I Concede, Cooper Flagg is Rookie of the Year

I was wrong. You’re never gonna hear me actually vocalize that but I’ll write it. Gladly

One of my favourite times of year is the first couple rounds of the playoffs in the NBA. Not just because it’s the NBA Playoffs, but I get to have heated debates and get unreasonably upset at the award winners. The MVP is easier this year, same with DPOY. That’s why my brain has been sat on this very award. Rookie of the Year. The duel of the century. Duke vs Duke, high volume perimeter shooter vs defensive menace and brutal downhill scorer. Kon Knueppel of the Hornets vs Cooper Flagg of the Mavericks.

Statistically, Cooper has a leg up on Kon in a load of different ways. More points, rebounds, assists, a lethal interior scorer gifted with a gigantic frame and beautiful form and touch up close to the rim. Kon, whilst averaging less, is also shooting less and seeing less of the ball on a much better team. While Coop averages 21 points, Kon sits at just under 19. The way Kon gets his leg up over Cooper statistically is with his 3-ball. Cooper is shooting an absolutely abysmal 29% from three to Kon’s unbelievable 42%, and he leads the entire league with total made threes (by 1 over his own teammate LaMelo Ball) which has been his role as a Hornet. Whilst Cooper has been saddled with a much larger role, the shooting hasn’t been near as efficient as Kon, which is the main thing he has over Coop. Or, of course, his team’s record. If you want to do win differentials from year-to-year, the Hornets jumped from 19 wins all the way up to 44 after adding Knueppel, whilst the Mavericks actually slumped from 39 wins last season to 26. Is there other parameters that affected these things? Yeah. But it is something!

The eye test also sees Cooper taking advantage of Kon. Cooper’s defensive tapes are absurd, the clamps he was putting on as a rookie in Dallas (see here, shoutout r3d_r1ver) and even as a freshman at Duke were things I hadn’t seen from a man in his position since LeBron. That doesn’t come lightly. Whilst Kon has become a positive defender in his time with the Hornets, it did take a fair old minute for it to take shape, and he’s still well beneath the level of Flagg on the defensive end. I love a good three pointer and Kon has that. It’s silky smooth and so very well practiced, but there’s something about Cooper’s offensive work that blows Kon away. The two are only a few inches apart in height but it feels like Coop is about 5 times as strong as Knueppel and his offensive work shows that. Able to work through tight coverage into some crazy rim plays, its part of Coop’s charm that he is so diverse an interior scorer whereas Kon is much less so, but not bad all things considered.

With all that said, and both men now out of contention with current matches, if I had voting power, I’d be pretty safe in saying Cooper Flagg is rookie of the year. No easy choice, but, somebody has to win it. Oh and VJ Edgecombe is nominated too! Good for him, he’s fantastic!

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