For all of the deserved hype garnered by projected number-one overall pick Cooper Flagg, his Duke teammate Khaman Maluach isn’t far behind as far as hype and potential to be selected top-five goes. The South Sudanese center has been incredibly consistent this year, playing a traditional center role in patrolling the paint and banging on the boards, but also demonstrating soft touch inside when scoring in the post.

Maluach is coming off of what might be the best game of his collegiate career, a monstrous 15-rebound, 12-point outing against the Miami Hurricanes in which he was 6-for-7 from the field and showed off nearly every skill desired in someone who can play the center role in the NBA. Not to mention, he managed this stat line in just 20 minutes of play. Strong, athletic, and mobile for his size, Maluach was able to physically dominate the Hurricanes’ front court, but also demonstrated his feel for the game, which is developing quickly as the season wears on.

He has real proficiency as the roll man in PNR sets, exhibiting an innate ability to understand his spacing on the floor and being in the right place at the right time for lobs and offensive rebounds. Defensively, his 7-foot-6 wingspan gives him the length to contest shots in the lane, and though he isn’t an elite shot-blocker at this time, he is still averaging 1.1 rejections per game. More than that, he is a major deterrent in the paint, so while he may not have staggering block numbers, he is still very impactful on the defensive end.

The game before Miami, he had a 19-point, 10-rebound performance against Notre Dame, where he showed off the aforementioned touch by going 7-for-8 from the free-throw line on top of another 6-for-7 shooting outing. He has benefitted from good playmaking from the Duke roster, including Flagg as well as point guard Tyrese Proctor and wing Kon Knueppel, all of whom are capable passers.

Still, Maluach’s on-court awareness allows him to take advantage of a good offensive system that prioritizes its talent and has helped make him the most efficient scorer in college basketball – for the season, Maluach is 79.7% from the field, which is truly blistering despite the fact all of his shots come at the rim. This illustrates just how strong he is, as he is the best play finisher in the entire draft class and will be able to contribute early on an NBA team in the same way that former Duke big Dereck Lively II did for the Mavericks, or the way that Yves Missi has impacted the Pelicans in his rookie year.

Overall, Maluach, who was maligned before the season started for being a “raw” prospect, has proven to be the opposite. While he has a limited scope on his offensive game as far as scoring outside of the paint, he is as close to a polished product as a post player really can be in his first season of college basketball, and is only improving with every game. He is a surefire pick in the top half of the lottery, and could go as high as four or five when the 2025 NBA Draft rolls around.

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