1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - NBA Rookie of the Year Race + Cowboys Franchise Tag George Pickens: February 27th, 2:00pm

Episode Date: February 27, 2026

NBA Rookie of the Year Race + Cowboys Franchise Tag George PickensAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

We are back here on one-on-one, another hour here. Actually, this is a box of the black shirt open, so I do apologize for that. I didn't realize that was playing. But Barclos of the Black, Terrell's now peeking in. He says, they've got to come in there. That's right, Terrell, I'm the black shirt now. That's right. That's right.

Yeah, yeah, walk away. I'm the Black shirt now. That's right. He is walking away. Yeah. That's what I thought. That's what I thought. Exactly what I thought.

So sorry to three. I thought with that at the wrong music that's on me. But in general, we're going to do. here. We're still here. And I in the box of the black shirt, we'll start for an hour, so maybe in an hour. So that can be a little preview to that. But we got plenty to talk about in the next hour. Of course, I want to ask Austin while he's in the room about a former Duke player, now making some noise in the NBA. We talked to, we promised to get to George Pickens being franchise tagged by the Cowboys. And also wanted to get to fixing college football and college

sports. You know, I don't have everybody, don't know how to do it, but it feels like, like some leaders. I don't know if they're going to say the leaders because it's tough to identify who those people are, but some many prominent names are going to gather together on March 6 at the White House and try to try to figure some of this stuff out. So we can get to that here in a second, but I did want to start off with your former Duky there, gone Canuple last night broke. Kegan Murray's NBA record for three pointers as far as rookies go, making his 207th

on Thursday night against the Indiana Pacers. Murray, for what it's worth, set that in 80 games that he played his rookie season. Kineppel has done it in 59 to this point. So he's still got some way to go to add to that record. And it's not just that well, he's doing well for rookies. He's doing well altogether. He leads the league in three-pointers made. Did you expect this from him coming out?

I really enjoyed watching Con Canipal at Duke. I can't tell you I thought he was going to make the. level of history. The dude is so consistent with his his footwork. He's able to shoot from a standstill. He's able to shoot off of movement. And what he's being asked to do in Charlotte is a little different than what he was asked to do at times, especially down the stretch at Duke, especially in the ACCT tournament. Cooper Fly goes out with the twisted ankle, sits out the last couple and half games of that tournament. And Cinniple absolutely went off. And this is a guy who growing up in Wisconsin and Milwaukee, big bucks fan, big Chris Middleton guy, you know, was hoping just to be able

to go play somewhere in college. His mom was at UW Green Bay and his dad was at Wisconsin Lutheran in the D2 ranks. And this is a guy in Concanipple that I just said, yeah, you know what, basketball works out for me. If I'm able to go play somewhere in college pretty cool, one of those back gym kind of guys that the John Chire and his staff ended up finding and was, I mean, it's hard to be the most consistent player on a college basketball team when you have Cooper flag in the lineup. But Concanipple showed up pretty much every day. This is a guy that started the year off, maybe a little, little rough. It didn't really flash until December. But from that point on, he was having some conversations and, you know, really found that confidence, found that groove

around the time that the Duke ended up playing Auburn, a game the Duke ended up winning by six. And then it was off to the races from there. Con Cinnipple, incredible college player. That's a guy that I thought was going to translate really well to the NBA because you look at him, kind of boxy, right, not long, not wiry, but strong enough to make it work, really good footwork, one of those, you know, positional defenders. He's going to compete his butt off at the point of attack.

You can get, you know, underwhelmed by the lack of vertical burst, maybe sometimes or the lack of straight line speed. but he's got the deceleration, he's got the handle, he's got the feel for the game. And he's playing in a Charlotte environment that I didn't love for him. I wasn't sure how that was going to go. But shout up to Charles Lee and that staff are making it work, right, with a mellow ball in and out of the lineup with Brandon Miller, who was actually pretty high up that that rookie three-pointers made list as well.

Miller was in fourth, now he's in fifth with a coniple passing him, really coming into his own there is kind of a stretch for a Diabate. being there. I either Duke I see on James playing a role as a rookie as well. Charlotte's fun. I'm not sure they're good yet. Yeah.

But there's more hope for that franchise than there's been in 20 years. Probably, I mean, when you go back to even just like the New Orleans Hornets time, right? Chris Paul, David West, not the same franchise right, it was Charlotte

and then the Pelicans and back to the Hornets and Charlotte, whatever. But Con Cinniple's incredible. He's been incredible. Do I think he ends up leading the league in three-pointers made? probably not, but maybe.

Will he get to 300? I don't know. Maybe it's kind of funny that this is happening too, and this is an NBA that is still shooting it's fair share of threes, a lot of threes. But at least as of a couple weeks ago, the three point rate was actually down in the NBA, a league wide.

Now, Charlotte's playing better. They're having more opportunities. Concanipal's getting a lot of them. But this isn't just a volume conversation. It's not like everyone in the, the NBA is shooting more threes all the time now. It's actually kind of hit that point of diminishing returns where teams are finding a couple new ways.

