Kon Knueppel’s Immediate Rise Into One of the NBA’s Best Shooters Was No Accident

When the calendar flipped to 2026, the 12–23 Hornets had the NBA’s tallest task ahead: Go into Oklahoma City and get past the defending champion Thunder. Charlotte had a dreadful start to the season, just 4–14 after a seven-game losing streak in late November, but the tide would turn during that Monday night contest in early January at Paycom Center.

With a complete performance from the exciting core of LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller, Kon Knueppel and Miles Bridges, the Hornets gave the Thunder an absolute beatdown. It wasn’t a depleted Oklahoma City group either, as it had Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams all on the floor for what was a 27-point loss. Charlotte’s defense held Gilgeous-Alexander to just 21 points as Miller, Knueppel, Ball and Bridges combined for 84 points on the night.

Knueppel, who leads the NBA in three-pointers, drained five threes to aid his team in the victory. The win over the NBA powerhouse gave the young group confidence that they could compete with the best of the best despite the lackluster start. Two weeks after the signature win, the Hornets began a nine-game winning streak and have been one of the NBA’s best teams over the past few months. With 10 games left in the regular season, Charlotte is 38–34 and gearing up to play postseason basketball with the opportunity to make it out of the Eastern Conference play-in tournament field over the final stretch.

Speaking with Sports Illustrated on behalf of his partnership with Cheez-It and the new limited Kon’s double-double Cheez-It bundle, Knueppel shared why the win over the Thunder helped the Hornets get to where they are today.

“It’s the best team in the NBA and you beat them on their home floor by a bunch of points, that gives you confidence going forward,” he told SI. “Once we saw that playing our brand, playing the way that coach [Charles] Lee wants us to play and playing together, that it really works. That gives you confidence and helps you commit to it going forward.”

What was just one win in the long NBA schedule led to a lot more, both for the organization as a whole and Knueppel personally, who was less than halfway through his rookie season at the time. Charlotte’s core meshes extremely well with the ability to shoot opponents out of the gym on any given night. With a 23–7 record over the last 30 games, the Hornets have a strong chance to make the franchise’s first playoff appearance since 2016.

Charlotte’s most likely path to the playoffs lies in the play-in tournament. But just two games back of the Raptors for the final top-six spot in the East, the Hornets can avoid the play-in altogether should they continue the hot stretch over their last 10 games. In Ball’s sixth NBA season and Miller’s third, the Hornets are finally starting to click. Knueppel’s immediate arrival as one of the league’s best sharpshooters and the gravity that he brings is a big part of Charlotte’s rise. He’s scoring 19.0 points with 5.3 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game while connecting on his threes at a whopping 43.6% clip. And if that wasn’t enough, he’s leading the entire NBA in threes—not just among rookies—with 247 triples, just in front of Luka Dončić’s 242.

Knueppel’s excellence at the next level may have come earlier than most of his NBA counterparts, but his immediate success was no coincidence.

What led to Kon Knueppel’s immediate breakout in the NBA?

The Duke product has smashed rookie shooting records as he became the fastest player in NBA history to both 100 and 200 threes. Before his 60th career game, he broke Keegan Murray’s record for most threes by a rookie when he drained his 207th trey of the year last month.

KON MAKES HISTORY ‼️

With this three, Kon Knueppel has set the new NBA rookie record for 3-pointers made in a season! pic.twitter.com/CoaK09QIQY
— NBA (@NBA) February 27, 2026

If he keeps his nose in front of Dončić, he can become the first ever rookie to lead the league in three-pointers. Onlookers see the records and the consistent dazzling performances, but what’s not seen on the surface is the painstaking process that allowed Knueppel to transition to the NBA with relative ease.

“It takes a lot of repetitions, the reps growing up were super important,” he said. “For me personally, that’s how I gain confidence. You gain confidence through the work you put in. Flying off a screen and running into a shot, kind of leaning a little bit into a three-point shot at the top of the key, that might look like a tough shot but I work on that shot all the time. That’s why I have the confidence to take that shot.”

Through Knueppel’s development years, he got up endless shots each day, usually with high-volume shooting workouts with his high-school team in the morning followed by a return to the gym in the afternoon to see hundreds of shots go through the net. At night, Knueppel and his four brothers would go back to the gym for more shots and other skill work. Plus some brotherly one-on-one, of course.

The countless reps mattered but in the NBA, preparation becomes more intentional out of necessity due to the grueling 82-game season. Knueppel has missed just one of the first 72 games of the season, which came in late December due to an ankle sprain.

