Kon Knueppel Gets Honest About His Sensational Rookie Season

Rookie year has been good to Kon Knueppel. The No. 4 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft has helped turn around the Charlotte Hornets, established himself as one of the frontrunners for NBA Rookie of the Year, and even landed an endorsement deal (Kon’s Double Double Cheez-It Bundle), with one of his favorite snack brands.

Not bad for the former Duke University star, who says he wasn't fixated on personal goals coming into his first pro campaign.

"Yeah, I think really the main focus is what I can do for the Charlotte Hornets and for the organization," Knueppel told Men's Journal Wednesday. "And I felt like if we had a decent amount of team success and that I played well enough, that could really help me. That's kind of been my focus always with any sort of award, high school, college. Focus on what you can do to help your team win games and then let the rest of that stuff take care of itself."

Changing the culture in Charlotte

The Hornets last reached the NBA Play-In Tournament four years ago and have not qualified for the actual playoff bracket since 2016. As of Thursday, they have locked in a Play-In berth and are just two games out of the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference.

Not bad for a team that started 4-14 and was 16-28 on Jan. 21 before ripping off 22 wins in their next 28 games.

"I think health is a big part of it," Knueppel said of the team's turnaround. "Even though we had guys back at some points of that, we also had guys getting off the minutes restrictions early from their injuries. So that helped us as well. But really, I just think it's a commitment to playing with each other and for each other, which has been really cool. I think, what the fans get excited about and what I've really seen is how much we enjoy playing together and how we play together. Also, just our commitment to both sides of the ball, offensively, defensively. We've really stepped up from early in the season."

A star is born--immediately

It did not take long for the 6-foot-6 Knueppel to flash his scoring and playmaking skills at the NBA level. In 71 games this season, he's averaging 19.0 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.4 assists while shooting 48.7% from the field and 43.6% from three-point range.

Knueppel was confident in his ability coming into the season, but even he didn't realize the immediate impact he'd have.

"You know, honestly, I didn't expect the role to be as big as it has turned out to be," Knueppel said. "I think a lot of that had to do with injuries as well, having guys hurt. So I had to really from the get-go be really aggressive and start the season off almost like a number one option with LaMelo out for some nights and Brandon Miller out for most nights.

"It was really about trying to get out there and prove what I could do. And so after that, that obviously just puts a little bit of confidence that once we get our whole team back together, we've got four or five guys now that can really score as well as other guys who can really contribute in a lot of different other ways defensively and offensively."

Knueppel's performance has him in a tight race with his old Duke running mate Cooper Flagg for the NBA Rookie of the Year Award. The debate over which former Blue Devil is more deserving has engrossed NBA media and fans, but Knueppel says he and Flagg haven't discussed it.

"Yeah, I think the media talks about it enough. So we don't really talk about it too much," Knueppel said.

Duke in the Dance

Knueppel has been paying attention to his former program this month. The NCAA Tournament's No. 1 overall seed, Duke will face fifth-seeded St. John's in the Sweet 16 Friday night in Washington, D.C.

"I think they have a great chance," Knueppel said. "Caleb Foster, hopefully, I don't know what the update there is with the injury, but hopefully he can get back for this weekend, maybe the second game if they win. I think that would be big for them. But we'll see. I really like the team. I think they play really, really hard, and they play well together. So it's a fun watch."

Knueppel spent only one season in Durham, helping Duke reach the 2025 Final Four, but says his time there prepared him well for the NBA.

"Just really going against really talented guys all the time for a full year in practice, it showed me the level of intensity that you got to work at and what level of competitiveness you have to bring in every day," he said. "I think Duke does a really good job of fostering that competitive spirit with a bunch of talented guys."