Kon Knueppel’s rookie year was already packed with milestones, and now it has earned him a new label from Bleacher Report: the best 21-year-old player in the NBA.
The Charlotte Hornets forward topped a ranking that also included Stephon Castle, VJ Edgecombe and Collin Murray-Boyles. Bleacher Report pointed to the mix that made Knueppel such a tough evaluation for defenses all season long, writing, "Knueppel has solid playmaking and pick-and-roll instincts for a wing.
He's probably not a plus defender yet, but he's also not a disaster. And if he makes even marginal improvements in those areas while maintaining the shooting, he could be a borderline All-Star as early as this season,"
That kind of projection fits what Knueppel just did in Charlotte. He didn’t win the 2025-26 Rookie of the Year award, but he still put together a season that stood out across the league.
Knueppel averaged 18.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game while shooting 47.5% from the field, 42.5% from 3 and 86.3% from the free-throw line. He also led the NBA in 3-pointers.
The production came with a pile of rookie-era history. Knueppel won the first four Rookie of the Month awards last season, becoming the first Hornet ever to take the honor four times. At age 20, he became the only player in NBA history age 22 or younger to record 250 3PM in a season against New York on March 26.
He also kept rewriting the record book along the way. Against Miami on March 6, Knueppel passed Michael Jordan for the NBA rookie record for most games with 20+ points on 65% true shooting, reaching 27 in what was then his rookie-leading 14th 25-point game.
On Feb. 26 at Indiana, he set an NBA rookie record for 3-pointers made in a season with 207, tying a career-high and franchise-rookie record with eight 3PM and tying his own franchise rookie mark. Then, at Atlanta on Feb. 7, he broke the rookie record for most games with 5+ 3PM with 14.
There was more. On Dec. 31 against Golden State, Knueppel broke the rookie record for most games with 20+ points on 50/40/90 shooting splits, finishing with 12 and taking down the mark previously set by Stephen Curry.
The numbers only deepen the case for why he’s drawing this kind of attention. Knueppel is one of three rookies in NBA history, with a minimum of 25 games played, to average at least 15 points and 5 rebounds per game while shooting 40% from 3-point range. The other two are Larry Bird and Paul Pierce.
In Charlotte, Knueppel and Brandon Miller are now being viewed as the franchise’s new faces after the LaMelo Ball trade. The Hornets are widely expected to open next season with Coby White, Miller, Knueppel, Naz Reid and Moussa Diabaté in the starting lineup. Whether that group can push Charlotte into the playoffs in Year 1 of the post-Ball era is one of the biggest questions facing the team.
The Hornets last made the playoffs in 2016.
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