With Con Knueppel playing a key role, the Hornets have won 5 in a row this season to reach .500.
The race for Kia NBA Rookie of the Year, an award unofficially tracked week by week here on the Kia Rookie Ladder, appears to be tighter than at any previous point this season.
Indeed, just as the holders of the top two rungs of the ladder were down significantly last week when Charlotte’s Kohn Nueppel overtook Dallas’ Cooper Flagg, there has been a similar turnaround in Las Vegas. In an update from DraftKings SportsbookKnueppel was the favorite, Flagg was now the underdog (and Philadelphia’s VJ Edgecombe Roy was third as a candidate.)
Flagg has put up bigger counting stats than his former Duke teammate for most of the season with some explosive performances (49 points vs. Charlotte, 42 at Utah, 39 with nine boards and nine assists in a thrilling win vs. Denver). But Knueppel has kept pace by leading the NBA in 3-pointers, having already broken that Deepest Newbie RecordsAnd flirting with shooting accuracy worthy of the acclaimed 50/40/90 club.
In about six weeks, Roy voters will evaluate all of his statistics as well as the intangibles and expectations met or missed when casting their ballots. And then there are some other factors that could influence a potentially tight race.
One is durability. Flagg has played in 49 of Dallas’ 61 games so far, having missed the last seven due to a foot sprain. Knueppel has made 61 appearances for the Hornets in 62 appearances. The double-digit difference in attendance is how Knueppel has overtaken Flagg in total points, rebounds and assists despite Flagg’s slight lead on a per game basis.
The second is to win. Charlotte is 31-31 after defeating dallas Then Tuesday. But Knueppel has more bragging rights than 2-0 – the Hornets have not only won 10 more games than Dallas, but they’ve already topped their total from last season (19). Similar improvement is expected from top rookies.
By comparison, the Mavericks are unlikely to come close to last year’s 39 wins. And even though a rookie is rarely blamed when his team takes a step back, this is not common among Roy winners.
Only three of the final 25 rookies of the year played on winning teams. fewer game compared to the first season. Sixteen of the 25 helped their teams win at least 30 – the Mavericks are on pace to finish 28-54.
Nine of the winners played on teams that improved by 10 or more wins, with Knueppel’s club on track to add 22 to its tally. The only Roy guys in that ballpark over the past 25 were Ben Simmons (+24), Chris Paul (+20) and LeBron James (+18).
Is winning the most important criteria for a first-year player? Probably not. But the draft is designed to provide help to the teams most in need, and nowhere is it written that help should not appear in Year 1. Knueppel certainly has more talented teammates, but his shooting range, floor IQ and fundamentals have opened up some exciting things in Charlotte.
Flagg has a heavy lift, stepping into the void to lead the Mavericks who struggled with injuries after the departure of Luka Doncic last season. His individual play on both ends is more attractive than that of his former Blue Devils roommate. But in a league that values efficiency and has never been very patient with losing, Knueppel’s immediate impact could be enough for a new playoff candidate to claim the award.
This week’s ladder rankings are as follows:
weekly recap
- San Antonio guard Dylan Harper crashes the partyBecame the first rookie other than Knueppel or Flagg to win the Rookie of the Month award for his work in February. Harper’s case in the West was made less by his individual statistics (12.5 ppg, 4.9 apg, 55.4% shooting) and more by the Spurs’ 11–0 perfection in February. Knueppel won the East again as the Hornets went 8-3 and took a 4-3 lead in the flag in monthly honors this season.
- good things come to those who waitDallas rookie point guard Ryan Nembhard found out over the weekend when the Mavericks converted his two-way contract to a standard two-year NBA deal. Undrafted out of Gonzaga last June, the brother of Indiana’s Andrew Nembhard has helped the Mavs with 6.7 ppg, 1.8 rpg and 4.9 apg while hitting 37.4% of his 3-point attempts.
- Hugo Gonzalez, Boston’s first-year spark plugHe had his biggest night to date on Monday in Milwaukee, scoring 18 points, grabbing 16 rebounds and surviving his defensive mismatch against Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo. “With these types of players, you can’t really guard them with one guy,” Gonzalez said. “You have to take matchups as a team.” Gonzalez leads all rookies in plus/minus by a wide margin (plus-283).
- Memphis’s Walter Clayton Jr. didn’t just run a personal best That’s when he passed for 14 assists against Indiana on Sunday. He tied the Grizzlies franchise mark for most by a rookie, surpassing Nembhard (13). Ja Morant averaged 14 assists twice in the 2019–20 season.
story worth watching
Lack of head to head. With Flagg sitting out Tuesday, our chances of seeing exclusive matchups of ladder-topping rookies are diminishing. Knuppel’s Hornets will play March 14 in Dylan Harper’s gym. Flagg has potential clashes with Derrick Queen on March 16 in New Orleans and Harper on April 10 in San Antonio. And Edgecombe will get a game against Knuppel on March 28 and Harper on April 6.
