2026 NBA Rookie of the Year Odds: Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel Lead Two-Man Race

It's been many years since we had an NBA Rookie of the Year Award race that was hotly contested into the final days of the seasons. That's what we have for 2025-26 with a pair of superstar rookies vying for the honor.

Former college teammates Cooper Flag and Kon Knueppel are 1-2 in odds from the top basketball sports betting apps for NBA ROTY.

(Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images)

Yes, the last few games of the regular season could change the outcome of this coveted honor, which has previously been bestowed on Larry Bird, David Robinson, and Victor Wembanyama, among other epic hoopers.

NBA Rookie of the Year Odds: Two-Man Race

It's Duke vs Duke, as two former Blue Devils lead the chase for the NBA Rookie of the Year. These odds are from FanDuel Sportsbook:

• Cooper Flagg ... -210
• Kon Knueppel ... +150

BetMGM lists Flagg at -225, seeming more certain that the Mavericks forward will capture the award. The last Dallas player to be named ROTY was a fella you may have heard of: Luka Dončić from Slovenia.

Flagg bests Lebron James in Scoring Streak

Has Cooper Flagg sealed the Rookie of the Year Award? Maybe. Last Friday, he poured in 51 points against Orlando for a career-high. It was historic: Flagg is the youngest player (19 years, 103 days) to score 50 or more points in an NBA game in the history of the league. He's also just the second rookie to score 50+, joining Wilt Chamberlain.

If getting his name attached to Chamberlain's wasn't enough to clinch the Rookie of the Year Award, Flagg followed up his 51-point frenzy with another amazing game on Sunday.

On April 5, Flagg scored 45 against the Los Angeles Lakers, showing off his talent against LeBron James, and also breaking a record previously held by King James.

Flagg is now the only rookie to score 40+ points in four games in his rookie season, eclipsing the record last held by James. Here's the Flagg line for Sunday's Dallas win over the banged-up Lakers:

• 45 points
• 9 assists
• 8 rebounds
• 14-for-27 in field goals overall
• 2-for-4 in 3-point field goals
• 13-for-15 on free throws

Dallas may miss Luka, and they have a reason to. But, the Mavericks obviously have a worthy superstar to build a championship team around. How many years are we going to see Flagg, Wembanyama, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Anthony Edwards battle for supremacy in the Western Conference? And Flagg won't turn 20 until four days before Christmas.

How Knueppel could steal away the Rookie of the Year award

If you line up the stats for Flagg and Knueppel, you'll notice the Dallas rookie leads in most categories:

• Flagg 20.8 PPG vs Knueppel 18.8 PPG
• Flagg 6.6 RPG vs Knueppel 5.4 RPG
• Flagg 4.5 APG vs Knueppel 3.4 APG
• Flagg 1.2 steals per game vs Knueppel 0.7 steals per game
• Flagg 0.9 blocks per game vs Knueppel 0.2 blocks per game

But when you get to rate stats, Knueppel takes over. His field goal percentage (.483) is better than that of Flagg (.472), despite his penchant for 3-point attempts. His .431 3-Point Field Goal Percentage is 7th in the NBA, and outranks Flagg's, which is .293 for his rookie campaign.

Knueppel has shattered the NBA rookie mark for 3-pointers made. Through Sunday, he has 265 made 3-pointers in his freshman season in The Association. Splash, indeed.

It's not a little thing that Knueppel has played 78 of his team's 79 games. Flagg has played 65 games, the minimum to qualify for a season award.

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To win the award, Knueppel will need to produce a few huge scoring games in the final days of the season. But that could be a tall task. The rookie has only reached 30 points five times in his rookie campaign. In contrast, Flagg has a league-record four 40+ point games, and nine games of 30+ points as a rookie.

What Knueppel would have to do is go off for a 45+ point contest, with loads of triples. But, as we saw on Sunday against the Timberwolves, Knueppel can be bothered by an active defense that double-teams him. He scored only 11 against Minnesota on 4-for-14 shooting. Even though his Hornets won, "Special K" was limited in his scoring output.

The NBA playoffs won't be a factor in the Rookie of the Year race. This is a regular season honor, of course. The Mavs are dead in the water and won't be playing in the postseason. The Hornets are going to have to compete in the Play-In Tournament, and these last handful of games in the season won't change that.

In a way, Flagg is freed up to go crazy the last few games of the season, to put an exclamation point on an historic rookie season.