Charles Lee: Kon Knueppel’s a darn good player who wants to impact winning

Charlotte Hornets head coach Charles Lee broke down how rookie Kon Knueppel is adjusting to the group after Wednesday’s 145-116 preseason victory vs. the Memphis Grizzlies in Greensboro (9 points/1 rebound/4 assists/3-7 FG/3-6 3-PT/+21 +/-).

(via Charlotte Hornets):

“I think Kon’s done a great job of finding his way. I think learning things, picking things up, understanding his spots. He feeds really well off of the group. I think having some really good players around him and guys that obviously want to support him, want to see him be as good as he possibly can, helps. And then, I think he’s a darn good player himself and wants to impact winning and wants to just find ways to, I don’t even want to say fit in, I want to say add to the group. This is his impact out there. That’s his focus is to really add value to the group. And he does it defensively with his competitiveness. I think that he’s gotten a lot better with his off-ball shift activity. It’ll be funny… it’ll be interesting to watch him just continue to learn the league. 

“There’s a couple guys that we talked about coming into the game: maybe we mix in some more competitive unders, and he’s so wound up and competitive he closes the gap and goes over and allows their drivers to get in a piece of the paint. And so, just trying to educate him a little bit on those things, but I’d rather have to tell somebody to wind it down a little bit than always trying to wind them up. And then offensively, I think you see all the things he can do in terms of he’s a great catch-and-shoot threat. He’s actually a really good screener, too. He’s an unselfish player. And then, I also just think that he continues to make the right decisions when he gets in the paint. He’s made a couple really good passes. And his offensive rebounding out of the corners — he’s gotten a couple of big ones I think for us that really boost our spirit.”