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DALLAS, TEXAS – JANUARY 29: Cooper Flagg #32 of the Dallas Mavericks and Kon Knueppel #7 of the Charlotte Hornets talk after the game at American Airlines Center on January 29, 2026 in Dallas, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Sam Hodde\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Respected head coach Jason Kidd went out of his way to argue for Dallas Mavericks<\/a> star Cooper Flagg<\/a> over Kon Knueppel<\/a> as the Rookie of the Year. However, Kidd claimed that Knueppel \u201cjust shoots threes\u201d when talking about his young\u2019s star main competition for the award. Both Flagg and Knueppel had stellar dream seasons with arguments in their favor for being the top rookie.<\/p>\n However, Kidd said the following on the Road Trippin\u2019 Podcast<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have to make a case. He\u2019s done the hard work and put up the numbers. The only thing we haven\u2019t done is win as a team. I think, when you look at his numbers, he\u2019s had a historic season. Nothing against Knueppel, he\u2019s a piece of the puzzle for the Hornets. But Cooper is the puzzle.<\/p>\n I truly believe that he deserves rookie of the year, that\u2019s not throwing shade at Knueppel, he\u2019s had a great year too. But just the things, the stats, the names he is attached to. It\u2019s a little bit bigger than just shooting threes.\u201d<\/p>\n The overall comment isn\u2019t that unfair since Flagg does a lot more than Knueppel, but Kidd\u2019s final sentence from that quote told the story. Disrespect was shown by Kidd claiming that Knueppel is just a three-point shooter compared to Flagg being an all-around star.<\/p>\n Why Jason Kidd Was Unfair To Kon Knueppel<\/p>\n Coaches arguing for their players is always welcomed, but Kidd stood out for being critical of another great player with his comment. The belief that Knueppel is just a good three-point shooter and not a strong all-around player is just wrong.<\/p>\n Knueppel\u2019s play made a huge difference for the Charlotte Hornets<\/a> to have their best seasons in many years and turn things around from a bad start. Charlotte does not have a successful season and dominant second half without Knueppel on the roster.<\/p>\n One could easily argue that Knueppel contributed more to winning than Flagg did, but that would be unfair to Cooper due to the Mavericks not giving him much help. Kidd tried to create a narrative against Knueppel\u2019s overall play by the little shot defining him as a mere three-point shooter.<\/p>\n Who Will Win Rookie of the Year?<\/p>\n The most fascinating thing about Kidd\u2019s comment slighting Knueppel is that he didn\u2019t need to make it. Flagg is currently the stronger favorite to win the award with -175 betting odds compared to Knueppel\u2019s +135 odds.<\/a> Changes over the past few weeks have seen Flagg becoming the clear favorite.<\/p>\n Flagg\u2019s averages of 25.7 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 5.5 assists per game over the past 15 games showed much he stepped up. The Rookie of the Year Award is an obvious driving force by Flagg playing his best basketball to win over voters.<\/p>\n Kidd is not wrong that Flagg is the better all-around player<\/a> deserving of the award, but he didn\u2019t need to define Knueppel as a limited player. Both future All-Stars had great seasons, and Flagg appears likely to be named Rookie of the Year unless voters shock the basketball world.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tJoey Haverford<\/a> Joey Haverford is a seasoned sports content writer with over 12 years of experience. He has covered the NBA, WNBA, MLB, NFL, and professional wrestling in the sports industry. More about Joey Haverford<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Mavericks\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty DALLAS, TEXAS – JANUARY 29: Cooper Flagg #32 of the Dallas Mavericks and Kon Knueppel #7 of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":708598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3793],"tags":[7,686,149,4057,166,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-708597","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-mavericks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-mavericks","11":"tag-dallasmavericks","12":"tag-mavericks","13":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116389248303899170","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/708598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}