Kon Knueppel Could Change Everything for the Hornets…

Kon Knueppel Could Change Everything for the Hornets…

With the fourth overall pick in the 2025 NBA draft, the Charlotte Hornets selected a guard out of Duke. He’s got a super promising offensive skill set, and I think he’s going to fit very well next to what the Hornets have been building, and his name is Khan Canipple. Welcome to Basketball Intuition. I’m your host, Ethan Simon. Today, we’re going to be talking about Khan Canipple in the Charlotte Hornets. So, mainly we’re going to be talking about what Khan did in the summer league today. Of course, we’re going to go over some things he did in college, but mainly I want to talk about what we saw from him in the summer league. And before we get there, I just want to say real quick, I’m kind of glad that they didn’t draft like a Trey Johnson or a Ace Bailey or a Jeremiah Fears. You picked a guy that’s going to fit perfectly into this offense. He’s going to be a glue guy. He’s going to be a floor razor. That’s what the Hornets need. And they need a guy that’s going to give energy and effort on both sides of the ball. He does that. His offensive skill set is just going to come through the flow of an NBA offense. He’s not going to have to take the ball away from LaMelo or Brandon Miller to get some ISO possessions. He’s just going to fit this team to a tea. I thought also the Hornish draft was really good. I like the Liam McNeely picked. He looked good in those two summer league games that he played. And then Caulkrunner also had some really nice moments. You’re going to need one of those two big men to be really good if you want to have a chance in the next couple years or just go out and get another big man because I’m sorry, but Mason Plumbley is not going to cut it if they want to be a real competing team. And I will be disappointed if they don’t make at least the playin with how banged up the Eastern Conference is. Okay, that’s enough Hornet stuff. Let’s get over to Khan. I want to start with his build and then we’re going to go to his shooting and playmaking and just go on from there. Okay, so Khan is 6’5 barefoot with a 6’6 wingspan. He’s coming in at 220 lbs. He has a really nice strong body and frame and he’s going to turn 20 before the season starts. I’m pretty sure he turns 20 like this week. And another really good thing about his build is his hands are really big. And out of all the guards in this draft class, he had one of the biggest hands out of the class. If we look at his combine testings for athleticism and stuff like that, he had a 31 1/2 in standing vertical and he had a 36 and 1/2 in max vert. And his shuttle run time was really quick. I think a lot of people really underrate his athleticism. Okay, let’s talk about this jump shot and what we saw in the summer league. His jumper was as consistent as always. It looked really good. You know, he has a really great form and release. And you know, we know Khan is one of the best, if not the best catch-and shoot shooter in the entire draft class. In college per Synergy, his catch-and shoot numbers were 43% and his off the dribble numbers were 14%. But in the summer league, he shot 34% from three on seven three-point attempts per game. I personally do not care about summer league shooting numbers unless it was like below 20%. then I’d be like, “Eh.” But it’s not on high volume, so I’m happy about that. And the shots that he was taking were NBA shots. He’s taking deep threes. He’s coming off a screen and shooting a three. He’s standing in the corner knocking it down. I just really like his shot selection. It’s already NBA level shot selection. And he’s a confident deep shot shooter. That’s what I like to see. I was looking for the confidence and it was there. And I kind of mentioned this earlier, but I just like how his shots are going to come through the flow of the offense. He’s not going to need to take the ball out of Brandon Miller or LaMelo Ball’s hands just to go get himself an ISO possession to break somebody down. He can have the ball in his hands. He can be in a pick and roll. He can get to the mid-range. There’s just a lot of different things that I like about his game when it comes to him scoring the basketball and not being super crazy ball dominant. And I love this next to LaMelo Ball. He did a great job as a floor spacer, just not clogging up any spaces on the perimeter, moving around where he needs to be, flashing up from the corner to the wing, from the wing to the top of the key. Just stuff like that that I really like. And we did get to see the mid-range game a little bit. I will say I think it’s going to catch some people off guard how much he’s going to be able to get to that mid-range in the NBA. I think a good amount of people are probably thinking that he’s going to struggle to get to those spots, but it’s like his footwork is really good and if he just gets his handle a little bit better and tighter, he’s going to be able to get to those spots on the mid-range. And of course, it’s going to be tougher against NBA defenders than it was in college in the summer league. But still, it’s there. He’s got the pull-ups. He can shoot with his back to the basket, shooting those fadeaways. Like, I just like the mid-range game a lot. I thought it was really underrated. It wasn’t anything crazy, but it was there. He shot 41% on non- rim two-pointers in college. Wanted to mention that. And also in college he was shooting 3.3 free throw attempts per game and he was shooting 91% from there. And also I just wanted to mention he was super efficient if you didn’t know. In college he shot 48% from the field and almost 41% from three on 5.3 three-point attempts a game. Now let’s get over to the playmaking and the ball handling. I was honestly really