NBA Rookie of the Year Odds: Cooper Flagg Steals Market Lead in Regular Season Finale
Cooper Flagg has surged into the lead for NBA Rookie of the Year, overtaking longtime favorite Kon Knueppel in the final hours of the regular season. After a historic scoring run, Flagg now sits at -143 with momentum firmly on his side. We break down the latest ROY odds and how the race flipped heading into the finale.
Peter Alexis - April 13, 2026, 2:00 PM EDT
4 Minute ReadNBA Rookie of the Year Odds: Cooper Flagg Steals Market Lead in Regular Season Finale
For the first time in two months, Cooper Flagg has taken over as the betting favorite in the NBA Rookie of the Year race . Flagg now sits at -143, while Kon Knueppel has slid to +159, a dramatic reversal from last week, when Knueppel was still comfortably ahead and looked close to wrapping up the award. The swing came fast, and it came late.
Flagg’s closing run was simply too loud for the market to ignore. He dropped 51 against Orlando, followed it with 45 against the Lakers, then added 33 more against San Antonio, turning the final stretch of the season into a one-man charge at the trophy.
Knueppel still has a powerful season-long case, especially after helping Charlotte reach the play-in tournament while Dallas missed the postseason entirely, but the odds now say Flagg’s late explosion may have officially changed the vote.
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NBA Rookie of the Year Odds
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Cooper Flagg (-143) Check out these best odds at Bet365 Sportsbook
Flagg’s case is now built on sheer star power and an overwhelming finish. He closes the regular season averaging about 21.1 points per game, and his last week may have been the most memorable stretch by any rookie this season.
The 51-point game made him the ninth rookie in NBA history to score 50, and the follow-up 45-point night confirmed it was not a fluke. By the time he scored 33 more against the Spurs, the market had almost no choice but to move him into the lead.
The counterargument is team context. Dallas finished 26-56 and did not make the playoffs, so Flagg’s résumé leans far more on individual brilliance than team success.
But voters often remember how a race ends, and Flagg’s late heater felt like the kind of close that can overwhelm months of steadier but quieter production from a rival. He finished with the bigger scoring average, the louder highlights, and the stronger finish-line momentum, which is why he enters the final night on top.
Kon Knueppel (+159) Check out these best odds at DraftKings Sportsbook
Knueppel still has a very real argument, even with the odds drifting against him. He spent most of the final two months as the favorite, broke the rookie three-point record, led the entire NBA in made threes, and was still sitting No. 1 on the final Rookie Ladder update before the market fully flipped.
He also helped Charlotte secure the East’s ninth seed and a home play-in game, which gives him a much stronger team-success angle than Flagg.
That team context matters because Knueppel was not just putting up numbers in empty games. Charlotte won enough to matter, and he was central to that rise. The problem is timing.
His final schedule was harder, and while the Hornets did what they needed to do as a team, Flagg kept posting massive individual totals that grabbed all the oxygen in the race. Knueppel still has the record-setting shooting case and the postseason edge, but the odds move says the market now believes his lead may have disappeared one game too early.
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