Why Kon Knueppel Should've Won Rookie of the Year Over Former Duke Teammate Cooper Flagg

Cooper Flagg was named the NBA's Rookie of the Year on Monday, as the top pick in last summer's draft, narrowly edged out Hornets sharpshooter Kon Knueppel, his close friend and former teammate at Duke.

It was a close race as each young star had an incredible first season in its own right. Flagg looks like the NBA's next true superstar as he shined for the rebuilding Mavericks this season. Knueppel led the entire league, not just rookies, in three-pointers as a key piece in Charlotte's run as one of the NBA's best teams after the All-Star break.

The Hornets had their best season in a decade and came close to a playoff appearance before the Magic defeated Charlotte in the play-in tournament to claim the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference.

Rookies fall into vastly different team contexts right out of the gate. The great majority head into rebuild situations, like was the case with Flagg. Charlotte had a dreadful season last year due to injuries, leading to Knueppel's arrival as the No. 4 pick. He may have been the missing piece for the franchise as he provides ample space around LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller so the two have more room to operate.

The Rookie of the Year award is given to the top rookie, winning isn't considered but team success could be a factor for specific voters. Knueppel and Flagg were the clear frontrunners, although Philadelphia's V.J. Edgecombe had a strong rookie season himself.

Flagg received 56 first-place votes and Knueppel had 44, a narrow race with plenty of factors to consider. Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix gave Knueppel his first-place vote and had Flagg as second. Mannix assigned each award a degree of difficulty, with the ROY race as the only award worthy of a perfect 10. An agonizing decision that causes you to go back and forth until votes are due.

With such a close race and two incredibly worthy candidates, let's take a look at Flagg and Knueppel's rookie seasons side by side:

The Cooper Flagg vs. Kon Knueppel race, by the numbers

Kon Knueppel and Cooper Flagg — The former teammates were top picks in last year's NBA draft | Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

Flagg had an up-and-down start to the season, but he reached another level toward the end of the year and led all rookies in scoring over the season. He put up 51- and 45-point performances in April to leave a good lasting impression on awards voters. He entered the NBA as an elite prospect on both ends of the floor, especially on the defensive end. Flagg lived up to the expectations and then some as he averaged 2.1 stocks (steals plus blocks) per game in year one.

On the other hand, Knueppel made a true impact on a competitive team. Flagg didn't have that opportunity during his first season as the Mavs were without Kyrie Irving and dealt Anthony Davis to the Wizards at the trade deadline. Dallas fully pressed the rebuild button out of necessity, which isn't something you can fault the franchise's star rookie for. With that in mind, it's difficult to look past how big Knueppel was to Charlotte's success, even though the Hornets ultimately fell short of the playoffs.

Here's how the two Duke products performed by the numbers over the regular season:

Stat	Cooper Flagg	Kon Knueppel
Games played	70	81
Points per game	21.0	18.5
Rebounds per game	6.7	5.3
Assists per game	4.5	3.4
Field-goal percentage	46.8%	47.5%
Three-point percentage	29.5%	42.5%
Free-throw percentage	82.7%	86.3%

The case for Kon Knueppel over Cooper Flagg

Knueppel's ROY case was fairly straightforward: He was one of the most efficient shooters across the NBA and gave the Hornets more than just his elite shooting ability. He scores at all three levels and competes on defense, even if he's not anywhere near the type of defender Flagg is.

He was the fastest rookie in NBA history to tally both 100 and 200 threes and set the rookie record for most threes with over 20 games to spare. If that wasn't enough, he made more threes than any player across the league this year with 273 total triples. Ball was right there with 272 threes, then the next closest player was Lakers superstar Luka Dončić (254) who led the league in scoring this year.

The largest feather in Knueppel's cap may just be the Hornets' success this season. Charlotte finished with its most wins since the 2015–16 season. The team went 18–9 after the break and had the second best offensive rating (121.8) and net rating (11.1) over that period. Knueppel was a huge part of that as he started 80 games and gave the Hornets 18.5 points a night while shooting a whopping 42.5% from three-point range on 7.9 attempts per game.

It's worth acknowledging that Knueppel largely disappeared during Charlotte's play-in tournament games. Those contests aren't supposed to factor into voting, but the NBA didn't send awards ballots out until after the rough performance. The delayed timing as the league evaluated Dončić and Cade Cunningham's grievances for postseason award eligibility could've impacted the result, although it's not supposed to.

We'll never know whether that's the case, and Flagg is certainly a worthy recipient of the award. Either way, we may not see a Rookie of the Year race like this for some time. No matter the result, the Mavs and the Hornets are both thrilled to have their respective young stars in the fold for years to come.

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