Cooper Flagg’s 49-point performance was the talk of the town, but his former Duke teammate Kon Knueppel stole the show.

The 20-year-old rookie kicked off the contest with four three-pointers in the first quarter then kept on going, finishing the night with a career-high 34 points, eight three-pointers, four rebounds, three assists, and a steal. This helped the surging Charlotte Hornets beat the Dallas Mavericks on the road, 123-121.

This was far from an outlier performance for the 6’6 sharpshooter though. He now has four 30-point games halfway through his first season in the NBA and also has 17 20-point performances. Knueppel has only scored less than 10 points four times, the most recent came all the way back in the last week of November.

Through the first 48 games of his rookie campaign, Knueppel is averaging 18.9 points, 3.4 three-pointers on 42.9% shooting, 5.4 rebounds, and 3.6 assists. His scoring average is the second highest among rookies behind only Flagg while he leads his classmates in terms of threes made and three-point shooting percentage.

Teammate Miles Bridges anointed Knueppel as Charlotte’s best player as early as November and it is hard to argue with that. Both LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller have missed their fair share of games this season and Knueppel has done an excellent job of keeping the Hornets afloat.

What makes Knueppel stand out besides his elite shooting is how he carries himself on the court. He plays with a poise that is well beyond his years and already looks like a veteran at such a young age–even drawing comparisons to the league’s all-time leader in three pointers made and the greatest shooter in history, Stephen Curry.

Now that they are fully healthy, Charlotte is now playing their best basketball of the season. Their offense has been nothing short of elite this January. They lead the league in offensive rating this January (121.4) as having an elite pair of scorers in Knueppel and Miller playing off the playmaking brilliance of Ball has been nothing short of unstoppable. 

The Hornets are now creeping back up the standings having won their last five games and seven of their last nine. They remain 11th in the East at 21–28, but trail the 10th-place Chicago Bulls for the final play-in spot by just 2.5 games and sit 6.5 games behind the sixth-place Philadelphia 76ers.

If Charlotte can keep on winning, it should only help Knueppel’s case to win the Rookie of the Year award over Flagg whose Mavericks are expected to continue falling down the standings with Anthony Davis sidelined.

In Knueppel, the Hornets have not just found an elite shooter—they have found a potential franchise cornerstone. Moving forward, Charlotte would be wise to build around him, not Miller or even Ball. If this is what Knueppel looks like halfway through his rookie season, his ceiling is going to be difficult to ignore.