The basketball world is finally tuning into the Kon Knueppel show. The two-time Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month winner is on a historic pace this season and has been compared to Stephen Curry in many ways. Every night he steps on the floor, the buzz in Buzz City grows louder.
Knueppel isn’t trying to be Curry, but the similarities are hard to ignore. From his shooting prowess to the way he racks up milestones week after week, it’s easy to understand why their names keep getting mentioned together. The overlap in their impact is becoming impossible to overlook.
Record after record
When you start breaking records that the greatest shooter of all-time once held, it’s not far-fetched to say Knueppel is really good at basketball. Rod Boone of the Charlotte Observer discussed the rookie's feats in a recent article.
“Not only has Knueppel broke Curry’s rookie record for most games with 20 or more points while making 50 percent of his overall attempts, 40 percent behind the 3-point arc, and 90 percent from the free-throw line, he surpassed him in another category. This season, he’s only one of two players who has made at least 80 or more 3-pointers while hitting at least 40 percent of them. The other? That would be Curry.”
The 50-40-90 benchmarks alone are elite territory, but doing it while scoring 20 or more points a night as a rookie is almost unprecedented. Add in the fact that the only other player that's done it with that type of volume and efficiency is Chef Curry, and the message becomes pretty clear. Knueppel is forcing his name into conversations that were never expected as a first-year player.
I don’t think it's likely, but if Knueppel were to finish the season in the 50-40-90 club as a rookie at the volume he’s shooting, he'd already have a case as a top-five shooter in the NBA. There have only been nine players to ever reach that benchmark. Knueppel currently sits at 47-43-88, and sure, some regression to the mean is expected. But then again, he's doing this on almost every single night!
Even though there are some similarities, I do think Knueppel’s game most closely resembles the other Splash Brother, Klay Thompson. The elite shooting ability, combined with the movement off-ball, is very much Klay-like. If Kon develops insane handling skills and starts shooting 30+ feet jumpers, then we can revisit this conversation. Comparisons aside, there is one thing for sure: the Hornets got one of the best players in last year's draft.