(All figures as of Tuesday, March 3)
1. Kon Knuppel, Charlotte Hornets
Season statistics: 19.3 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 3.5 apg
Last Stair: number 1 ↔️
draft pick: number 4
Hornets coach Charles Lee didn’t get a vote, but he did do a little campaigning Tuesday on Knueppel’s Roy candidacy. “I don’t think it’s even close,” Lee said before his team’s win in Charlotte. “Cone has done a really good job of separating himself and making an impact on wins and maintaining consistency on both ends of the floor. … But for the most part, Cone is a humble competitor that I don’t think will get stuck in.”
2. Cooper Flagg, Dallas Mavericks
Season statistics: 20.4 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 4.1 apg
Last Stair: number 2 ↔️
draft pick: number 1
Flagg raised some hopes during his warm-up routine on Tuesday, but ultimately did not play to cancel out the anticipated rematch of his top-two rookie performances last month in Dallas. Even Mavs coach Jason Kidd sounded Tuesday like he was expecting to see it. “They play the game the right way,” Kidd said. “They have made an impact on both of their teams and that game in Dallas was a very entertaining and high-scoring game. Both rookies played great.”
3. VJ Edgecombe, Philadelphia 76ers
Season statistics: 15.5 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 3.9 apg
Last Stair: No. 3 ↔️
draft pick: No. 3
rookie defender plowed into Fell worse from behind Tuesday vs. San Antonio. it got more attention its dive and spill in Boston, in which he landed in the second row and inadvertently kicked a female fan in the head (everything went well later Although). In and around those accidents, Bahamian affected at both ends.
4. Dylan Harper, San Antonio Spurs
Season statistics: 11.0 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 3.8 apg
Last Stair: No. 6 ⬆️
draft pick: number 2
As Harper goes, so go the Spurs? An argument can be made on the direction of this, but when San Antonio wins, Harper is averaging 11.8 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.9 assists with a true-shooting rate of 56.4%. In Spurs losses, those stats all trended downward: 8.7, 2.9, 3.3 and 44.9%.
5. Derrick Queen, New Orleans Pelicans
Season statistics: 12.1 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 3.9 apg
Last Stair: number 4 ⬇️
draft pick: number 13
Recently contributing off the bench for New Orleans, Queen – based on 36 minutes – is averaging 17 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. How rare is this for a newbie? Only one other has done so: Maurice Stokes, who went for 17.4, 17.0 and 5.1 in 1955–56. (Oscar Robertson directly exceeded those limits in his first season but also averaged 42.7 minutes – pro rata Below And he misses the rebound.)
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6. Maxime Renaud, Sacramento Kings
Season statistics: 10.4 ppg, 7.1 rpg, 1.1 apg
Last Stair: number five ⬇️
draft pick: number 42
More minutes – nearly doubling his average from 14.5 in October/November to 30 in February – lead the Kings center to top the rookie double-double list (12) and second only to Queens in total rebounds. But that exposure has had an inevitable downside: He leads the rookie with the worst plus/minus (minus-344 heading into Tuesday’s action).
7. Cedric Coward, Memphis Grizzlies
Season statistics: 13.3 ppg, 6.2 rpg, 2.9 apg
Last Stair: number 7 ↔️
draft pick: number 11
Coward had not played since before the All-Star break, missing the Rising Stars game that weekend and the Grizzlies’ seven games thereafter. But he and his right knee hurt as he took the court for limited minutes Tuesday in Minnesota — a little sunshine for Memphis.
8. Ace Bailey, Utah Jazz
Season statistics: 12.1 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 1.7 apg
Last Stair: number 8 ↔️
draft pick: number five
Bailey was a candidate for West’s Rookie of the Month honors which was won by Harper. He averaged 18 points and 5.3 rebounds last week, a share of his 14.3 points and 6.4 boards in February. Showing his skills.
9. Jeremiah Fears, New Orleans Pelicans
Season statistics: 13.4 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 3.2 apg
Last Stair: t10 ⬆️
draft pick: number 7
Big week for the Pelicans point guard (19.3 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 4.3 apg, 50% 3FG shooting) moves him up the ladder. After his 18 point, 11 rebound night at Utah, coach James Borrego said: “”His poise, his playmaking set us up. …To counterattack his size and position in this manner promotes our attack. And he’s moving forward defensively, causing havoc there.”
10. Igor Demin, Brooklyn Nets
season statistics: 10.3 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 3.3 apg
last step: No. 9 ⬇️
draft pick: number 8
Demin, who has scored in single figures in four of five games, was held out Tuesday to manage a plantar fasciitis injury in his left foot in Miami. He had 20 assists and three turnovers in those five games.
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Steve Ashburner has been writing about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail them here, find his collection is here And follow him on x.
