Charlotte Hornets rookie Kon Knueppel could be exactly what this team needs
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kon Knueppel’s versatility and toughness address critical gaps for Charlotte Hornets.
- Hornets plan key rotational role for Knueppel following his strong summer league play.
- Knueppel surprised new Hornets teammate LaMelo Ball with his “bounce.”
If you’ve ever watched Charlotte rookie Kon Knueppel play, you’ll understand why the Hornets wanted him.
Knueppel is athletically talented, sure. He started at Duke and was the ACC tournament’s Most Valuable Player in March. But he’s also happy to dive on the floor for a loose ball, or put himself in harm’s way for a contested rebound, or do a number of the little things that the Hornets traditionally haven’t done well enough while limping their way to the NBA’s longest active playoff drought.
As the No. 4 pick in the most recent NBA Draft, Knueppel — the eldest of five basketball-playing brothers from Wisconsin — will play a key role if these Hornets are to pleasantly surprise anyone.
For his part, he’s already flabbergasting his teammates on occasion. I asked Hornets star LaMelo Ball Monday during the team’s Media Day what had surprised him about Knueppel.
“I’m not gonna lie,” Ball said of Knueppel. “I’m going to go with the bounce, for real. I didn’t know he could jump like that. He’s even caught a few little dunks. I’m like, ‘Hold up, I’ve seen ‘White Men Can’t Jump….’ He’s been kind of jumping like that the whole day, though. Solid.”
Knueppel quickly pointed out after I read him this quote that he is not a “high flyer,” but that the 6-foot-5 swingman likes to “sneak up on people athletically a little bit.”
Often overshadowed at Duke by fellow freshman Cooper Flagg (eventually the No. 1 overall pick) in 2024-25, Knueppel will forge his own path at Charlotte. And it will be an important one. He may not start initially, but the Hornets went a horrid 19-63 last season, love his toughness and will need him quickly. The decision the Hornets made to photograph Knueppel, Ball and the high-scoring Brandon Miller together Monday was latched onto by a number of Hornets junkies as evidence that Charlotte has a big role in mind for him.
Said Hornets second-year coach Charles Lee of Knueppel Monday: “He’s like, got a true, winning spirit to him, and I think that he’s going to immediately add the ability to stretch the floor for us. He shoots it really well. He can shoot it really quick…. And then defensively, we got to see him in summer league, just lay it on the line…. He embraces the fact that people are going to try to go at him. He’s a rookie, and, you know, some think that maybe he can’t guard. And so they’re going to go at him. And he embraces it. And I love that about him.”
It’s a lot to shoulder for a gym rat from the Milwaukee area. Both of Knueppel’s parents played college basketball, and so do all of his younger brothers. Keeping with the “K” theme, they are named Kager, Kinston, Kash and Kidman. (More name trivia: Kon isn’t short for anything, but the rookie is named for his father. Knueppel explains that his grandparents started the “K” trend, christening his father and all of his father’s siblings with “K” names as well).
Knueppel brothers number 2-4 all play basketball together at the same Wisconsin high school. Kager, the second-oldest, is now drawing significant recruiting interest. The fifth and youngest brother, Kinston, is in eighth grade and also plays. Knueppel is only 20 years old himself, but in his nuclear household has always been thought of as the “old” one.
“I was more mature, and it felt like I was a lot older,” he said of his brothers. “But now, going home and spending time with them, they’re all grown up.”
The family is tight. Knueppel’s mother traveled from Wisconsin to every one of Duke’s games last season to watch Kon. “Leaving home last year was a little bit difficult for me,” Knueppel said.
Knueppel only had to travel a little more than two hours down Interstate 85 to go from Durham to Charlotte. With his signing bonus, he said he has rented an apartment and bought a black Ford Explorer.
The Hornets have such a limited sample size with Knueppel at the moment that they referenced his play at the NBA’s summer league a lot Monday. Knueppel was held out of one game early in the six-game tournament as an injury precaution, Lee said.
“And he was furious with me,” Lee added, laughing. Then he got a gash on his head in a later game that required stitches and put his ability to play in the final in doubt.
“We got that figured out,” Knueppel deadpanned. His fierce campaign to play worked — he put a headband over the stitches — and he scored 21 points as Charlotte (6-0) won a very rare basketball title of any sort, taking the summer league championship with Knueppel being named MVP of the championship game.
Still, the NBA summer league is mostly composed of a few talented rookies and a lot of players around the fringes of the league. The NBA is a far different beast.
“Everybody’s the best player from their college team,” Knueppel said, “so obviously the talent level is just a lot higher. And the pace is a lot different. We’re practicing with a 14-second shot clock, just to play fast.”
Knueppel actually wasn’t the best player on his own college team. He was overshadowed for large stretches by Flagg, the consensus national player of the year, in the single year they played together at Duke before both leaving for the NBA. But those who attended the ACC tournament in Charlotte know what Knueppel can do. With Flagg sidelined for almost the entire tournament, Knueppel had to step up.
“It was just kind of gut-check time,” Knueppel said. “We banded together… I got a text from Coach K (Duke’s legendary former coach Mike Krzyzewski). It was like: ‘Lead us,’ which is pretty cool. That’ll get the juices going.”
Knueppel would end up being the tourney MVP and helping Duke get to the Final Four, where the Blue Devils lost to Houston after squandering a six-point lead in the final 35 seconds.
Now he’s in Charlotte. Said Hornets general manager Jeff Peterson: “He’s a guy that fits everything that we’re about on the floor…. He figures out how to make impact plays and help you win the game…. He’s going to have a long career in this league.”
Knueppel hopes so. For now, while he has yet to play in a real game, the hype around his debut has increased. Prominent basketball journalist Bill Simmons recently said of Knueppel: “I guarantee this guy is gonna actually be on the (U.S. Olympic basketball) team in 2028. That’s how strongly I feel about this person.”
By 2028, Knueppel will be about three years into his NBA career. For now, though, he’s just the oldest Knueppel brother, tooling around Charlotte in his Ford Explorer, not yet old enough to buy a drink, trying to see where exactly he’s going to fit in. It’s a cool moment in his life, for sure. I think it will be a significant moment for the Hornets, too.
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This story was originally published September 30, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
