Atlanta Hawks 2025 NBA Draft Profile - Duke Guard Kon Knueppel

A few other promising names to add to that list of young guys are power forward Jalen Johnson, who has seen his season cut short due to injury, and center Onyeka Okongwu. Jalen Johnson played a huge role in the Hawks' jump this year and exceeded expectations. At the time of Johnson's injury, the Hawks were 22-19 and coming off an In-Season Tournament run to the Eastern Conference Finals in December. Johnson averaged 18.9 points per game, 10 rebounds, and five assists, on 51% shooting from the field. Before the torn labrum injury, Johnson was in conversations for potentially making the Eastern Conference All-Star team, and the Hawks finished the season 18-23 without him.

There have been reports that the Atlanta Hawks are now looking to build on this young core. This season, they landed the 13th pick (via Sacramento Kings) and the 22nd pick (via Los Angeles Lakers) in the 2025 NBA Draft. The Hawks have been rumored to have met with Duke Guard Kon Knueppel this month for pre-draft interviews and have met with other teams, such as the Chicago Bulls, the Charlotte Hornets, the Brooklyn Nets, and the Orlando Magic.

Let's take a look at some of the strengths and weaknesses that Knueppel has:

Strengths:

Knueppel has elite ability in shooting the basketball and has a deep range with a fast release, with shooting averages of 47.9% from the field, 40.6% from three point range, and 91.4% from the free throw line. With his 6-foot-7 build Knueppel is able to make high IQ plays on both the offensive and defensive end on the wing, he has a strong frame able to play through contact and grab rebounds over bigger opponents. The good thing when it comes to Knueppel possibly getting drafted by the Hawks is that he excels in the half court which is what the Hawks like to do best with the pick and roll and Trae Young driving to the rim with multiple perimeter shooting and lob threats.

Weaknesses:

Due to Knueppel's size, he also lacks much athleticism, which is why the Hawks score most of their points by getting to the basket since they didn't shoot the three-ball well most of this past season. Knueppel's quickness is also a cause for concern, as he struggles with switching onto guards, defending in space, and being good in isolation. He can be a bit of a liability on defense, which could lead to being reliant on the team to help him and could lead to being a bad pairing in certain lineups, especially with Trae Young possibly being the lead guy for the team playing high minutes with a small size who also relies on team defense as well. Another problem is a lack of transition defense and over-reliability on three-point shooting, as he shot 57% of his shot attempts from three-point range, which could lead to his offensive game stagnating, similar to Kevin Huerter from the 2018 NBA Draft.

Overall:

If the Atlanta Hawks decided to draft Knueppel, it could be a good and bad fit for his scoring abilities; he averaged 14.4 points per game at Duke, on high shooting splits. Outside of his consistent shooting of the basketball, he can be a bit of a liability on defense and overall offense, which is what the Atlanta Hawks are lacking with this young team, and we've seen something similar in the Trae Young era with the likes of Kevin Huerter. When a player like this goes cold, there isn't much to work with regarding the team's benefits. While the team lacks offensive consistency, as we saw throughout the Play-In Tournament, Knueppel could potentially bring some consistency to them with his shooting, but his defensive issues are a concern. I could see this being a decent pairing as long as Knueppel continues to work on his offensive game and gives consistent effort on the defensive end, even with some of his physical deficiencies.

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