Duke has won four straight to advance to 24-3 on the season. The AP Top 25 has taken on a strong SEC flavor this season, leaving the Blue Devils as the only ACC team in the top 10 — currently at No. 3, behind Auburn and Florida.
Cooper Flagg naturally generates the majority of the headlines around this Duke team. He's the best freshman since, what, Zion Williamson? He's also immensely fun to watch, with the sort of all-around skill set that makes him far and away the top prospect in a loaded 2025 NBA Draft class.
While Flagg commands the spotlight and the gaze of millions of college basketball fans, he is not the only Blue Devils player worth talking about in NBA terms. Khaman Maluach, Duke's hulking 7-foot-2 center, is a potential top-five pick in his own right. Then there's Kon Knueppel, who has quietly built a strong lottery case next to Flagg on the wing.
A former Wisconsin high school standout with NBA lineage, Knueppel does not have the sexiest stat line. He's averaging 13.2 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 2.4 assists on .452/.383/.896 splits as of this writing, picking up 29.5 minutes per game. That said, his impact is deeply felt almost every night, and his skill set is bound to generate plenty of fans in NBA front offices.
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Kon Knueppel is Duke's hidden potential lottery pick in the 2025 NBA Draft
Knueppel was the 10th overall pick to San Antonio in FanSided's latest NBA mock draft. He is our 10th-ranked prospect as well. It's a bit difficult to peg down Knueppel's exact draft range this early in the process, but a lottery selection — even a top-10 selection — is very much in the cards. There are so many positive traits that NBA scouts will value that it's hard to get too worked up over the limited athleticism.
The concerns with Knueppel are right on the surface. He's a solidly built wing at 6-foot-7 and 217 pounds, but he lacks the quickness and burst of your standard elite NBA prospects. He's going to lose certain defensive matchups on the perimeter and he's a primarily below-the-rim finisher, which could lead to efficiency challenges once faced with NBA shot-blockers.
On the other hand, we've seen plenty of "average" athletes thrive at the next level due to the right blend of skill and IQ, which Knueppel has in spades. He also competes extremely hard, which has led to a mostly positive impact on defense, even if he's not going to handle the toughest assignments on a nightly basis or rack up stocks (0.9 steals, 0.1 blocks this season).
Knueppel is one of the best shooters in the draft, period. He went through a mild cold spell early in the campaign, but even his current percentage, which rests well above the NBA average, feels misleading. He has NBA range on his jumper and is comfortable shooting out of different setups, whether he's flying around a screen or spotting up from a stationary position. He's averaging a healthy 7.7 attempts per 40 minutes from deep, a number he could even improve upon at the next level, where schemes tend to lean more aggressively on 3s than college offenses.
He is more than just a shooter, though. Knueppel won't create much space as a ball-handler or finish with vertical pop at the rim, but he's comfortable putting the rock on the hardwood to attack a closeout and get downhill. Duke uses him in plenty of pick-and-roll actions, too, where his passing vision is on full display. The holes in Knueppel's game are few and far between. He's going to space the floor, provide some secondary playmaking, and generally process the floor at a high level — all while providing an appreciable competitive fire. There's just a lot to like about him, especially at 19 years old.
Too often folks harp on athleticism and physical tools when projecting star upside, but ignore the benefits of high feel. Knueppel plays the game the right way and understands the limits of his skill set, plus how to exploit what advantages he possesses. He's strong enough to bully smaller guards in the post, for example, and he's good at finding angles to the rim, even without elite quickness.
Don't be shocked if Knueppel carves out a long and successful NBA career.