{"id":635065,"date":"2026-04-27T23:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T23:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/635065\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T23:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T23:44:09","slug":"mavericks-star-cooper-flagg-named-nba-rookie-of-the-year-over-kon-knueppel-in-historic-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/635065\/","title":{"rendered":"Mavericks star Cooper Flagg named NBA Rookie of the Year over Kon Knueppel in historic race"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cooper Flagg<\/a> was named NBA Rookie of the Year on Monday over fellow finalist and former Duke teammate Kon Knueppel<\/a>, making the first time players from the same college team finished first and second in voting.<\/p>\n

Flagg joined the Dallas Mavericks<\/a> as the No. 1 pick in last year\u2019s NBA Draft with enormous expectations that he largely met during a standout rookie campaign.<\/p>\n

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Flagg developed into the Mavericks\u2019 best player and finished the season with averages of 21 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.2 steals and 0.9 blocks per game while shooting 46.8% from the field and 29.5% from the 3-point line. He beat out Knueppel in what was largely seen as a two-man race for the award down the stretch of the regular season.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> guard VJ Edgecombe<\/a> was a finalist for the award alongside Flagg and Knueppel.<\/p>\n

Flagg is the second-youngest player in league history to claim the Rookie of the Year award, behind only LeBron James<\/a>. His race with Kneuppel was the second-closest finish since the current voting format started during the 2002-03 campaign. Flagg earned 12 more first-place votes than Knueppel did, and only beat him by 26 total points. Only Scottie Barnes<\/a>\u2019 win over Evan Mobley<\/a> during the 2021-22 season was a closer finish.<\/p>\n

Knueppel, the No. 4 pick in the draft by the Charlotte Hornets<\/a>, exceeded expectations as one of the league\u2019s most efficient shooters during his own standout rookie campaign. He averaged 18.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.4 assists while shooting 47.5% from the field and 42.5% on 7.9 3-point attempts per game.<\/p>\n

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Knueppel\u2019s 273 made 3s were the most in the NBA. His development helped the Hornets improve from 19-63 in 2024-25 to 44-38 in 2025-26. Charlotte was one of the league\u2019s hottest teams in the NBA after the All-Star break and ultimately made the play-in before losing to the Orlando Magic<\/a> with a playoff spot on the line.<\/p>\n

While Knueppel\u2019s efficiency and impact on winning were notable, voters ultimately recognized Flagg\u2019s all-around performance in awarding him Rookie of the Year.<\/p>\n

Flagg is the third Maverick to win Rookie of the Year, joining Jason Kidd (1995, tied with Grant Hill) and Luka Don\u010di\u0107<\/a> (2019). The stunning trade of Don\u010di\u0107 to the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> during the 2024-25 season set the stage for Flagg to win join the Mavericks and win the award in Dallas.<\/p>\n

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The Mavericks fell to the lottery after the trade and secured the No. 1 pick despite being tied for the third-lowest odds in the lottery to win it (1.8% to secure No. 1 pick). Now they have a new franchise cornerstone and Rookie of the Year winner in Flagg, whom they hope will help lead them back into championship contention after a contentious stretch in the aftermath of the Don\u010di\u0107 trade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cooper Flagg was named NBA Rookie of the Year on Monday over fellow finalist and former Duke teammate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,5670,5663,7235,39603,5662,7896,7232,11473,590,12985,9688,16108,85,31017,9694],"class_list":["post-635065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-charlotte-hornets","tag-cooper-flagg","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-evan-mobley","tag-kon-knueppel","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-luka-doncic","tag-nba","tag-orlando-magic","tag-philadelphia-76ers","tag-scottie-barnes","tag-sports","tag-the-mavericks","tag-vj-edgecombe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}