2025-2026 NBA Rookie of the Year Futures, Betting Odds & Prediction
Updated July 9, 2026
We at ATS have you covered from every betting angle of the NBA season. We are looking at the odds for the award winners for this season, including the award for the best newcomer in the league. This piece will focus on the NBA Rookie Of The Year, who is awarded the Eddie Gottlieb trophy each season. The odds to earn that award are listed below.
Player | NBA ROY Odds |
Kon Knueppel | -250 |
Cooper Flagg | +190 |
VJ Edgecombe | +35000 |
Odds current as of April 1, 2026
Kon Knueppel has been the most pleasant surprise of the rookies in the 2025-26 NBA season. Cooper Flagg's former teammate at Duke is lighting it up offensively for a Hornets team that has taken some huge leaps forward on both ends of the floor this year. Knueppel has been one of the more efficient three-point shooters in the league and he has become the favorite over Flagg in the race for Rookie of the Year by virtue of both his solid numbers and Flagg's injury issues this season. If he can continue making his outside shots with regularity, Knueppel will likely seal the deal and grab his first individual award as a pro this season.
The favorite to win NBA Rookie of the Year going into this season was number-one overall draft pick Cooper Flagg of the Dallas Mavericks. Flagg was more or less anointed as the top choice for this award when he was drafted first overall by the Mavs based on how well he played in his one year at Duke. And while Flagg's level of play when healthy this season has been impressive, he has missed a lot of time due to injury for a disappointing Mavericks team.
Flagg will be expected to appear in most of Dallas' games down the stretch this season. But he is now in a battle with Knueppel for an award that was expected to go to Flagg without any real competition. Flagg's ability to impact games with his scoring and his length on defense has been impressive and the Mavericks should be in good shape with him as the face of their franchise moving forward, even if Flagg fails to win this award. But Dallas failing to see postseason basketball hasn't done Flagg any favors here.
Philadelphia's VJ Edgecombe also deserves praise for the way he has played in his rookie season. The Sixers needed Edgecombe to step up early in the year, when both Joel Embiid and Paul George were missing time with injuries on a regular basis. Edgecombe did just that, starting his rookie season off on the right foot. He has seen his usage decrease when Embiid and George have been available, but Edgecombe has played his role admirably for his first pro team and it will be interesting to see how he performs in his first postseason as a pro.
Right now, we will go with Kon Knueppel to win Rookie of the Year in the NBA for this season. Flagg has missed too much time this season for me to favor him over his former Duke teammate. The fact that the Hornets have won more games than the Mavs also lends credence to backing Knueppel, as the Hornets' rookie should grab a very surprising piece of hardware while representing a Charlotte squad that is trending in the right direction as a whole.
Jay Sanin is the GM and Head of Sports at ATS.io. He has been writing about sports gambling since 2013, handicapping tens of thousands of sporting events. He plays sides and totals aggressively across most sports and is more selective in player prop markets. He does his own modeling across most sports, and his family is jealous of how much time he spends on his precious spreadsheets.
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