Box Score: https://www.espn.com/nba-summer-league/boxscore/_/gameId/401793914/league/nba-summer-las-vegas
Kon Knueppel – 16 PTS, 10 REB, 4 AST, 3 3PTM
Ryan Kalkbrenner – 9 PTS, 5 REB
KJ Simpson – 18 PTS, 7 AST
Tidjane Salaun – 6 PTS (sat most of the 2nd half)
Good game from Kon. Did it all. Winning player.
24 comments
That’s the player we drafted. He’s gonna look even better next to Lamelo and Bmiller
Kon is going to be so good fellas. Just give him time and the opportunity and he’ll make the right play every single time.
The reports of The Nipple’s demise have been greatly exaggerated
Love to see Kon shine and others step up with Sion and McNeely out.
Thought it was a rebound game for Hall too, hope he and Kon can carry that chemistry into the next game.
Are we going to the semifinals?
Let’s keep collecting these W’s!
So happy Kon showed the doubters something tonight. Having real basketball players on the court with him will elevate his game 100x over. Enjoyed the PJ Hall minutes. Hope we don’t sit everyone. Doesnt seem like a very #HornetsDNA thing to do.
Kon showed alot of promise in the 2nd half. Looking better this game for sure.
Big Kalk splashing down an open 3
Kon was even better than the box score implies because he spent most of the first half getting totally ignored.
Summer league is tough for off ball specialists like Kon but you can see his feel for the game is top notch. Imagine him with Melo and Miller. Nice.
FREE THE NIPPLE
Lack of Tidjane was frustrating. I just wanna watch his development.
We’ll destroy the Spurs if everyone plays. KJ, Tidjane, Kon, and McNeeley all clicking would be unstoppable.
Kon Kon
I hate to say it but Kalk showed 3x pretty well now. We should consider shutting him down at some point to preserve (what should be) our big man of the future 💫
I know it’s spelled differently but
Yall need to quit talking about Hall being a solid player and remember that on his owne he doesnt do anything but detractors away from the team as a whole.
Yes Kon made him better but that speaks to Kon’s ability at making those around him better than it does at Hall’s future in this league. The guy is about as useful as Baugh is and we saw how that went tonight so juat look forward to how Kon will be on the main roster and making our actual rotation players better.
A couple observations of mine over these 3 SL games:
1) Kalkbrenner absolutely needs to improve his rebounding. He is already a statue on Defense & Average/Below Average on offense. His long-term projectability in my opinion is very low, he just looks awkward and fumbles around on both ends of the floor for a highly experienced player. I am concerned in both short/long-term rolling him out for meaningful minutes in the NBA.
2) Kon is going to be very good. he has shades of Klay with some playmaking chops and if he ever reaches 80% of what Klay is/was then I am going to be ecstatic. He seems like a 15/5/5 with 50/40/90 splits type of player. His biggest areas of improvement for me are off-the-dribble shooting and self-creation. On a side note, for a prospect labeled as a defensive negative, he is a damn good defender.
3) Salauns progress is impressive. He has built on his flashes but still fumbles around with the dribble. I would send him down to the G-League and let him play damn near full time as a primary ball handler. 3 & D is how he earns his paycheck, his on-ball potential is how he earns all-star appearances.
4) Sion James will and should be getting meaningful minutes next season. Him and Knueppel can contribute immediately to winning. His biggest area of improvement will be fixing his funky looking shot. I know he shot 40% in college but I have some level of doubt to the consistency of it after seeing the mechanics of it. His hustle, defense, athletic profile all remind me of a better Cody Martin.
Came here to say glad Kon played and got involved in the second half. I’m very satisfied by our SL. Tons of room for improvement but it’s just good team defense again. Love to see buy in from everyone. The shots will fall in time
Kon’s positioning in college and in the game tonight is special. It’s impressive to watch.
We may never lose again!!!
Obviously Kon was great and KJ continued to be clearly the best scorer out there, but really PJ Hall stood out a lot today.
Nothing special with the counting stats but his screens were much better. Got guy open but didnt commit any moving screens vs I think 4 (maybe just 3) from Saturday.
KJ’s been so steady this summer man. Our guard room is stupid full but I hope there’s enough room for him to get some real minutes this season.