One Voter Places Kon Knueppel in Unthinkable Spot on Rookie of the Year Ballot

All season long, well, at least since the start of November, the NBA's Rookie of the Year award has felt like a two-horse race between Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel. VJ Edgecombe of the Philadelphia 76ers had a solid year, but his impact doesn't really come anywhere close to that of the former Duke teammates.

A strong case could be made for either Knueppel or Flagg. They lived up to and even exceeded expectations. And in Knueppel's case, he helped flip the narrative on the Charlotte Hornets' organization, which had been stuck in the mud for years trying to find a core to build around. It's one thing to put up big numbers as a rookie, but it's another to be a key reason why a team improved its win total by 25.

One voter placed Kon 3rd on the ballot

Apr 14, 2026; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Charlotte Hornets guard/forward Kon Knueppel (7) shoots at pregame warm ups against the Miami Heat during the play-in rounds of the 2026 NBA Playoffs at Spectrum Center. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images | Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

Votes: 1st place | 2nd place | 3rd place - total

Cooper Flagg: 56 | 44 | 0 - 412
Kon Knueppel: 44 | 55 | 1 - 386
VJ Edgecombe: 0 | 1 | 93 - 96
Dylan Harper: 0 | 0 | 5 - 5
Cedric Coward: 0 | 0 | 0 - 1

I'll be honest, I had to do a quadruple take when I saw the voting results come out. Someone picking Knueppel third? What? I mean, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I'd love to know the reasoning for it. Virtually everyone in the basketball universe knew there were only two names truly in consideration to win the job. So, how is it that Flagg and Knueppel aren't a consensus top two?

I know in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't really matter because the overall voting was reasonable and only one person saw it completely differently, but still... how?

Not only did Knueppel lead the entire league in threes, but he did so on high volume, shooting 7.9 attempts per game, converting 42.5% of those shots. We have never seen that type of efficiency from a rookie. For a good portion of the season, he was flirting with the coveted 50/40/90 shooting splits. He, along with Flagg were breaking rookie records left and right. Edgecombe? Not really.

I can't find one justifiable reason for VJ to be ahead of Kon, so I'm not sure how said voter got there.

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