And it's not by much. It's down at 8% or two last I checked. But it's not like Connipal is going to set a record for one year and the next year's NBA is going to shoot even more threes and it's going to get broken again right away. This is a testament to his incredible efficiency, I think more so than his volume that, you know, 60-ish games in, 58 games in, 59 for the Hornets right now. he hit 207 and keegan murray took 80 games to make 206 of them it's a role conversation it's a it's an efficiency conversation just a big shout out my guy con canipple he's shooting 44%

by shooting that volume i mean that is incredible challenging for 50 40 90 is a rookie yes absolutely incredible now the the conversation is kind of interesting too because um the questions kind of come up should he be rookie of the year and of course he's battling Cooper flag for that. And it feels like, wow, this con canuple, you know, came out of nowhere to battle Cooper flag for this. He was the fourth pick the draft. Like that it tells you. And we know in the NBA, sometimes there's just, and it was this case again, where it's there's, you know, he's in this tier of prospect. And then there's a couple of guys in this, you know, the second tier. But, you know, there's generally especially in NBA drafts.

This year, there's going to be a really good group, maybe three or four guys at the top that are kind of in that top tier. But it has been surprising. Would you, who would you, who would vote for for a rookie of the year. It's kind of interesting. Their stats are somewhat similar. Flag's got a little bit of a bump in like points per game and rebounds and even assist there. But Charlotte does have a couple more wins. They're kind of both in the same in that category as well. It's really interesting because I don't want to just go with the narrative, right? That's Cooper Flagg's award to lose, which it was coming into the year. I mean, you see Vijay Edge come start out really hot. He's had his own ups and downs throughout the course of the year. And it's,

Cooper Flag is being asked to do more. His role is more expansive than Con Cnipolls is, right? We knew going in that there were going to be some growing pains, some learning cards for Cooper Fly, especially when he starts the year off playing point guard, when he's being asked now to help anchor the back line of that Dallas defense as one of the better shot blockers on that team, despite not being a more traditional center,

with Anthony Davis getting shipped out to Washington and Derek lively the second, another Duke guy, by the way, on the shelf with another injury. So I think that Cooper Flag has taken some legitimate strides. You know, he's a better player now barely 19 than he was when he entered the league at 18, right? He has the record, you know, youngest guy score in 40 or whatever it is. First guy in Forever score in 40, 45 and 5, whatever it was they did, you know,

right before his birthday in late December. But I saw an argument from, I think it's Matt Moore, hardwood paroxysm on Twitter that says, you know, shooting is such a valuable skill in the NBA. And Matt Moore said, I used to give guys time, right? If you don't shoot great as a rookie, and it's all right, it's a longer line, it's a different ball, it's new schemes. I'll give you some time to get your feet wet. But more and more guys have come into the league, like Con Cinnipple, able to shoot the crap out of the basketball. And with how important three-point shooting has become in the modern NBA,

instead of putting the lack of shooting for Cooper flag, which is improving it, it's getting better, but it's still not at, I mean, Knapples level, it's not at league average level yet. Instead of, you know,

giving him a pass for wait and see that'll come around, it's more of a credit to Knapple that he came in ready to shoot the way that he has and been able to do it, you know, not just for a couple weeks at a time, but be able to do it now for going on, you know,

three and a half, four months at a time. I would lean Kinnipel, because he's been more consistent, even in a slightly lesser role. He's setting history just like Cooper Flag. The teams were probably in similar spots in the bottom, middle of their conference. One of them's in a playing spot. One of them's not.

You know, I love Coop. I think we would look back in, you know, 10, 15 years. Knapple, you know, have a, you know, really good NBA career. If Cooper Flag takes off the way that we think, how did that guy not win rookie of the year? Well, because sometimes they're better rookies. You know, Cooper Fly came in as one of the, youngest guys in NBA history, and it's fine. You know, if he had that learning curve to adjust to, he's taking off, his stock is

still pointing up. But that's where I don't want NBA voters to just get sucked into the, well, he's been, you know, good enough to win the award because I think that's what it would end up being. Cooper flag has been good enough, I think, to warrant rookie of the year. But if you dive into into the numbers and the consistency, and again, it's got to keep up for another, you know, 25, 30 games for Knappel, and that's plenty of runway for Flagg to take it over. If Con Cinnipple keeps shooting 50, 40, 90, if he makes 3003s as a rookie, even if it's a lesser role, if he was more consistent, if Charlotte's having more team success

and you can point to that, rookie of the year can't be a legacy award. I don't want it to be a narrative award. I want these to be awards that get voted on what actually happened, not what could happen, not entirely context dependent. Well, we got to cut this guy this break for that reason. No, who showed up. Who performed more out of 82 opportunities before the playoffs? Right now, it's probably con canipal. Yeah, I just think there's going to be more and more of an argument for him