impressed. I’ll get all my bad things out the way now so we can just go to the good things. Like I mentioned earlier, he’s going to need to improve the handle because he doesn’t have a crazy burst of speed. So he’s going to need to be able to control himself better with the basketball. So, I definitely need to see him get his handle better. In college, we got to see him self-create more, but in the summer league, he really wasn’t self-creating for himself all that much. And there weren’t a whole lot of possessions where we were in the half court and he was just like, “Give me the ball. I’m going to go get a bucket.” But like I mentioned, that’s not really going to be his role off the rip, but you do want to see him grow that. And then also the turnovers that he was having, they were just kind of weird. In college, he was a super low turnover guy as we know. But some of the turnovers he was having in the summer league was just stuff that I didn’t like. Like jumping up for a shot and not having a plan after he just realized that he wasn’t open. So, he just like throws it to the side or jumping up to make a jump pass and then his man not being there or making a jump pass and it just getting picked off in the air. Just stuff like that that I didn’t really like that much. But overall, he handled pressure pretty well as a ball handler. There was one time where he got ripped up, but other than that, he did a good job. He was able to show off the basketball IQ, the fact that he is unselfish. He’s got really good footwork. Like I said, I really, really liked his crossover. There were a couple times where we got to see him use it and it was super effective. And probably my favorite part about him as a playmaker that we got to see in the summer league is how he was playing with the big man. He looked really good when those little dump off passes and whenever he was in pick and roll situations and just kind of floating it up there for the big man to go get it or throwing a lob pass or stuff like that. Um I thought he just did really good with the big man and he wasn’t in a whole lot of drive and kick situations like he wasn’t getting it to the inside and back out. He was more hitting it to the cutters and the big man when they were going to the basket. But I think his pick and roll game was super underrated. Of course he’s not anything crazy. He’s not this pure playmaker, but he can be a good option in the pick and roll as a ball handler. If you’re still here and enjoying a video, make sure to hit that like button. And then also, I liked it whenever he was taking advantage of those switches when he’d get the big man switched on to him. The very last two things is number one, I liked how they used him in the summer league. They didn’t have the ball in his hands acting like a point guard because that’s not how he’s actually going to play whenever he gets into the league. They weren’t having him out there trying to run the offense. It’s not his role. He was just being coniple and it looked really good. And the last thing is as a ball handler in the transition, I thought he looked really good and comfortable there, noticing when he needs to slow it down, noticing when he needs to speed it up, make a good pass, or just take the shot himself. He was a really confident transition shooter. Now, let’s get over to the finishing. This is a very underrated part about Khan’s game. The finishing looked solid in the summer league. It was very quiet. It wasn’t anything super highlight worthy that’s going to jump off a highlight reel, but there was a couple things that I was able to take away from it that I really liked a lot. And the biggest one for me was creating contact at the NBA level. he was taking advantage of him having better positioning over a defender or a defender not having good positioning on him and being able to draw contact in the mid-range and whenever he’s trying to finish at the basket. I just thought he did a really good job. As we know, Khan does such a good job playing off of two feet with the pump fakes, the ball fakes, the jabs, just all that kind of stuff. He does a really great job and I think that’s going to translate over to the league. So, him being able to create contact and also play so well off of two feet, I think it’s just going to be a really well recipe for him to be able to continue getting to the free throw line. But in the half court in the summer league, he really wasn’t getting downhill all but that much. Of course, there were a couple times where he get a nice switch and get downhill or he get a good matchup and he would take advantage and get to the basket. Um, he had one really nice move on Devin Carter where he kind of just swapped his hand out of the way so he could get to the basket, but I definitely want to see him get to the basket more. We know in college Khan has really good touch around the rim. He’s much craftier than what he gets credit for. Um, in college he had really good touch around the rim. He can finish with his left hand and his right hand on the left side of the basket and the right side of the basket. But I do want to see some floaters. I’ll say that he’s got a strong body, so it helps whenever he’s trying to get to that inside because like I mentioned earlier, he’s not going to beat you off the dribble with this crazy foot speed. He’s going to use his strength and his control to get through you and get to the spot he wants to get to. Now, to the defense, because this is where a lot of people have problems to pick with Khan. His defensive numbers in college were really, really good. There are a couple things that I was able to take away from the summer league, though. There were a couple times where he did a really good job at after he got bumped on a screen hustling back to alter