A Kon Knueppel NBA Prep Video

You can teach a lot of things, but pure shooting is something you can only teach yourself.

Duke fans have a pretty good idea of how Kon Knueppel is (including how to pronounce his name) and the rest of the nation is catching up.

This video looks at Knueppel in detail, starting with his childhood and high school basketball career, then turns to what he’s doing at Duke.

It’s a pretty fair analysis of his game in general, but they kind of miss on one point.

The logical comparison point for Knueppel, who is said to be only passably athletic but a good shooter and a smart player, is former NBA great Chris Mullin.

If you look up Mullin’s pictures from his St. John’s days, you’ll see a certain resemblance. Mullin was thinner - they didn’t weight train as aggressively then - but basically they’re similarly sized players. Our prediction is that as he moves forward in his own NBA career, Knueppel, like Mullin, will whip himself into supreme physical condition.

After his first couple of seasons, and after he faced up to his alcoholism, Mullin became one of the most fit players of his era. He could run all night and his shooting motion was very economical.

We could easily see Knueppel following his path, though he’ll always be bigger than Mullin was.