as it moves forward. It's going to be a great race. It's going to be fun. For what it's worth, he gets about two and a half less minutes per game, I believe. Then Cooper Flagg gets somewhere around there, two less shots per game. Again, so you just kind of have to do the math of like, what are we rating here? We're looking for the guy that

has to lead his team or looking at the guy that fits in in a, in a roll a little bit better. And it's not to say Khan Kanupil's not, you know, when you say a role, you know, it almost sounds like downplaying it's just that Cooper Flag has less teammates to rely on. Concanipal has a few more. So

did that hurt him in a race like that? I'm not sure. But again, a lot of their numbers are pretty similar outside of that. So it would be fun to watch and especially watch their careers grow and see where it goes from there. I also wanted to pay off on something we talked about or we're

going to talk about is that the Cowboys have placed a franchise tag on George Pickens, which will guarantee Pickens around $28 million in 2026. Of course, a long-term deal still remains a possibility and might need to be worked out there as well. Pickens put up career highs and catches, yards and touchdowns. 93 catches, 1,429 yards and nine touchdowns. Played in every game for the Cowboys

and was named to the second team All-Pro, was a pro bowler as well, which means less these days. I put it behind. Of course, all pro always mattered more to begin with. But Pro Bowls, you're just kind of inviting, getting to the 15th person on the list these days who wants to go play some flag football. The Cowboys have already already have the highest paid player in the league with Prescott at 60 million. The highest paid interior offensive lineman Tyler Smith at 23.4 million. And the third highest paid receiver, which obviously is CD Lamb, but, you know, in the same room now. with George Pickens.

If they signed Pro Bowl kicker, Brandon Aubrey, which they're going to do. They, they, the disagreement is not whether he'll be the highest paid kicker in the league. It's how much by how much. Aubrey wants a little bit more. So, I mean, they are pretty just top loaded again. And they have also a history of, of course, using the franchise tag more than a lot of other teams. I mean, they did it to DAC twice, you know, and then, of course, there was a whole

Parsons saga last year, you know, it was just last year. Yeah. It's just crazy. Regardless, the Cowboys don't ever seem to be, you know, much above that kind of 500, a little bit, maybe at the bottom trying to get in the playoffs, but they've always got like five or six guys that need to be paid every year. I'm trying to think of a good, like, NBA or MLB kind of comparison for,

you know, a team that spends a lot of money without a whole bunch of results. Maybe you're talking like the Carmelo Amari Stademeyer, Knicks, something like that. I don't know what I would do. do with George Pickens. I think the franchise tag is a logical next step for a guy like that. Seemed to behave himself for the most part. Nothing glaring comes to mind when I think about George Pickens and, you know, lack of effort or behavioral issues that popped up from time to time in Pittsburgh. So if I'm Dallas, maybe it's the right fit, the right environment, the right organization to keep him in line. But I do think it's notable, Bach, that they did the non-exclusive

franchise tag. Because you have the three different levels, the transition tag, the exclusive, and the non-exclusive. And this means that it's essentially like, um, in the end be it unrestricted or restricted free agency, right? Where you can sign an offer sheet with another team and then your current team has a chance to match it. That's what ended up happening with, um, DeAndre Ait. Actually in, um, Phoenix, I want to say it was. I think he had, you know, signed an offer sheet with someone else. and then Phoenix matched at the offer sheet. If you don't keep the player, you get to Picks back is usually how that works.

But maybe I'm reading too far into it, but this tells me that Dallas would like to have George Pickens around. They're willing to pay him for one year, again, with the big increase in the salary cap of $22 million for this year. But it also might tell you that if the number is not right for a long-term deal, they'll either take him for this year if no other team wants to meet that number and then try again. for a long-term deal next off-season, or if some team comes in and meets George Pickens' demands, Cowboys might be okay with letting him walk. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. Again, it's easy to say, yeah, I'd want the guy,

but you've got to make it all kind of work together. You've already had so much money on that offensive side of the ball and Dron and C.D. Lamb, like I was saying, and they've got a lot of work to do on the defense. They allowed the most points of franchise history last year with a total of 511 points. At least they're better stopping the run because they got Michael Parsons out of there.

That's right. Yeah, that worked out well for them, right? We're able to, I mean, last year, got Javante Williams on a pretty team-friendly deal. And so, you know, and he played very well for them on the offensive side of the ball. So, you know, there's a win here and there for the Cowboys, but a lot of it's just paying a lot of money out.

And again, the Cowboys this last year, if you don't remember, finish 7, 9, and 1. So a little bit below their standard of 8 and 8, but there's 17 games now. It's tough to get to that level. So I think that's kind of interesting as well. We talked about it. We will talk about it.

Coming up next, how to save college sports, we might not know. They might not know, but a bunch of prominent leaders are going to get together and discuss it. We'll talk about that as well as the SEC and Big Ten, not liking some of the moves from some of those leaders that are trying to protect the sport because it might mean less money for those conferences, even if it means better for the whole.

And so the powers that be your struggle are having those power struggles. We'll get to that coming up next year on one-on-one on 93-7 ticket.