“In college, I was a big [proponent] that reps were the only thing that mattered, almost overdoing it.” Knueppel said. “I think that did me a lot of good, but it doesn’t carry over as much in the regular season in the NBA. You just can’t do it, it’s not good for your body and our training staff does a really good job and has helped me be prepared to play as many games as I can this season.”

Before the NBA, Knueppel’s pregame treatment looked different than it does now. He’d get on a foam roller, maybe touch his toes a couple times to stretch and get ready to play. An 82-game season is nothing to sneeze at, though. Alongside the team’s training staff, he’s found what works for his body to remain available, which is key to Charlotte’s success.

Near the end of his historic rookie season, he’s found himself as a front-runner to receive Rookie of the Year honors, in the midst of a competition with former Duke teammate and close friend Cooper Flagg.

The Rookie of the Year race between Kon Knueppel and Cooper Flagg

Knueppel and Flagg are each having incredible rookie seasons in different ways. Flagg, the top pick in the NBA draft, is looking like the league’s next superstar as he leads rookies in scoring with 20.4 points per game for the rebuilding Mavericks. Knueppel, who Charlotte selected with the fourth pick, has set numerous records as he’s immediately become one of the NBA’s best shooters. He’s a critical piece for the surprising Hornets as he’s helped drive the franchise’s turnaround.

How do you honor just one of those incredible seasons with vastly different team contexts? Well, for Knueppel, the race with his college roommate is the best case scenario.

“It’s really cool,” the Hornets sharpshooter said of the Rookie of the Year race. “I want to see [Flagg] do great things and obviously it would mean a ton to get that award. It’s always fun to get awards because you put a lot of time and effort in so that’d be a great honor. But it would also be cool to see Cooper get it, he works just as hard.

“We’ll see going forward, but I think committing to the stuff I can control and how I can help the Hornets will help me the best in the long run.”

Another feather in Knueppel’s cap in the chase could be finishing as the league’s leader in threes. Last season, Timberwolves superstar Anthony Edwards led the NBA, finishing just one three-pointer ahead of former Pistons guard Malik Beasley. Edwards had some work to do to take the lead, which brought him to take 18 attempts and sinking seven in his final regular-season game to eclipse Beasley.

With Dončić currently five triples behind Knueppel, we could see a similar chase to conclude this season, especially if playoff seeding is already locked up. Dončić leads the NBA in three-point attempts with nearly 100 more than the Hornets’ rookie. The Lakers’ superstar isn’t shy to get his volume, and so close to the end of the season, Knueppel admits he’s aware of the chase for the three-point title. No rookie has finished a season as the league’s leading three-point shooter and that feat would be a thrill, but only if it comes naturally.

Charlotte can move up the standings and out of the play-in over the final stretch of the regular season, which is the primary endeavor ahead.

This Hornets core group could bring the franchise to new heights

The Hornets will almost certainly play postseason basketball this season, nine games ahead of the 11th-place Bucks with just 10 games left. The question is whether the exciting group can escape the play-in tournament to automatically qualify for the playoff field or survive should it remain between the No. 7 and No. 10 seeds in the East.

Making the playoffs for the first time since 2016 is the first step. Ball has yet to play in the postseason since his arrival in Charlotte six years ago. Miller brought the Hornets immediate juice as the No. 2 pick in the 2023 draft, but he was hampered last year after undergoing surgery that repaired a torn ligament in his right wrist. Although Ball put up a career-high scoring total, Charlotte won just 19 games in 2024-25 and had to punt toward the future in the first season under Lee.

Availability has been key to the franchise’s turnaround. Ball has played in 62 games this season, already the most since his second season in the league when he made his sole All-Star appearance. Other than a 13-game absence early in the season due to a shoulder injury, Miller’s been available as well.

Last year’s forgettable season wasn’t all for nothing, as it led to a high draft pick and Knueppel’s arrival. His gravity has given Ball and Miller more space to operate, which was the missing piece for Charlotte’s electric offense. Coupled with key contributors up and down the roster from Sion James and Coby White in the backcourt to Moussa Diabaté and Ryan Kalkbrenner down low, no opponent wants to see the red-hot Hornets in the playoffs.

Firmly in the play-in picture and two games back of avoiding it altogether, Charlotte is on the verge of its first playoff appearance in a decade. The group will need playoff experience but with their meteoric rise, the franchise’s first-ever trip to the Eastern Conference finals could come sooner than expected.

“We’re striving for daily improvement, getting better with each day, each game, each practice,” Knueppel said. “That’s what we’ve been focused on and we want to get to the upper part of the play-in or maybe even sneak out of it and get the six seed so we don’t have to worry about it.

“We’ll commit to playing our brand of basketball and our identity and see where it goes from there.”

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