Best Rookie? No. 4 overall pick Knipur, how amazing is he?

In the regular season, the Hornets lost to the Pacers 117-128 in an away game.

The game was lost against the Pacers, who had a worse record than themselves. However, Hornets rookie Knippel once again had an outstanding personal performance: he played 42 minutes, 11 of 20 shots, 5 of 11 three-pointers, and scored 28 points, 8 rebounds, and 7 assists.

In the previous game, the Hornets lost to the Raptors by 2 points. Knippel's personal performance was also very good: he played 36 minutes, 9 of 16 shots, 4 of 10 three-pointers, 2 of 2 free throws, and scored 24 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal.

So far this season, Knipur has played in 15 games, including 7 games with 20+ points and 2 games with 30+ points, ranking first among all rookies.

The data he has handed over so far: averaging 33.5 minutes per game, 18.3 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 0.8 steals, three shooting percentages of 47.3%/40.3%/88.6%, and a true shooting percentage of 62.4%.

Knipoel currently ranks first among rookies in scoring average. For comparison:

- VJ Edgecombe started the game so explosively, with 30+ points in his career debut. He currently averages only 15.9 points per game, with a true shooting percentage of 50.4%

- Flagg He was considered America's son before the draft, but now he only has 15.5 points and a true shooting percentage of 53.4%

If narrowed down to the past 9 games, Kniple averaged 22.3 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game - you read that right, these are really the statistics of a rookie.

Knippel was the No. 4 pick in this year's first round. He played for Duke in college and was Flagg's teammate. Although he did not receive Flagg's attention, he averaged 14.4 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game in his freshman season.

In terms of physical talent, Knipur is not particularly outstanding. He is 1.98 meters tall, has a wingspan of 1.99 meters, and has average athletic ability and explosive power. This is why he was not favored at the beginning.

Hornets fans will certainly never forget how skeptical and disappointed they were when the team selected him with the fourth pick in the first round, but looking back now, Knippel really slapped many people in the face.

In the previous summer league, Knipur was not only selected to the Las Vegas Summer League All-Pro Second Team, but also led the Hornets to win the championship in six games. He was also elected FMVP, averaging 15.6 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game.

After the start of the regular season, although Knipur was not as impressive as Edgecombe in his debut and had some bumps in the first few games, it took him less than two weeks to adapt to the game and scored 20+ and 30+ in succession.

It is no exaggeration to say that, right now, Knipur is the best-performing rookie of this year. In the latest NBA rookie rankings, Knipur once again ranked first, followed by Coward, Flagg, Kalkbrenner, and VJ Edgecombe.

Judging from the first month of this, Knippel should have shown more than many people imagined:

——Elite-level shooting, with a shooting percentage of more than 40%, currently averaging 3.3 three-pointers per game, and a total of 50 three-pointers, ranking sixth in the league

——Very good basketball IQ, playing very smart, good at running without the ball to find opportunities, the Hornets coaching staff once praised him "Like a veteran"

- Unexpected ball-handling offense. Before the draft, I thought this was one of Knipur's weaknesses, but judging from the Summer League and the regular season, his level is really underestimated.

Of course, he also has some common problems of rookie players, such as too many mistakes and averaging 3.0 turnovers per game. But as far as the start is concerned, Knipur showed definitely more surprises. His game adaptability is a bit amazing for a 20-year-old young man.

It is worth mentioning that Knippel's best template when drafting was considered to be Thompson. Now it seems that his three-pointers and off-ball are indeed excellent (of course not as good as Thompson), and his ball-holding ability is also better than Thompson, but his defense remains to be seen.

The point is, he is only 20 years old, and there may be the possibility of continued improvement in the future - even though Knippel looks ordinary, it can even be said that he has no superstar appearance at all, but he is really a treasure rookie, and the Hornets really picked the right person this time.