There is a good chance that before the end of the month, Kon Knueppel will have set the record for most 3-pointers made by an NBA rookie. It will be a remarkable achievement for a number of reasons but chiefly because he will have done it in just 60 or so games for the Charlotte Hornets.
Knueppel went No. 4 in the 2025 NBA Draft but there's a strong argument that he'd go No. 2 to the Spurs in an NBA Re-Draft and he's spent all season making the Rookie of the Year race an actual competition with Cooper Flagg. He's averaging 19.5 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game on 49/44/89 shooting splits and has kept the Hornets in the Play-In race. But a decade from know, what we'll remember most about his rookie season is probably all the 3s.
So. Many. 3s.
Kon Knueppel is going to own the rookie 3-point record
Keegan Murray set the current rookie 3-point record in 2022-23, becoming the first rookie to ever top 200 made 3s in a season, making 205 across 80 games at a 41.1 percent clip. As of this writing, Knueppel has made 201 3-pointers in just 58 games, hitting 43.6 percent. He could basically sit out all of March and April and still have the greatest rookie shooting season of all time. But if he keeps this up for another six weeks, he has a chance at one of the all-time greatest shooting season by any player, ever.
Assuming he plays 80 games (he's only missed one so far) and keeps shooting at this pace, Knueppel projects to finish the season with 277 made 3-pointers. Only nine other players — Steph Curry, James Harden, Anthony Edwards, Malik Beasley, Klay Thompson, Paul George, Buddy Hield, Luka Dončić and Donte DiVincenzo — have made more 3s in a single season. Of those players, only Curry has done it with a 3-point percentage better than Knueppel's 43.6 percent.
The graph below shows the 25 best 3-point shooting seasons in NBA history by volume, along with Knueppel's projected numbers for this year. For comparison, I've highlighted the 10 of those 25 seasons that belong to Steph Curry.
Kon Knueppel is in Steph Curry territory
By volume, Knueppel is going to finish this season miles ahead of any rookie ever and land firmly in the middle of the pack among the greatest shooting seasons of all time. But even in this rareified air, his accuracy puts him in a tier that's really just him and Curry. (The two grey dots closest to Knueppel are Klay Thompson in 2015-16 and Buddy Hield in 2018-19.)
Knueppel draws inevitable comparisons to shooting specialists like Kyle Korver and JJ Redick. But his game is already much more well-rounded than either of those two legendary shooters, and he's almost certainly going to finish with more 3s this season than Korver or Redick ever made in their careers. Klay Thompson might be a better comp for in terms of versatility and upside but he only had two career seasons with 270 or more 3s, and only three seasons above 42 percent. As a rookie Knueppel is already operating at peak Klay levels.
It feels wild to project a rookie as potentially one of the greatest shooters in league history, but that's the pace that Knueppel is on. If he tops 277 3s, he'd have more 3-pointers this year than Curry and Klay did in their rookie seasons ... combined. Eventually owning the all-time 3-point record would require volume, accuracy and longevity but he'd have a headstart over every other rookie who's ever played.
Maybe this first season represents Knueppel's career-peak in terms of accuracy — I mean, Murray made just 34.3 percent of his 3s over the last three seasons since setting the rookie record. (Although playing for the Kings could be skewing the data). But there's every reason to think we're looking at a true reflection of Knueppel's skill level and his ability to scale his shooting, even with a drop in accuracy, could keep him in the Curry zone.
For example, Knueppel is hitting an absurd 46.8 percent of his pull-up 3s this season but on just under two attempts per game. Curry and Jamal Murray are the only players in the NBA hitting better than 40 percent on more than three pull-up attempts per game this season but Knueppel could easily get there. He also plays just under 32 minutes per game, which should ramp up as he continues to develop.
Again, I'm getting ahead of myself, projecting the end of a marathon when we're still on the first mile. But Knueppel's pace is unprecedented for a player his age, and if he keeps getting better he really could be the greatest shooter of all time.