This year’s Rookie of the Year race, at least so far, has been quite unusual as the two leading candidates were teammates last year: former Blue Devils Kon Knueppel and Cooper Flagg.
For most of the season, Knueppel’s surprisingly mature play has kept him ahead of Flagg as the Charlotte Hornets began planning around their rookie.
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Meanwhile, Flagg, who was asked to play point guard, struggled more. He didn’t start to stand out until the Dallas Mavericks began to demand less of him. And then he began to demonstrate how unusual he is.
Like Knueppel, Flagg is exceptionally mature for a rookie and is really starting to improve.
It’s not that Knueppel is slacking. At the beginning of the season, he looked like a guy who would be a great complementary player, but now he’s playing a lot more aggressively. At one point someone posted that he was getting all his points from assists, to which we said: so what? Those points don’t count any less than unassisted baskets.
It was an interesting point though and Knueppel has been a lot more aggressive lately and seems to be taking guys to the basket a lot more often. Like Luka Doncic, he’ll never be the fastest guy in the league, but he also, like Doncic, outsmarts his defenders, often with surprising ease.
No matter what, watching two former roommates battle it out for the most prestigious award a rookie can win is pretty amazing.
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