and contest a shot. We saw him do that a few times. He did a good job at doing that. Um, defensively his foot speed isn’t great, but he has good technique. He has good awareness. He has good timing. He has good strength and IQ. But just as an onball defender, he wasn’t anything crazy. And I will say if he was in a situation like Cooper Flag where he goes into this really good defensive team, then it would help him out to be a better defender. But he is going to Charlotte and their defense is not good. So, it’s going to make him stand out more and it’s going to make him look like he’s a worse defender than he actually is. And I do think the elite guards and the really fast, smaller point guards in the league are going to be able to have his way with him at points. And there was one possession where Isaiah Collier literally just walked right past him. So I won’t be surprised if he gets beat off the dribble by some guards. His on ball defense isn’t going to be great, but he is a good team defender. I said this about Reed Shepard and people got really mad because they were acting like I said he’s a lock. There’s a difference between being a really good on ball defender and being a really good team defender. Khan is a really good team defender. I did notice that whenever people would hit him with like a snatchback or like a step back and stuff like that, it would work like they would just get him with it. But overall, the defense is going to be one of the biggest things that we need to watch out for for Khan in the NBA. If he’s not ever able to be this really, really solid on ball defender, then it’s going to be a struggle for him. But I do believe that he’s going to be able to be a solid on ball defender one day. But off of what we saw in the summer league whenever he was playing against like Devin Carter, Isaiah Collier, he might struggle a little bit off the rip. Two more things. He gives energy and effort. That’s exactly what Charlotte needs, especially on the defensive side. And then also, he just mentioned in an interview the other day while he was playing in the summer league how he was trying to get used to the pace. NBA is a very fast league. gets a big change to go from college to the NBA. Mainly on the defensive side, so I’m sure that he’s going to adjust and get better as time goes. That was all I had to talk about for Conanol. Again, we were talking about mainly just summer league stuff today. I don’t really have anything else to talk about other than I don’t want LaMelo Ball to keep getting hurt. I hope Trey man can stay healthy. I hope Brandon Miller can stay healthy. Shout out Grant Williams, I guess. And shout out Colin Ston, man. Y’all really finessed with that one. That was a great pickup. The very last segment of the day. It’s my favorite segment of the day. It should be your favorite segment of the day. Before we wrap this up, it’s the comment of the day. If you don’t know what the comment of the day is, it’s my favorite comment from the previous video. It can be about anything. I don’t care. It’s my favorite comment from the previous video. I have no idea who we have for today’s comment of the day. Today’s comment of the day is going to be from Robotic Venom. I want to see what y’all think about this. He asked if he could go over Javon Small. He said, “I feel like he’s underrated. No one’s talking about him. Especially important to the Grizzlies cuz their first round pick was injured, so we didn’t get to see him on display. 17 points on crazy shooting splits, four and a half rebounds, seven assists, one turnover. Really exciting player. He’s really fun and I really like his archetype. Like, he’s going to be really fun to watch. The only problem that I could have with him is his size cuz it’s just harder for guys his size to be really successful in the league nowadays. But if y’all want to see that video, go ahead, let me know. I tell I love all the suggestions. If you want to see me make any video about any summer league player, regular season, I don’t care. Just let me know. I need suggestions badly because I’m struggling with ideas. That’s why I’m a day late again. But shout out Robotic Venom for the comment of the day. I appreciate you very much. I hope you’re all doing well. Like I mentioned last episode, make sure to take care of yourself. And then the very last thing real quick, if you don’t know, for the people that do know or don’t know, I have a second channel. This whole time I forgot about August. I thought that September was next month. Like I didn’t think about it. So I thought 2K was dropping next week. It’s not. So I just had this second channel that I’m yet to post on that people are waiting for me to post on. So, should I find some type of video, some kind of 2K video to put up there, or should we just wait till 2K26? Just just let me know. Like I mentioned last episode, I got this idea. I wanted to do a video on my team of using only players that I’ve like made videos about. Just let me know. Simple as that. You take care now. Have a good one. Again, take care of yourself. I appreciate you very much for staying on the video. You know, you can hit the like, the comment, the sub, the post notifications if that’s what you want. You don’t have to do any of them, but I would appreciate if you did. Uh yeah, man. And if everything goes to plan, I will see you guys on Saturday once more. Take care.

Today we talk about Kon Knueppel and what he was able to show off during the 2k26 Summer League! I cover things from his shooting, playmaking, ball handling, defense, finishing, IQ, and more!

Shoutout to @roboticvenom1935 for comment of the day! Much love friend, take care

2nd Channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyd2WI2jWKUXZ9SOvw8TokQ

Ig
https://www.instagram.com/e.simon3/