Cooper Flagg tops Kon Knueppel in historically close Rookie of the Year vote

The Dallas Mavericks just had a season to forget for the second straight season, finishing with a 26-56 record.

Dallas’ undoing began with the February 2025 trade of All-NBA and All-Star guard Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, less than a year after reaching the NBA Finals.

The Mavericks finished the 2024-25 season with a 39-43 record but lucked out in the lottery to put them in position to select Doncic’s heir apparent, selecting Duke star forward Cooper Flagg at No. 1 overall in the 2025 NBA Draft last June.

Flagg has the unenviable task of mending the Mavericks fans’ collective broken hearts over the still-inexcusable Doncic trade, but the 19-year-old is off to a good start by becoming the first Mav to win Rookie of the Year since Doncic won it in 2019.

The NBA announced Flagg as the 2025-26 Kia NBA Rookie of the Year on Monday evening, noting, “Cooper Flagg joined Michael Jordan as the only rookies to lead their team in total points, rebounds, assists, and steals since steals were first recorded in 1973-74. Flagg is the second-youngest Kia NBA Rookie of the Year winner, behind only LeBron James.”

Kon Knueppel, whom the Charlotte Hornets drafted fourth overall last June, was the runaway favorite to win Rookie of the Year. Knueppel finished the year as the only rookie in NBA history to lead the league in made three-pointers.

But Flagg made an undeniable final push, including a 51-point performance followed by a 45-point performance in the final week of the regular season, to shrink Knueppel’s lead. While Flagg ultimately beat out his former Duke teammate, the vote was historically close.

“The 26-point gap between the top two finishers is the second smallest since the current voting format began in 2002-03, behind only a 15-point gap in 2021-22,” NBA Communications posted on X.

Flagg averaged 21 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.5 assists, and 1.2 steals across 70 starts in his first season. Unfortunately, it ended with Flagg suffering a sprained left ankle in the Mavericks’ regular-season finale on April 12.

Two weeks earlier, Flagg opened up about how difficult this season had been in Dallas while appearing on “The Pat McAfee Show.”

“Obviously, it’s been tough,” Flagg said. “Through high school [and] college, I mean, I only lost four games last year [at Duke], so there’s been times throughout the season where it’s been really mentally taxing on me. Just not having success that I would’ve hoped for. Obviously, we’ve had a lot of injuries and a lot of unfortunate things happen throughout the year, but it’s obviously not been ideal.”

Now that Flagg can objectively say he had the most successful individual rookie season, we’ll see if his individual excellence can start contributing to winning next season.

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