$4.8 million NIL-valued Cooper Flagg heaps praise for Kon Knueppel & Khaman Maluach, reflecting on his freshman season

Duke Blue Devils star Cooper Flagg is projected to be the first pick in the 2025 NBA draft. Ahead of the draft, on Saturday, he interviewed with Yahoo Sports.

Flagg, who has an NIL value of $4.8 million (via On3), was asked several questions about his college experience as a freshman. First, he was asked who the toughest person to play against at practice is.

“Kon Knueppel in practice every day,” he said.

Interestingly, Flagg had a different answer when asked which one of his teammates was the hardest to score on.

“I’d say scoring on Khaman in practice was probably one of the hardest things to do,” Flagg added. “His length at the rim, scoring on him at the rim was something that was not fun.”

Kon Knueppel and the Khaman Maluach have also declared for the 2025 NBA draft. Flagg was asked which team had the toughest arena to play in.

“Arizona was a tough place to play,” he said. “UNC is always gonna be tough. I’d say those two are some of the best places we’ve played.”

Basketball world awaits Cooper Flagg’s NBA draft decision

It’s odd that Cooper Flagg, the probable No. 1 choice in the 2025 NBA draft, has not formally declared. His two teammates, Kon Knueppel and Khaman Maluach, both declared for the draft. If Flagg announces for the draft, the Duke Blue Devils will likely have three players picked in the top ten.

Flagg is viewed by most draft experts as one of the best NBA prospects in recent years. He would be an appealing addition to whichever NBA team is lucky enough to win the draft lottery.

However, the teams that miss out on Flagg will still have the opportunity to add either or both Kon Knueppel and Khaman Maluach. Both players are projected to get selected within the lottery (top 14) and could contend to be top 10 picks.

SI conducted its latest mock draft on Saturday and had all three players going in the top 10. They had Flagg going first, followed by Maluach with the fifth pick and Knueppel with the 10th pick.

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Alexander O’Reilly is a journalist at Sportskeeda from Kingston, Ontario with over seven years in the field at companies including SenShot, RVBlogger, Monarch Media, WordAgents, GSeC LLC, and IGC.

His favorite college team is Duke, and his favorite sporting memory was Duke winning March Madness in 2010. JJ Redick was Alex’s favorite college player when he was young but more recently, Caleb Williams gets the nod. As the Chicago Bears are Alex’s favorite NFL team, this was a perfect match.

Alex’s proudest moment came when he was interviewed by a radio station in Ottawa on his opinion on recent moves by the Ottawa Senators, which gave him a confidence boost and the knowledge that he could succeed as a writer.

Aside from sports, Alex likes to spend his time playing games. He is also very passionate about running and strives to improve at the half and full marathon distances.

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Edited by Krutik Jain