NBA Rookie Report: Flagg, Knueppel & More

The NBA has announced the participants in the Rising Stars of the All Star Game which will be played on Friday the 13th at the LA Clippers’ Intuit Dome. A mini tournament of 4 teams, three made up of the best rookies and the best second year players, the fourth made up of G League players. The brightest young people, coached by three legends: Carmelo Anthony, Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady. Austin Rivers will lead the G League team.

Cooper flagg

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The debate over who will be the rookie of the year leads straight to Duke, or rather to the same room on campus: Cooper Flagg, number 1 pick by Dallas, and his former roommate Kon Knueppel, chosen with number 4, who has already met, and exceeded, expectations in Charlotte. Flagg, 19, was highly anticipated. Dallas was not an easy environment to enter and in the first two weeks Flagg struggled, between defeats and injuries in the team. Jason Kidd also gave him point guard duties for a while. Flagg combines physical strength and athleticism, and is already impacting the game on defense and rebounding as well. He has already shown the personality to play the decisive moments: he is the only one in the league to be in the top 5 in points, rebounds and assists in clutch time. Dallas asked him to do a bit of everything, but his adaptation period lasted very little: Flagg, the youngest player in the NBA, leads the team in total minutes, points, rebounds, assists and steals, embodying the prototype of the all-around player: he averages 18.8 points. Among the many early records, there is also the record for points in a game for an 18 year old: 42, surpassing the 37 scored by LeBron James at the same age.

Could Knueppel

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Knueppel, 20, is an extraordinary shooter: the fact that he plays in Charlotte is perhaps making one of the most efficient shooting seasons ever for a rookie go a little under the radar. He became the fastest player in NBA history to hit 150 career threes and this season he is averaging 18.7 points, shooting 48.2% from the field, 42.2% from three and 89.5% from free throws in 31.9 minutes. He knows how to read close-outs and attack them, he is solid: his strength is not his athleticism, but his intelligence in his readings and the speed of his decisions. He is also very interesting as a blocker. He is third in the NBA for triples scored this season, behind Mitchell and Curry: veteran efficiency for the volume of shots he takes. He’s from Milwaukee and, when the Hornets played there, the whole team went to his parents’ house for dinner: his mother, Kon says, had cooked 11 pounds of chicken fajitas. The challenge with his ex-roommate is wide open.

vj edgecomes a factor

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VJ Edgecombe, author of 34 points on his debut, is already a factor for the Sixers, even in his ups and downs: he is the rookie in his class with the most minutes on average (35.7) and produces 15.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game. The positive impact on Philadelphia, a team with a winning record, can be seen in the energy (his athleticism is spectacular), in the confidence, in the numbers and in the defensive work. Among the best rookies who play in a team with a positive record there is also Dylan Harper, 19 years old, at the Spurs, second in the West: 10 points on average in 21 minutes in San Antonio, with an important contribution from the bench, not only in defense (despite the 24% from three points). Harper carved out space for himself despite the crowded rotations. There are two Pelicans among the squad: center Derik Queen (average 12.2 points and 7.4 rebounds) has already shown potential impact games in the draft (pick number 13) and signed the first 30-point triple-double for a freshman; he is also the best assistman (his great quality) among the big men of his team, with an average of 4.3. Jeremiah Fears, however, comes off the bench and contributes with 13.7 points per game in 26 minutes of use.

coward in quintet

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Cedric Coward, 22 years old, quickly took a place in the starting five at Memphis, where he started 28 of 41 games: he is one of the two players in the top 5 among rookies for average points, average rebounds, field goal percentage and free throw percentage. Tre Johnson, 19 years old, number 6 pick by Washington (who is on an open streak of 9 defeats), averages 12.9 points: he is above all a scorer, with 39% from three points. Closing the list are Egor Demin, a 19-year-old Russian from the Nets, and Collin Murray-Boyles, 20 years old, Toronto’s number 9 pick. Demin is rarely seen at the rim: he is a perimeter player who relies a lot on shooting from the arc (39.6%) and is a high-level passer, a fundamental role in which he has grown over the course of the season. Murray-Boyles, averaging 7.8 points, has scored double figures in the last five games and is mobile on defense, decisive on substitutions.