Mavericks’ Cooper Flagg gets brutally honest on potentially losing ROY to Kon Knueppel

On Sunday evening, the Dallas Mavericks’ 2025-26 NBA season came to an end with a home win over the Chicago Bulls. Cooper Flagg played just ten minutes in the final game of his stellar rookie season before exiting with an injury, and will now await the results of the Rookie of the Year voting.

Flagg is seemingly in a two-man race with former Duke teammate and current Charlotte Hornets guard Kon Knueppel for the award, and at this point, there is no clear frontrunner between the two.

Recently, Flagg got 100% real on his mindset as the countdown to the award announcement begins.

“I’d be disappointed. It’s something that I think all rookies come out and they strive for. And that’s the award they want to get, so I would definitely be disappointed,” said Flagg, per Ron Harrod Jr. of DLLS Mavs on X, formerly Twitter.

Early on this year, Flagg seemed to be the clear frontrunner for the award, getting off to an epic start to his NBA career and quickly establishing himself as the face of the Mavericks’ franchise, prompting the team to trade Anthony Davis at the deadline.

However, Knueppel was a model of consistency for the Hornets, shattering the rookie record for threes made in a season, and leading the NBA as a whole in that department this year. By the beginning of March, it looked to be Knueppel’s award to lose.

Over the last month, however, Flagg has put up some more monster stat lines, including a 51-point game, while Knueppel’s hot shooting has tapered off a tad, which has led many to believe that the Mavericks star has hopped back in the driver’s seat.

Still, at this point, there is no consensus on who the winner will be.

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