steep drop from his 38.5% college 3-point average. But keep in mind the NBA 3-point line is 19-inches further than the NCAA.
There have been two Flagg cards that have come very close to cracking the six-figure mark, but fell just short. The highest selling Flagg card to date was a one-of-one PSA 9 2024 Bowman Chrome U SuperFractor Autograph Rookie Card (#16) with a "From the 207" inscription that sold for $97.6K on June 28th.
A few weeks ago Topps reposted the video of a woman pulling a one-of-one non-autograph Cooper Flagg rookie and her reaction says it all. That card has not yet appeared at auction, but if or when it comes up it will be interesting to see what it sells for.
She found the 1-of-1 Cooper Flagg rookie card.
— Topps (@Topps) October 25, 2025
(🎥: loyh19069962) pic.twitter.com/EL0hGwcE3f
For a more common Flagg rookie that you can pick up for around $40-$50, look no further than his Topps Chrome 45th Anniversary Mojo refractor rookie. It's a great looking card featuring Flagg mid-shot and the overall design has a lot of eye appeal.
Kon Knueppel, Charlotte Hornets
While the Hornets are also off to a pretty awful start, matching the Mavs winning just 4 of their first 15 games, the Charlotte rookies have been a major bright spot, led by Kon Knueppel. The rookie small forward has actually seen his points per game numbers increase over his first 15 games in the NBA compared to his college average, which is wild.
He's already had two games in November where he's dropped 30 points or more and his 40.2% 3-point shooting is right in line with his numbers at Duke. Overall, Knueppel is averaging 17.6 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 2.5 turnovers per game and shooting 46.5% from the field. If he can keep up these type of numbers for the remainder of the season, I think he'll be the clear favorite for the ROTY award.
Compared to Flagg, Knueppel cards are looking like an absolute steal! With very little hype behind his name before the start of the NBA season there was no summer pop in price, and his highest selling solo card to date is an ungraded one-of-one 2025 Topps Chrome Superfractor rookie card, which sold for $7,000 on November 9th. The seller actually doubled their money in under two weeks and I wouldn't be surprised if the value of this card doubles again very soon.
For a true apples to apples comparison with Flagg, I checked the recent sales of Knueppel's 2025-26
Topps Chrome 45th Anniversary Mojo refractor rookie and its currently selling for under $10, a deep discount all things considered.
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Can Cooper catch Kon?
Its a bit of a ridiculous question so early into the season and the answer is of course, yes, unless Knueppel keeps up this impressive level of play.
Flagg is still a month away from turning 19 and has tons of potential. If I were Jason Kidd, I'd give Flagg an early birthday present and switch him over to the small forward position that he thrived in at Duke. Flagg's build and assist numbers don't justify him running the offensive as a point guard.
If Kidd switches Flagg to a forward, or if Flagg finds other ways to up his game, then the NBA may have a devil of a time selecting the Rookie of the Year at the end of the season.
Conor is a life long sports card enthusiast who started collecting in the early ’90s, inspired by hometown heroes like Larry Bird, Paul Pierce, Tom Brady, and David Ortiz. Like many ’90s hoops fans, he also started building (and continues to build) a modest Michael Jordan collection.