Kon Knueppel
Guard
3pt sniper with shooting versatility and P&R playmaking chops.
In his one and only season as a Duke Blue Devil, playing off the monstrous Cooper Flagg and rim presence of Khaman Maluach, Kon Knueppel shot 63% on shots near the rim, 41% on long twos, 41% on threes, and 91% at the line. Have your eyes widened yet?
This is the Kon Knueppel promise, that he, despite some athletic concerns we’ll soon get into, will juice an NBA offense by being efficient from every area of the court. There’s no doubt he’ll bang catch-and-shoot threes as long as defenses will let him, that he has the polish to punish aggressive closeouts with passing and a savvy driving game from day one.
You’ll see Knueppel constantly and almost stubbornly, at times, get to two feet in the paint. Here, against a scrambling defense, he finds himself in a 2-on-1 scenario and gestures toward a dump-off pass to his teammate on the block. One deft pivot and panicked defender later, and he’s at the rim for two:
Despite standing at just 6’5” with a clear lack of wiggle and a lane agility time to match Ryan Kalkbrenner, Knueppel has the sort of mature driving game that every coach dreams of. His poor drives don’t result in turnovers or terrible shots, but resets and kickouts. On a team with frequent off-ball movers, he’ll be able to find cutters rather than taking wild shots; at worst, he’s going to take some ten-foot fadeaways that he can certainly make.
The question, other than how well he can fly around the perimeter and defense and/or stick with shiftier attackers, is how much usage he can really eat up. While he was the perfect secondary option at Duke, some dominant EYBL stats suggest at least a modicum of primary potential, and thus, that scalability every NBA team is chasing. Over three seasons on the best AAU circuit in the nation, he shot 50/40/87 on nearly 20 FGAs a game; his assist:turnover numbers and free-throw rate weren’t as high as they’d be at Duke, but as a varied bucket-getter who’d post-up opponents, look for cutting opportunities, and simply get in his isolation bag, those are promising numbers.
Does a play like this sway you?
Do you worry more that he couldn’t create space from a decent switch-big in Grant Nelson, or are you more impressed by the pass Knueppel ultimately uses to create an open two for a teammate? Could the undeniable intersection of shooting touch, feel, and ultra-competitiveness portend true offensive stardom, or is Knueppel just a slow-footed shooter who will be a fine rotation player, and not much more? Whatever lottery team selects him is betting on the former.
Lucas Kaplan