
The Rookie of the Year frontrunners won’t play in the postseason. Cooper Flagg’s Mavericks have their eyes set on the NBA draft lottery, while Kon Knueppel and the Hornets were eliminated Friday night in a blowout loss to the Magic as the two teams battled for the Eastern Conference’s eighth seed.
Flagg and Knueppel, who were teammates at Duke, have been the center of much of the conversation around the NBA’s rookies. Plenty of other players entered the league on playoff teams, however, and the first round kicks off on Saturday.