Jeff Teague Makes Case for Kon Knueppel Rookie of the Year Over Cooper Flagg

Barring a late collapse or a shocking surge by someone else, the NBA Rookie of the Year award is going to come down to Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel. The Charlotte Hornets guard and Dallas Mavericks forward have been neck and neck all year.

Currently, Knueppel leads on the NBA Rookie Ladder while Flagg is hurt. Odds-wise, Flagg has the advantage. He's -320 on FanDuel, while Knueppel is +220. No one else is above +7500. It's Cooper versus Kon, and it's difficult to tell who has the true upper hand.

Well, it's difficult for some to tell. Jeff Teague believes it is cut and dry. He thinks the award should go to Knueppel, and if it doesn't, then it will be a glaring mistake.

🎙️ Jeff Teague on Kon Knueppel: "If he's not Rookie of the Year, he got robbed... they actually winning games, he averaging 20 points down there."pic.twitter.com/QBlMf0VMBx
— r/CharlotteHornets (@HornetsReddit) February 25, 2026

Teague said, "If he's not the Rookie of the Year, he got robbed... they're actually winning games, he's averaging 20 points down there." The Hornets are having much more team success than the Mavericks.

That may not be a fair argument, though. This is a team sport, and Flagg doesn't have the benefit of LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller opposite him. He doesn't even have Miles Bridges or Moussa Diabaté, either.

Plus, Hornets fans have seen the winning argument used against their players time and again (see: LaMelo Ball 2024-25 All-Star snub). It's nice to see it used in favor of the Hornets for once, but we know better than most that it's not fair.

It should just come down to head-to-head performance. It remains a difficult race even when excluding team performance. These two are both really good basketball players already.

Charlotte Hornets guard Kon Knueppel (7) shoots over Dallas Mavericks forward Cooper Flagg | Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

Flagg has a slight edge in points per game, rebounds per game, and assists. However, Flagg's usage rate is higher, which can probably explain the marginal difference in traditional averages.

Knueppel has the edge in true shooting by over nine percentage points. Flagg's PIE is 0.4 higher. Knueppel also has the edge in net rating, as he has a 3.6 mark compared to Flagg's -4.5. In both defensive (albeit by 0.2) and offensive rating, Knueppel is better, too.

It is my belief that Flagg is experiencing the Victor Wembanyama treatment. Coming in, both Flagg and Wembanyama were viewed as such generational prospects that they essentially had a leg up in the award race.

Wembanyama beat out Chet Holmgren and Brandon Miller. He deserved to, but Miller and Holmgren would've had to far outplay him to win. Knueppel, seemingly, is going to have to far outplay Flagg to win, and right now, he's only a little ahead.

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