Former Duke basketball rookie star Kon Knueppel was taken with the fourth overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft by the Charlotte Hornets, joining Cooper Flagg and Khaman Maluach as the three rookie Blue Devils taken in the top ten. Now, after being one of the biggest draft stock risers of last season in college basketball, Knueppel may have just sparked Duke's next recruiting wave by proving how much prospects can boost their stock with Jon Scheyer.

Flagg and Maluach came into Durham viewed as two perennial lottery talents in this summer's NBA Draft, but Knueppel wasn't getting too much hype as a potential franchise-altering piece. The Wisconsin native was ranked as the No. 18 overall player and No. 5 small forward in the class of 2025 per the 247Sports Composite Rankings. Knueppel was the fourth-highest ranked commit in the recruiting class alone for Duke, behind Flagg (No. 1 overall prospect), Maluach (No. 4 overall prospect), and Isaiah Evans (No. 13 overall prospect). All were five-star recruits, but Knueppel was at the bottom of the bunch per the high school recruiting rankings.

However, Knueppel quickly showed how versatile he was through the summer and started to generate noise around his play pretty quickly. It didn't take long after the season started to realize how talented a pro prospect the 6'7 wing was.

Knueppel was probably the second-most productive rookie for the Blue Devils last season behind Flagg and was a critical piece for a team that won an ACC Tournament Championship and made the Final Four.

The sharpshooter showed his ability to lead a great team in the ACC Tournament specifically, which is where his 2025 draft stock soared. After Flagg went down with an injury in Duke's opening game against Georgia Tech, which required the superstar to miss the remainder of the conference tournament, Knueppel took the keys as the offensive catalyst for the Blue Devils, leading the program to a conference tournament championship and taking home ACC Tournament MVP honors.

Knueppel finished his lone campaign in Durham averaging 14.4 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 2.7 assists a game on 47.9% shooting from the field and 40.6% shooting from three.

Scheyer has sealed the No. 1 overall recruiting class nationally in two of his three seasons as Duke's head coach, and is looking to continue his hot recruiting. After Knueppel showed it's very possible to come in towards the bottom of a stacked recruiting class and perform your way into top-five draft status, he may have cemented why recruits should choose Duke.