Kon Knueppel’s rookie year already sits in its own lane, and now he’s adding another wrinkle.
The Charlotte Hornets guard said at media day Monday that he feels more comfortable firing from deep off the dribble after his offseason work. That’s a notable development for a player who just led the NBA with 273 made 3-pointers as a rookie, the most by any first-year player in league history.
Even with that added confidence, Knueppel made clear that the assisted look remains the one he wants most. He sees those shots as the natural byproduct of Charlotte’s offense and the kind of clean chances the Hornets should keep generating.
“I think you got a lot of attempts, a lot off assists obviously,” Knueppel said. “I think that's because the product of the offense, but also those are the good shots.
Those are the ones you want to take. I think I'm in a good spot, both in we're going to have to play a little bit differently this year.
We're still going to want to play with the pace that we play with.”
“But I feel more comfortable off the dribble, shooting those threes after the offseason,” Knueppel continued. “But also, we are going to get a lot of assisted three-point attempts. And so you want to make those.”
That balance between creation and catch-and-shoot production is what made his rookie season so unusual in the first place. Before last year, no rookie had ever led the league in made 3-pointers. Keegan Murray had held the previous rookie record with 206, and Knueppel blew past that number on the way to 273.
He didn’t just pile up volume; he kept stacking milestones. Over a 10-game stretch through a Nov. 23 loss at Atlanta, he averaged 4.1 made 3-pointers and 23.1 points.
On Jan. 29, he went 8-of-12 from beyond the arc and scored 34 points in a 123-121 win over the Dallas Mavericks. By early February, according to the Charlotte Observer, he had become the fastest player in NBA history to reach 100 career 3-pointers.
Bleacher Report noted Feb. 3 that he was hitting 46.6% of his pull-up 3s, and the same report said his 42.5% overall rate was the best among the 15 players with at least 350 attempts. Four days later in Atlanta, he logged his 14th game with at least five 3-pointers, and the Hornets said no rookie in NBA history had more.
Knueppel also got a spot on one of the league’s biggest shooting stages. At All-Star Saturday in Los Angeles on Feb. 14, he took part in the 3-Point Contest. He scored 27 in the opening round to reach the final, then put up 17 and finished third behind Damian Lillard and Devin Booker.
His 3-point total kept climbing after that. Against the New York Knicks on March 26, he knocked down his 250th 3-pointer of the season, and the Hornets said no other player age 22 or younger had reached that mark in a season.
He closed the year with 273 makes on 642 attempts, good for 42.5%, while averaging 7.9 attempts per game. In Charlotte’s two play-in games, though, he went 1-of-12 from deep.
The Hornets have also surrounded him with more shooting. Grayson Allen, acquired from the Phoenix Suns in the Miles Bridges trade, made a career-high 3.1 3-pointers per game last season.
On Nov. 10, 2025, he hit a Suns franchise-record 10 against New Orleans. Grant Williams, who shot 39% from 3-point range last season, is also part of the mix, though both Williams and Knueppel will miss the preseason with hamstring injuries.
Knueppel’s 273 made threes, an average of 3.4 per game, also stand as the Hornets’ single-season record, topping the mark Kemba Walker set in 2018-19.
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