I wanna chime in on the whole “why should we care if Kon Knueppel is on a good team for Rookie of the Year if we never factor winning into that award?” fracas. The top rookies are usually high picks and winning teams rarely have high picks, so it’s unfair to expect them to win. But the difference with Kon is that he didn’t just get lucky and find himself drafted by an awesome team. He got drafted by a team that sucked last year and we assumed would suck this year. He’s not just a part of winning. The winning is happening largely because he is there. He’s not the only reason obviously, but I think we need to be able to draw a distinction between giving a rookie credit for landing on the perfect team and giving a rookie credit for making the team that drafts him great. Kon is genuinely central to what makes a winning team win. I’m not saying Flagg couldn’t do that. I’m saying on the rare occasion in which any rookie does that I think it’s worth crediting. This is rare and it’s special.
