The Brooklyn Nets head into the 2025 NBA Draft with four first-round picks, including their own pick that fell to eighth overall despite the hopes that they had of being able to draft Duke forward Cooper Flagg. Now that Brooklyn knows what pick they’ll have, they have a choice to make on what they do with the pick, including possibly taking one of Flagg’s college teammate.
In his most recent mock draft for Bleacher Report, Jonathan Wasserman projected for the Nets to take Duke forward Kon Knueppel with the eighth overall pick in June’s Draft. For the purposes of this article, the assumption is that Flagg, Rutgers’ Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey, Baylor’s VJ Edgecombe, Texas’ Tre Johnson, Oklahoma’s Jeremiah Fears, and Duke’s Khaman Maluach are off the board by the time Brooklyn picks.
“Kon Knueppel has the type of consistent shooting stroke that could mesmerize during predraft workouts,” Wasserman wrote. ESPN’s Jonathan Givony reported that Knueppel did not participate in the athletic testing or shooting drills portions of the NBA Draft Combine due to an ankle injury he suffered prior to the Combine earlier this week, according to Knueppel’s agent.
“While shooting remains the No. 1 selling point, the pick-and-roll passing, driving efficiency and IQ plays create more versatility and perceived upside,” Wasserman continued. “The Nets are focused strictly on drafting the best player available. Knueppel has separated himself from being labeled “just a shooter” with his passing, driving and IQ.”
Knueppel is an interesting player to evaluate during the predraft process given that he seems squarely in the tier of players following Flagg and Harper. Knueppel is one of the players that the Nets have already met with and he will be working out in Brooklyn in the near future so it seems like Brooklyn is doing its due diligence on a player who will probably be on the board by the time their pick comes around.
Knueppel, listed at 6-foot-7 and 217 pounds, is coming a freshman campaign at Duke in which he averaged 14.4 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per game while shooting 47.9% from the field and 40.6% from three-point land while playing alongside Flagg and Maluach. Flagg believes that Knueppel is “such a safe pick” and that kind of endorsement from the presumptive first overall pick should give Nets fans more confidence in Knueppel.