Former Duke star Cooper Flagg has been predicted to win the 2025-26 NBA Rookie of the Year Award.
A former Duke player will win the 2025-26 NBA Rookie of the Year Award, as Cooper Flagg or Kon Knueppel will take home the trophy.
But that part has been known for a while. What people really want to know is who is going to win the award between Flagg and Knueppel.
NBA analyst Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report predicts that Flagg will edge out Knueppel for the award.
"Knueppel's case is super compelling—and would be award-winning in a lot of seasons," Buckley wrote. "But Flagg just has a different top gear, and since this reward often lands with the most specatcular rookie (not necessarily the most successful one), our crystal ball thinks he'll edge out this hard-fought race.
"Flagg, who turned 19 in December, is on course to become just the fifth rookie ever to average 21 points, six rebounds, four assists and a steal. The others are two Hall of Famers (Michael Jordan and Larry Bird), a future Hall of Famer (Luka Dončić) and a four-time All-Star who somehow peaked as a rookie (Sidney Wicks).
"NBA freshmen—let alone teenage freshmen—aren't supposed to be this great this quickly. And yet, Knueppel has been so incredible that he probably still had this vote until Flagg went supernova over the campaign's penultimate weekend, delivering 96 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists over a two-game stretch."
Flagg averaged 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game in his lone season at Duke. The Dallas Mavericks selected him with the first pick in the 2025 draft. The Maine native's best game in college was against Notre Dame on January 11, 2025. He had 42 points, six rebounds and seven assists.
Duke fans probably watch a lot of Mavericks games because Dallas has Flagg, Kyrie Irving and Dereck Lively II, three former Blue Devils.
For the Mavericks this season, Flagg is putting up 21.2 points, 6.7 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game while shooting 46.8% from the field, 29.6% from beyond the arc and 82.6% from the free-throw line.
The last former Duke player to win Rookie of the Year was Paolo Banchero of the Orlando Magic. Banchero will have company soon.
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