Mastodon
Search for:
@Charlotte Hornets

Cooper Flagg & Kon Knueppel STILL FIGHTING for Rookie of the Year? 🏆 | First Take



Cooper Flagg & Kon Knueppel STILL FIGHTING for Rookie of the Year? 🏆 | First Take

Stephen A. Smith, Kendrick Perkins and Jay Williams join Shae Cornette on First Take to discuss Dallas Mavericks’ rookie phenom Cooper Flagg and fellow Duke Blue Devil Kon Knueppel of the Charlotte Hornets.

✔️ Subscribe to ESPN Unlimited: https://plus.espn.com/

#ESPN #NBA

23 Comments

  1. @boristeplitskiy7632

    I think the most telling sign the Cooper Flagg is the rookie of the year is not by the teams performance but more on watching the games I’ve watched every single Dallas Mavericks game this season and I’m not going to speak on con as much because I haven’t seen every single game from the Hornets, but Cooper Flagg is the initiator of the offense. He is the guy making the place he’s drawn double and triple teams he’s distributing a high clip he’s playing unbelievable defense as a rookie and his numbers are going up trending upward. He had a historic month. He had a historic run. This the start of 2026 numbers in 2026 are looking All-Star like not rookie of the year All-Star like so I know it’s a short span of 25 thirtyish games but this is what’s unlocked. Going forward with Cooper Flagg look at his first 20 games as a shooter and it wasn’t great. His numbers were down now he’s shooting the ball at a way more efficient clip from perimeter that he’s putting up way higher numbers. He’s drawing a lot of free throws. He is playing. You know well above the rim and very efficient at the rim. This guy is pulling up All-Star numbers as a rookie, and I think that that means that he is the rookie of the year.

  3. @boristeplitskiy7632

    If they’re gonna do the one on 1212 competition, we gotta get rid of the dumb contest don’t contest. We all know this it’s heavily under performing underwhelming. We’ve seen almost everything that can hum humanly be completed. Granted there are better dunkers out there doing inhumane things every single day but it seems like with the competition we have in the league. They’re not willing to do inhumane things so we have had a peak with competition and there’s not much you could do to change the format of the dunk contest, especially to motivate players that it really comes down to competition whether they want to do it or not we see you in the three-point contest we can kind of change the format of three point contest to move the line further to give them more points by the dunk contest is about what you can show and as long as it goes through the rim, you may be able to get a high score but it’s very subjective three point is much more talent oriented there is no scoring system where someone is subjectively scoring what they believe it’s either you make or you miss it so I feel like that’s what they need as a competition. A one V one or a 2V2 tournament will draw in so much attention because this game is all about isolation. We’ve had top scoring for years now having players to participate in something like this and crown them. The top isolation score is like I think it would be an incredible achievement year a year and I think it can show value to certain players that maybe Aren’t known to be yes we want the biggest names on the stage but having maybe younger talent with big names on the stage then performing in isolation like I want to see Cooper Cooper Flagg if he goes and does it and wins that says a lot so I think yeah I think there’s one I want two or two tournament. I think that’s a great idea. I think they should go with it.

  4. @natej84

    Both are doing historical stuff. Coop doing Bron stuff. Kon doing I don't even know stuff. Only 9 players in NBA history have went 50/40/90 in a season and no rookies. So if Kon does it it'll be only the 10th player in NBA history. So he's not just a elite shooter, he's a all-time shooter. Not rookie shooter but all-time NBA shooter

  5. @Noah-fj5bm

    If Coop is gonna get compared to Bron. He has to take them to the playoffs next year. No excuses

  7. @DonovanTrip-s3c

    Cooper is a better defender and offense wise theres not much separatoon but on Defense is the differece Cooper is a baller on defense

  14. @DarnoldOwnsMaye

    It’s Flagg and it’s not close, you can’t just look at the statistics. If you actually watch the games it’s clear. One is a game changer and the other is a cog in the wheel.

  15. @sioboy

    The fact that Kon's name surfaced for the ROTY alongside Cooper is a huge nod to his game. The guy's something. He's no slouch.

  16. @anthonyk423

    Flagg is the rookie of the year. Kon has for more help and Cooper has none. If Cooper doesn’t play good the Mavs don’t have a chance to win.

  21. @kennethgenarts5928

    Points 20.5 Vs 18 PPG, Rebounds 6.6 Vs 5 RPG, Assists 4.1 Vs 3 APG. Even a kindergarden can tell Cooper Flagg should be ROY. Math wise Flagg is above him. Plus LaMelo is with Kons that make his job easier.

Write A Comment