Podcaster Bill Simmons announced his ROTY vote for Knueppel on April 15. Five days later, he admitted play-in results changed one of his award votes. Dallas Mavericks fans have reason to feel good about where this race is heading.
Bill Simmons has been one of the loudest Kon Knueppel voices all season. On April 15, he publicly announced on "The Bill Simmons Show" his ROTY ballot, calling voting for Knueppel over Cooper Flagg a no-brainer.
"I can't believe Flagg is favored versus Kon, who is the second-best guy on a playoff team," Simmons said.
Then on Monday, Simmons said something on his podcast that should have every Mavericks fan paying attention.
After Miami lost to Charlotte in the play-in, Simmons admitted his Sixth Man of the Year vote changed after the result.
"The play-in did change my 6MOY vote," he said. "I'm going to have the 6MOY on a team that couldn't get to the last round of the play-in? I switched it. That's the league's fault. They should've made us vote before the play-in game."
The ROTY ballots were due Friday at 3 p.m. EDT, before Charlotte played Orlando. But Simmons just confirmed on Monday that he changed a different regular-season award ballot after a play-in result and openly acknowledged the process is flawed.
Now consider what Knueppel actually did in the play-in game against Miami on Tuesday. He went 2 of 12 from the floor and 0 of 6 from three, finishing with six points in 34 minutes. He was benched at the end of regulation and overtime in favor of Coby White, who hit the game-tying three and set up LaMelo Ball's game-winner. The Hornets won despite Knueppel, not because of him.
Cooper Flagg averaged 21 points, 6.7 rebounds and 4.5 assists while carrying a 26-56 team every single night while breaking every rookie record at 19 years old. That case was built entirely in the regular season. Simmons confirmed publicly that play-in results were enough to change his thinking on one regular-season award, and some voters may apply that same logic to this one.
As of April 20, the vote tracker compiled by Max Croes had Flagg with 14 first-place votes and Knueppel with 12.