The Beast Of The East And The Best Of The West: Rookies Knueppel, Flagg Honored By The NBA

This is so cool: Former Duke stars Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel are now the first draftees from the same school to be named Rookies of the Month in the same month.

Flagg is the West Rookie of the Month while Knueppel represents the East.

As the image here notes, their stats are very close: Knueppel is averaging 19.9 ppg, 6.3 rpg and 3.3 assists, while Flagg is putting up 17.8 ppg, 6.7 rpg and 3.7 assists.

Knueppel got off to a faster start but Flagg is picking up steam fast. The Mavericks basically threw him into the fire from Day 1, asking him to fill in at point guard, the most demanding NBA position.

He struggled some at the beginning but the Mavs have moved off of the point guard stuff to an extent and Flagg is showing what he can do: against the Los Angeles Clippers, Flagg shot 13-22 for 35 points, had 8 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 steals and against Denver on Tuesday, he racked up 24 points on 10-19/1-3, with 8 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals.

As for Knueppel, he’s astonished the league with his maturity and sophisticated approach to the game. He’s already set a record for most threes hit in his first 20 games and is on target to break the rookie record. He’s shooting 40% from outside too.

He’s playing well enough for some people to call for the Charlotte Hornets to rebuild around him.

These two are likely the leading candidates for NBA Rookie of the Year, and not only are they both from Duke, they were roommates.

It’s too early for this, but Cameron Boozer is in discussion for the NCAA’s National Player of the Year and will likely be in the running for next year’s Rookie of the Year as well. Toss in Jared McCain’s brilliant rookie season last year before his injury, then apply all of that to recruiting: yeah, no one else can say that they are doing what Duke players are doing, and we’d like you to be the next one.

Duke’s already in a great position for recruiting in many ways. This just makes the argument even stronger.

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• Mavericks Rookie Cooper Flagg Earns Huge Honor Alongside Former Duke Teammate Kon Knueppel

• Mavericks’ Flagg, Hornets’ Knueppel named NBA Rookies of the Month

• Mavs’ Cooper Flagg, Hornets’ Kon Knueppel named Rookies of Month in NBA first

• Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel named NBA Rookies of the Month

• Hornets’ Kon Knueppel makes basketball history never done in NBA with Mavericks’ Cooper Flagg

• Maine native Cooper Flagg named NBA Rookie of the Month in Western Conference

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• Hornets’ Kon Knueppel wins first NBA award. Is rookie of the year also in sight?

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