Kon Knueppel is challenging Cooper Flagg's Rookie of the Year dominance, boasting impressive stats and even surpassing a league-leading rookie three-point record.
The Dallas Mavericks drafted Cooper Flagg out of Duke with the first overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, and they did so after he was regarded as one of the best prospects in recent memory.
And so far this season, he has been exactly as good as advertised.
He has run some point guard for the Mavs with Kyrie Irving out for the rest of the season as he recovers from his ACL tear. That might not have been something that Flagg thought he was going to do this soon after coming into the league, but he has stepped up to the plate and performed.
But despite all of that, there has been a rookie that some believe has been better than Flagg through just over half of the season.
According to betting odds, there is a new favorite to win Rookie of the Year, and he used to be teammates with Flagg at Duke.
Kon Knueppel was drafted with the fourth overall pick in this past year's draft to the Charlotte Hornets, and he has been perhaps one of the biggest surprises of the year so far.
Many obviously thought that he was going to be good, but him putting up very similar numbers to Flagg was not on a lot of people's bingo cards.
The Hornets star is putting up 19 points, five rebounds, and three assists per game, and he is doing so with some great shooting percentages. Most notable is his three-point percentage, which is at an impressive 44 percent.
His 49 percent from the field and 89 percent from the line also means that he is very close to joining the 50-40-90 club as a rookie, which nobody else has ever done. Not to mention that Knueppel also just passed Kings forward Keegan Murray for the most threes in a player's rookie year.
Not only has the Hornet been playing out of his mind, but Flagg has also been injured for a while. He sustained a foot injury against the Suns in a game a couple weeks ago, and has not played since.
In a recent interview, Mavs head coach Jason Kidd also said that it is unlikely Coop will suit up against the Hornets on Tuesday.
So with Knueppel playing some great basketball, and Flagg not even being on the floor, the ROTY race by the end of the year might look different thatn it did towards the beginning of the season.