Bulls impressed with Hornets' Kon Knueppel and rest of '25 draft class

Coby White still bleeds Carolina blue, so for him to compliment a Dukie takes a lot.

But there the guard was last month after watching Kon Knueppel drop 33 points on the Bulls down in Charlotte, handing out praise.

“He doesn’t play like a rookie,” White said. “Not at all.”

On Saturday, Bulls coach Billy Donovan had the same takeaway about Charlotte’s first round pick as White did.

“Knueppel has been great the whole entire year,” Donovan said. “He can shoot it and you can see his skill, but his IQ and he’s a better athlete than people would give him credit for coming out of Duke. He’s tough, he’s physical, he’s played really well.”

Knueppel is not alone, either. Donovan has seen more than a handful of the first-round picks from the 2025 class, and it’s been impressive. The Bulls have faced VJ Edgecombe (No. 3), Knueppel (No. 4), Ace Bailey (No. 5), Jeremiah Fears (No. 7), Derik Queen (No. 13), and Asa Newell (No. 23), to name a few, and they check a lot of the boxes that Donovan looks for from young players in the development stage of the NBA.

“Just two things for me: How highly competitive they are physically. I think there’s a physical, mental toughness component to it because there are so many games,” Donovan said. “And I think the other thing is the IQ. How savvy a guy is. Again, Knueppel, just from watching him on film and we were playing him (Saturday), you can just tell he has a real high IQ and just knows how to play.

“The physical and mental toughness to endure 82 games night in and night out, you’ve got to be highly competitive. Then the IQ because things are changing so quickly, you’ve got to be able to make reads on the fly.

“I think (this class is) only going to improve and become outstanding players.”

The Bulls get to face the No. 1 overall pick in Cooper Flagg next Saturday when Dallas makes its only trip of the season to the United Center.

 

Message sent?

 

Patrick Williams wasn’t sure if it was just a rotation thing or the coaching staff was really trying to send him a message, but for a five-game stint at the end of December, he played less than 10 minutes in four of them, and never even got off the bench in a win over Philadelphia.

Because of the injuries to Coby White, Josh Giddey and Zach Collins, however, Williams has seen his minutes go back up into the normal range and has responded with much better results.

Tough love?

“Me personally, in terms of my game not really, I’ve always been able to do these things, but adversity always has a way of kind of dialing you in a little more,” Williams said, when asked what’s changed for him since the benching. “That might have been their plan with it, I don’t know, but adversity, if you look at it the right way, always has a way of sharpening you.”

 

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The starting lineup of Nikola Vucevic and Jalen Smith seems to have some staying power since the injury bug hit the Bulls last week, and Donovan further explained why he will continue to march the two-big look out there – starting or off the bench – even when the team is whole again.

“One of the biggest things we struggled with last year, and even this year, was teams getting a lot more bites at the apple in terms of attempts,” Donovan said. “What really impacts that is your turnovers and then giving up offensive rebounds.”