Luka Doncic just saved Cooper Flagg's Rookie of the Year case without playing

Despite not playing a game for the Dallas Mavericks in over a year, Los Angeles Lakers superstar Luka Doncic just helped his old team without even knowing it.

Dallas has been campaigning hard for Cooper Flagg to win Rookie of the Year over the last few weeks. From giving "Ain't No Pressure" boxes that showcase Flagg's rookie season to media members to consistently posting about it, they're doing everything they can to help him win the award that he rightfully deserves.

Ballots for end-of-season awards should've been turned in before the Play-In Tournament. But with Doncic appealing his eligibility for these awards after he played in just 64 games despite the minimum being 65, this directly helped Flagg's Rookie of the Year case due to the other frontrunner's collapse.

Luka Doncic's appeal delayed ballots at the perfect time

The Charlotte Hornets pulled out a narrow victory over the Miami Heat in the first round of the play-in earlier this week, but Kon Knueppel had one of the worst games of his career.

When the lights were brightest, Knueppel finished with six points on 2-12 shooting from the field and 0-6 from downtown in 34 minutes. He also posted a team-worst -20 plus-minus.

To make matters even worse, Hornets head coach Charles Lee subbed him out of the game for Coby White with less than two minutes remaining when they were down by six points. Charlotte was able to send the game to overtime after White's heroics, and Knueppel didn't sniff the court in overtime.

How can the Rookie of the Year be sitting on the sidelines with the season on the line?

This is the last thing that Knueppel needed as he pushes to win Rookie of the Year, and this poor performance in the biggest game of his NBA career is going to leave a bad impression on voters — giving Flagg what he needs to win.

The postseason isn't supposed to affect voting, but anyone who was watching that game saw Knueppel's team pull off a thrilling win with him on the bench. Lee didn't want his rookie sharpshooter in the game when everything was at stake, and they still won.

This Rookie of the Year race has been flawed from the start

This encapsulates exactly why the narrative of Knueppel leading the Hornets to this huge bounce-back season has been completely overblown. He certainly impacts winning and is one of the best shooters in the NBA, but plenty of factors led to Charlotte winning 44 games this season.

LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller staying relatively healthy gave them a huge boost, and Miles Bridges is one of the better fourth options in the entire NBA.

The Hornets did what they were supposed to do after finally getting a healthy season from Ball and Miller. Knueppel helped their case, but Charlotte securing the ninth seed doesn't outweigh Flagg's spectacular season.

Flagg is in rare company

He joined Michael Jordan as the only rookie since 1973-74 to lead their team in points, rebounds, assists, and steals. Flagg is in rare air, and he shouldn't be penalized for Dallas having a bad season.

Rookie of the Year has never been about winning, and that shouldn't start now.

If Knueppel hadn't put up this stinker against Miami, he might have been walking away with Rookie of the Year over Flagg. But thanks to Doncic's appeal pushing ballot submission back, Flagg got the juice he needed to have a much better shot at becoming the first Mavs player to win Rookie of the Year since, guess who?

Luka Doncic.

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