Can Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel please share the NBA Rookie of the Year award?

2 days ago 2

The Rookie of the Year race is neck and neck, and soon, something could happen that we may deeply regret.

That award is more than likely going to go to one recipient, as opposed to two.

Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel, former Duke teammates, are duking it out (I'm so sorry) for the honor, with Knueppel currently leading the way.

But let's be honest for a moment. It's impossible to make a genuine argument against either of these guys. Knueppel is the slight favorite at BetMGM (-125), but is functioning within a team construct with other high-caliber players, whereas Flagg (+100) is statistically beasting with very little help coming his way.

Picking one over the other is, at this point, just silly. And as such, it's time to collude.

Voters … assemble!

Yes, it's time for the award voters, consisting of national and local writers and pundits, to collude and make sure Flagg and Knueppel walk away as co-Rookies of the Year.

Go make a WhatsApp group and arrange for the Duke duo to walk away as winners, as the rear-view mirror of time will only show this will forever be the only acceptable outcome.

It's not like we haven't seen the award shared before.

In 1995, Jason Kidd and Grant Hill shared the honor. In 2000, Elton Brand and Steve Francis repeated that trend.

If ever there's a need for co-ROY's again, it's this season.

Flagg, who followed up a ridiculous 51-point effort with another 45-point performance, is averaging 21 points, 6.7 rebounds and 4.6 assists, and thoroughly living up to the hype.

He's had four 40-plus point performances, and he doesn't turn 20 until Dec. 21. However you slice it, that's utterly ridiculous for someone so young to be this good already.

As for Knueppel, he's having literally the best 3-point shooting season of any rookie in league history. The 20-year-old has canned 268 triples and has hit 42.9% of his attempts.

That's simply a preposterously good shooting season for any player, let alone a rookie. If Stephen Curry or a healthy Damian Lillard sported those numbers, we'd call that the norm of their capabilities. But Knueppel is in his debut season and is adding 5.3 rebounds and 3.4 assists to boot.

For what it's worth, there seems to be no language given by the NBA to voters that they can't get together to collude, thus no bylaws would be broken.

(Coughs loudly and suggestively)

In all seriousness, the league would likely find it enormously distasteful, which is understandable. But it'd likewise be distasteful if one of these players is left by the wayside for the award. So for once, have some heart, NBA!

Has the award changed?

Many point to Knueppel as the favorite due to the Hornets having a winning record. That's an interesting development, since winning has never really been a major part of this specific award before.

If the unofficial criteria of the award has changed, that isn't necessarily the worst thing in the world, but the timing would be tough to swallow, given what Flagg is doing.

One could argue Flagg, as a singular force, is good enough to close the gap between them in regard to winning due to how dominant he has proven himself to be.

That said, it'd be nice to have just a smidge more of an idea of what to make of this award, especially if the criteria is slowly changing.

We've seen before how the MVP shifts in terms of what's most important — being the most valuable player, or simply the best player, to even just the best player on the best team.

If ROY is to take a similar stroll between definitions, it'll only muddy the awards picture even more, which is becoming par for the course.

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