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Duke's Kon Knueppel Gets Stark Warning Ahead of NBA Draft

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Sean Deveney | Last updated May 20, 2025 4:26 PM ET

On most NBA mock drafts, with the actual event only a little bit more than a month away, the Duke Blue Devils are pretty well-represented. Cooper Flagg is a sure bet to go No. 1, and the Dallas Mavericks are said to be set on keeping the pick, no matter the temptations to trade it for a more polished veteran player.

After him, it seems center Khaman Maluach, at 7-foot-2, is set to be a Top 10 pick, too. Also slated for a Top 10 spot is wing Kon Knueppel ... at least according to the mock drafts.

Some in front offices around the NBA are not so sure.

"It's an up-and-down draft," one NBA personnel exec said. "You've got Flagg, but he is the only guy who is polished and has that raw talent. Everyone else, it is like, he's polished but he doesn't have that raw athleticism or ability. Or, he has that raw athleticism but we have no idea if he is going to do the work to polish it.

"So with Knueppel, he is like the poster child of the first batch. His game is polished as it is. He can shoot. I don't know that he is going to get any better, though."

One league scout said that Knueppel's measurements are worrisome.

"(Duke) had him at 6-foot-7, and he is not 6-foot-7, but you could kind of tell that," the scout said. "You could see he is lacking length but the measurement was really unkind. If you're taking him in the Top 10, you're saying, 'OK, he is a rotation player down the line, maybe a sixth man at best, and we're good with that.'"

Knueppel measured 6-foot-5 without shoes, and his wingspan came in at just 6-foot-6.25 at the NBA combine last week. By way of comparison, likely No. 2 pick Dylan Harper came in at a half-inch shorter than Knueppel, but had a wingspan more than four inches longer, at 6-foot-10.5.

Knueppel can certainly shoot, and that's why is a solid bet as a lottery pick. He made 14.4 points on 47.9% shooting and 40.6% 3-point shooting, while making 91.4% of his free throws for the national finalists. But he will need to develop more as a point guard and a defender, and there are questions about whether he can do that.

"It's hard to see him as a Top 5, a Top 8 pick in the draft," the exec said. "He is a good kid, he is definitely a shooter. He deserves to be a first-rounder, Top 20. But I would just warn him, I could see him sliding. The size, the athleticism, it's just not really there. I think you're going to see more teams willing to take a gamble on an athlete at the top of the draft than a shooter."

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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