The NBA has started their news trickle of end-of-season awards. They announced the Rookie of the Year award winner on Monday, and it was not Charlotte Hornets guard Kon Knueppel.

It’s disappointing. Kon Knueppel should’ve won the award. Flagg has better counting stats, but he did that as option A, B, and C on a team trying to lose as many games as possible. Knueppel put forth one of the better offensive seasons in the entire league, not just for rookies. He broke the record for 3-pointers made by a rookie in a season and led the entire league in 3-point makes. And he did all that for a team that won 43 games and made the play-in while playing as one of the best teams in the league for the entire second half of the season.

I know the argument is that team success has never factored into rookie of the year voting, but that’s usually because there isn’t much winning to consider. Good rookies are almost universally in one of two categories–a role player on a good team or a big producer on a bad team. It’s exceedingly rare for a rookie to be one of the cornerstone pieces of a good team, and Knueppel should’ve been rewarded for that. Plus, if you do want to look at stats, Knueppel laps the rookie field in just about every advanced metric measuring effectiveness.

It’s also frustrating knowing that Knueppel’s poor showing in the play-in could have factored into the perception of voters, who were delayed in getting their votes in while the NBA heard appeals for exemptions from their silly 65 game minimum from a couple of players.

In the end, Knueppel couldn’t overcome the perception that Flagg came into the league with. Like many first overall picks, Rookie of the Year was his award to lose from the start of the season, and apparently enough voters didn’t think Kon did enough to dethrone him. It is what it is.

And shout out to the one voter who had VJ Edgecombe as second over Knueppel. I’m sure you have a very good and incorrect reason for your vote.