The Duke Blue Devils are one of the best teams in the country and will have three likely lottery picks in the 2025 NBA Draft.
By now, if you follow basketball, you have probably heard that Cooper Flagg is the top prospect to watch. His teammate, Kon Knueppel, also enjoyed a hot start to the season. But the other name worth following belongs to big man Khaman Maluach.
The 7-foot-2 big man played for NBA Academy Africa and represented South Sudan during the 2024 Olympics. His most recent game against Notre Dame was arguably the best of his collegiate career, recording 19 points (6-of-7 FG) with 10 rebounds and one block.
Here is more from Jonathan Wasserman in his latest mock draft (via Bleacher Report):
“Khaman Maluach’s 19 points against Notre Dame highlighted his advantageous length and mobility for catching lobs, grabbing offensive rebounds and creating easy opportunities. He’s also now up to 77.3 percent from the free-throw line, showing touch we’ve see him use on jumpers before he arrived at Duke.
Workouts will give Maluach a better opportunity to sell teams on his offense and range.
Regardless, he has a clear archetype with the size, length and movement for the easy baskets and rim protection to be deemed easily translatable. The stats might not show a lot of blocks, but the tape shows a disruptive defensive presence who forces his man to have to make difficult finishes over his reach.”
This would be a tremendous pick by Oklahoma City as they add more depth to their frontcourt, even if he is not ready to contribute right away.
But there is plenty of reason for promise and excitement. As a lob threat, per CBB Analytics, he leads all freshmen in alley-oops (13) by quite a bit.
Meanwhile, for more prospect coverage, here is our latest NBA mock draft at For The Win.
