ESPN Insider Sees More Steph Curry in Kon Knueppel's Game Than Klay Thompson

Of all the players in the talented 2025 NBA Draft, very few expected fourth overall pick Kon Knueppel to be the guy who everyone is obsessing over halfway through the season. Yes, Cooper Flagg gets his fair share of love, but it was expected. This red-hot tear that Knueppel is on has some around the league talking as if he's going to be one of the future faces of the league.

ESPN's NBA insider Brian Windhorst has heard over and over about the comparison between Kon Knueppel and Klay Thompson, but he believes we're all looking at the wrong splash brother.

Brian Windhorst believes Kon Knueppel is closer to Steph Curry than he is Klay Thompson when discussing his comparison 👀 pic.twitter.com/UuXEozsnZ5
— NBA Courtside (@NBA__Courtside) January 21, 2026

“I know it sounds crazy, but when you watch how this guy has taken the league by storm…okay, the three-pointers per game, it’s a different era. Look at the percentage, look at the age. And you know what? He’s like Steph in that you can’t catch him. One of his great things that he does is move without the ball. Pass and relocate. He’ll set a ton of screens. If you don’t know about Kon Knueppel, if you didn’t watch him at Duke, watch the way he impacts the game.”

Our own Matt Alquiza actually asked Knueppel about what it was like to share the floor with Curry back on New Year's Eve, a guy that he'll likely be compared to throughout his career. Knueppel, as humble as ever, stated, "Uh, I don't know about that."

A bunch of folks on social media took it as Kon thinking the comparison was invalid, but I believe it was just his way of paying respect to one of the best shooters, if not the best shooter, in the history of the game.

What he has done through the first 46 games of his career is rare. He's averaging 18.7 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 3.6 assists per game while shooting 48% from the field, 42% from three-point range, and 89.5% from the free throw line. There's still a chance he could shoot, 50-40-90 and to do that as a rookie playing heavy minutes is incredible. He's already made 151 threes on the season and is well on pace to shatter the all-time record for threes by a rookie, which is 206 by Keegan Murray.

He may not be quite Steph Curry just yet, but you can see the similarities for sure.

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