Film room: Inside Kon Knueppel’s elite footwork and pick-and-roll play for Duke men’s basketball

A shooting slump is one of the hardest things to overcome in basketball, especially for a highly-touted freshman adjusting to the rigor of the college game. 

Throughout the entire summer, the team sung Kon Knueppel’s praises due to his offseason work and practice performance. The Milwaukee native didn’t disappoint in his opening act for the Blue Devil faithful, as he went 7-for-14 from behind the arc and scored 37 combined points in the Duke’s first two games.

But Knueppel faltered from deep in the bright lights early in the year — recording a 1-for-16 mark against Kansas and Kentucky combined. He followed this up with a 4-for-18 stretch between the Auburn and George Mason wins. 

“It was definitely probably the worst slump of my life,” Knueppel said after his Duke’s 82-56 win against Georgia Tech. “So it was a rough couple of games, but you try to find ways to affect the game in other ways.” 

That he has. 

He impacts Duke’s offense in myriad ways. He is second on the team with 3.1 assists per game, a testament to his vision. Knueppel rarely gives the ball away; his 4.67 assist-to-turnover ratio over the past five games is off the charts, good for the 99th percentile in the country. 

These poor shooting stretches are mostly mental and understandable for a freshman playing in the biggest games of his life. Knueppel admitted the slump is “more about the mind than anything else.” 

“He's played well, he just hasn't hit shots he normally does, and things drove him nuts a little bit, but he's worked his butt off. He makes others better,” Scheyer said. 

The Yellow Jackets mainly played drop coverage as Maluach's defender moves back to protect the rim. Teams generally defend pick-and-rolls differently, but Knueppel operated extremely well against this. 

In two plays two minutes apart, Knueppel makes the correct read based on the help defender. On the first play, the weak-side defender is late, so Knueppel keeps his defender on his hip and passes up the lob to Maluach. A few possessions later on a pick-and-roll, Maluach’s man — No. 30 Ibrahim Souare — is forced to respect Knueppel’s jumper, so he steps out. 

Duke’s freshman performs his signature hesitation, notices there is a help defender in the paint and takes the ball to the basket. Here, Knueppel drives into a stride stop and uses his strength to put his shoulder into the defender’s chest and rise above him. By finishing off of two feet, he has leverage over his defender when driving and finishing. 

“I do find it really fun playing the pick and roll,” Knueppel said after the Georgia Tech game. “It's something I really worked on this summer, and I've gotten a lot better at. I just enjoy making those reads.”

Knueppel nearly always finishes off of two feet, providing added control and balance in the paint. This means that when he goes up for a layup, he jumps with both feet together. To get to this point, he either runs into a stride stop — jumping and landing with one foot in front of the other prior to shooting — or a jump stop, where two feet land together before the shot. 

That allows Knueppel to gain a lower center of gravity than the opposition, and he uses his body well to shield defenders en route to the basket. In Duke’s 84-78 win against Auburn, Knueppel was only 2-of-3 from the field and 0-for-1 from deep. But both of those 2-pointers were at key points — one at the beginning of the game when the Blue Devils were struggling to score, and one to essentially ice the game with one minute remaining. 

In the clip below, watch as Knueppel comes to a jump stop, which throws off Johni Broome, who steps back to guard Maliq Brown. Knueppel then steps with his pivot foot and finishes the wide-open layup. 

While this play was more open, Knueppel’s footwork takes patience and shows a skill level unmatched by many 19-year-olds. When Knueppel drives to the paint, he draws a crowd of Tigers. But his patience allowed him to find an open Isaiah Evans in the corner for his third triple of the evening. 

Finally, one of Knueppel’s specialties is when he rises above a defender for a 7-10-foot jump shot. As a counter move, the Wisconsin Lutheran product can score this off a turnaround, too. 

Take these two plays in Duke’s 77-72 loss to Kentucky. On the first play, he gets by Koby Brea and then stops on a dime and rises for a 2-pointer. This is extremely difficult to defend, especially with Knueppel’s change of pace and ability to finish at the basket with ease. 

On the next play in the highlight reel, Knueppel curls off the screen set by Maluach and appears to go for the same move. However, Otega Oweh defends that well, but Knueppel doesn’t panic. At 6-foot-7, he can rise above nearly all of his matchups. Knueppel hits a tough turnaround which he makes look easy from his balance and footwork, a hallmark of his game. 

Scheyer consistently draws plays to get the ball in No. 7’s hand, and he is the benefactor of the majority of the team’s off-ball screens. Knueppel knows how to work within the flow of the offense and uses his dribble efficiently. 

The numbers back up the film. Knueppel is shooting 76.9% from 2-point land in his last five games, good for the 98th percentile in the country. 

Knueppel is a fantastic shooter, and all good shooters go through slumps. He is a key cog to the Duke offensive machine, and even when he’s not making shots, his impact on the court is undeniable. 

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