Kon Knueppel cements his status as the Rookie of the Year favorite with dominant performance in Indiana

You could make a compelling argument that Kon Knueppel has been the best player on the Charlotte Hornets through the first four weeks of the 2025-26 NBA season.

The rookie was billed as an 'NBA-ready' prospect' due to his intriguing combination of size, smarts, and shooting touch, but he continues to outpace even the loftiest expectations that were placed on him when Charlotte used the fourth overall pick on him last summer.

Knueppel was brilliant in an otherwise deflating loss to the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night. He showed his full complement of talents, dicing up Indiana on offense while providing adequate defense against the Pacers' plethora of athletic perimeter scorers.

Knueppel reads the game like a 10-year veteran

Kon's most impressive trait is the metronomic timing that he plays with.

Nothing speeds the kid up. When the ball is in Knueppel's hands, you can be sure that the correct read will be made. He is consistently turning down good shots for great ones, making him the ideal connective teammate that the rest of the Hornets must love sharing the floor with.

His playmaking skills are outrageous. Unlike LaMelo Ball who uses his absurd physical gifts to cut through opposing defenses with passes, Knueppel carves up the opposition with manipulative eyes and an acute sense of angles and timing.

He finished the game against Indiana with seven assists, adding a number of highlights to his ever-expanding reel.

His first assist, a slick one to Ryan Kalkbrenner, came after Knueppel 'Nash dribbled' parallel to the baseline in transition, drawing the eyes and attention of a trio of Pacers before slipping the ball to his center for an easy look.

On his final dime of the game, Knueppel froze on a dime after receiving a pass, acting like he was going to rise up for a jumper (after he had already cooked Indiana from deep to start the fourth period) before easily driving past Bennedict Mathruin and throwing a bounce pass with some English on it to Pat Connaughton who splashed a three-pointer.

Kon Knueppel has completely taken over this game in the 4th quarter.

28 points, eight rebounds, seven assists, and spearheading a massive run to get the Hornets back competitive in this one.

Sick pass right here too btw pic.twitter.com/okZ3slkqfI
— Matt Alquiza (@malquiza8) November 20, 2025

Kon Knueppel is an absolute maestro with the ball in his hands, and the Hornets are playing sweet, sweet music when their rookie is on the floor. The Hornets' net rating increases by 3.3 points (per Cleaning the Glass) when Knueppel is in the mix, which is the second-best differential of any Hornet.

Kon is a capital S Shooter

The numbers speak for themselves.

With another five three-point makes against Indiana, Knueppel became the fastest player in NBA history to reach 50 made threes in his career.

He is deadly off the catch, combining elite footwork in his prep, veteran-like relocation abilities to find swaths of space inbetween defenders to open up passing lanes for his teammates, and a lightning-quick release into a full package that has drawn comparisons to Klay Thompson.

In recent games, Knueppel has had to get into his pull-up and step back bags, finding ways to create perimeter offense for himself to help Charlotte claw back into games that are slipping away.

His gravity and playmaking combined with LaMelo Ball's same level of skill carried Charlotte's offense for stretches in Indianapolis. The pair make so much sense together as a perimeter duo on offense, and it will truly be a shame if we can never see their talents fully actualized due to LaMelo's chronic ankle problems or the ongoing trade rumors.

It’ll be a real bummer if we never get to see a fully healthy LaMelo play next to Kon because they really do compliment each other so well.

The chemistry in these 77 shallow actions is so evident. Their combination of shooting and IQ puts so much stress on defenses. pic.twitter.com/XDOMqYvSyu
— Matt Alquiza (@malquiza8) November 20, 2025

Kon is as advertised. In less than a month of his NBA career, Knueppel has established himself as a building block in Charlotte that Jeff Peterson and company can build their franchise around. Time will tell if VJ Edgecombe and Cooper Flagg can reclaim their spot on top of the rookie throne, but don't get it twisted: Kon Knueppel is the favorite for NBA Rookie of the Year.

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