How Luka, Cade Could Cost Kon Knueppel the NBA Rookie of the Year

BetMGM closed the regular season with Flagg as a -175 favorite in Rookie of the Year odds. He and his former college roommate had flip-flopped atop the odds board for months prior amid historic seasons, with Knueppel leading the entire league in made threes and Flagg becoming the youngest player to score 50 points in an NBA game.

Knueppel was back on the court in the Play-In Tournament on Tuesday, April 14, two days after the conclusion of the regular season and when votes were supposed to be submitted. He ended up playing one of the worst games of his short-lived professional career, totaling six points, five rebounds, and four fouls on 16.7% shooting, and was benched down the stretch for backup guard Coby White.

Television cameras aired several standalone shots of Knueppel standing in dismay as he was held out of playing late in the fourth quarter and in overtime of a battle that the Hornets eventually won by one point.

That was the last image that awards voters saw of the young rookie before they were required to submit their ballots less than three days later.

According to an awards voting tracker, Knueppel had a 6-2 lead in first-place votes for Rookie of the Year before the end of Tuesday, the day of the Play-In disaster. Flagg now holds a 13-12 lead in first-place votes, meaning that he claimed 11 of 17 (64.7%) possible votes after the Play-In concluded.

Voters were not supposed to factor the Play-In into their thinking when they made their ballots. However, Fox Sports 1 analyst and voter Rachel Nichols admitted that the Play-In “totally” influenced her thinking in a “first-time-in history” situation.

When will the winner be announced?

There’s no end in sight for the Rookie of the Year conspiracy.

The NBA does not have a set deadline for when it reveals the winners of its awards, although it regularly happens toward the middle or end of the postseason.

Knueppel winning the award would mark the second straight season that the fourth pick in the draft walked away with hardware, following the San Antonio Spurs’ Stephon Castle. A win for Flagg would make it three years in four that the first-overall pick won the award.

The players’ final regular-season stats are as follows:

• Cooper Flagg: 21.0 ppg, 6.7 rpg, 4.5 apg, 1.2 spg, 0.9 bpg, 46.8% FG, 29.5% 3PT
• Kon Knueppel: 18.5 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 3.4 apg, 0.7 spg, 0.2 bpg, 47.5% FG, 42.5% 3PT

This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.