Kon Knueppel's Hamstring Strain Threatens Hornets' Season Opener
Charlotte's sophomore guard, our No. 85 overall, is likely to miss the start of the season — and he's already losing his best passer.
Draft-day value slips with a hamstring strain and no LaMelo feeding him.
- Hamstring strain, likely to miss season start
- 18.5 PPG, 42.5% from three as a rookie (2025-26)
- Led NBA with 273 made threes as a rookie
- Our No. 85 overall, 30.7 FPTS/G last season
- Grant Williams also out entire preseason
Kon Knueppel is set to open his sophomore campaign on the sidelines. The Hornets guard picked up a hamstring strain that will likely cost him the start of the season, a real gut-punch for a Charlotte team already scrambling to redesign its offense. He's our No. 85 overall player and No. 41 at his position heading into the year.
The context makes this worse than a standard early-season tweak. Knueppel finished a razor-thin second in Rookie of the Year voting to former college teammate Cooper Flagg after averaging 18.5 points and 5.3 rebounds while shooting 42.5% from deep in 2025-26. He also became the first rookie in league history to lead the NBA in total made threes, draining 273 of them — a cool 3.4 per game.
Here's the catch: a huge chunk of those looks came off LaMelo Ball's passing, and Ball was shipped to Minnesota over the offseason. Charlotte planned to use camp to reinvent its attack without him, and now the guy who was supposed to inherit a bigger role can't practice. Knueppel showed last season he's more than a catch-and-shoot specialist, but the easy triples are going to be harder to come by.
Williams Down Too
Knueppel isn't the only Hornet nursing a hamstring. Grant Williams suffered a right hamstring injury and will miss the entire preseason, with a reevaluation slated for the first week of the season. Williams — our No. 269 overall — averaged just 7 points and 16.2 fantasy points per game across 36 outings last season, so his fantasy relevance was already thin. Note that 73% of his shots came from beyond the arc, where he hit 38.8%.
For Williams, there's nothing to do in most formats. He's a deep-league dart at best even when healthy, and coming off a torn ACL that kept him out until January last season, the hamstring is one more reason to look elsewhere.
The Fantasy Fallout
Knueppel is the one worth tracking. His 30.7 fantasy points per game last season (2025-26) made him a solid mid-round asset, but between the hamstring and the loss of Ball's setup passes, his floor got shakier. His last five games of 2025-26 already dipped 9.6 fantasy points below his season average, so the arrow was pointing down before this.
The move: don't panic-cut, but don't reach either. If you're in a draft this week, let his ADP slide and grab him as a discount upside play rather than a lock. In redraft leagues that have already set, keep him stashed and monitor the recovery timeline — the talent is real, the situation just got murkier. Call it a WATCH until we get a return date.
