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NBA Draft 2025: Three Reasons Khaman Maluach Should be a Top-Three Pick

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By
Ben Pfeifer
Author photo
Ben Pfeifer Sports Editor

Ben Pfeifer graduated from the University of Missouri with degrees in Psychology and Journalism. He has worked in basketball scouting covering the NBA and the draft for over a half-decade, working for various outlets. Now, he covers the NBA, the draft and high school basketball.

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Sports Editor

Published20 Feb 2025

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Predicting the trajectory of prospects, especially freshmen, can be a major challenge. Plenty of NBA stars come from outside the top picks despite the hours spent scouting them. For the 2025 NBA Draft, one of those players will be Duke freshman center Khaman Maluach, who we should consider as a locked top-five pick.

Maluach is a highly regarded prospect — he was a top-7 recruit in the 2024 high school class and most mock drafts view him as a lottery pick. Tankathon’s board, which functions as somewhat of a consensus board, has him ranked seventh overall. However, even in a loaded 2025 draft, this is far too low for Maluach.

Behind Cooper Flagg and Dylan Harper, no prospect in this class has a higher ceiling than Duke’s young South Sudanese center. Teams in need of a center would be foolish to pass on him. Let’s dive into three reasons Maluach should leave the board in the first five picks at the very minimum.

Maluach could develop into a bonafide defensive anchor

Gigantic, mobile centers comprise the NBA’s current defensive meta. Players like Victor Wembanyama, Chet Holmgren, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Evan Mobley were all high picks and have all become suffocating defensive players. Maluach’s profile differs from all of those prospects, but he shares two critical components: size and mobility.

Watch this possession, where the tallest player on the floor covers every position, rotating and covering ground like a rangy wing:

Maluach’s mobility flashes in pick-and-roll coverage, where he often defends out of the paint and near the level of the screen. Very few defenders as tall as Maluach guard outside of the paint at the level he does. Maluach’s foot placement and positioning aren’t consistent, but this shouldn’t be shocking or overly concerning for an 18-year-old playing high-level college basketball.

He’s not perfect in space, as quicker guards will burn him on the perimeter. His recovery tools help compensate for this, but Maluach’s lack of high-end twitch and explosion might somewhat limit his ceiling. But defenders as young, productive and toolsy as Maluach often succeed in big ways.

There are outcomes where Maluach doesn’t reach his defensive ceiling. He’ll need to improve his positioning and timing guarding the pick and roll to become an elite defender. But at his ceiling, Maluach is a consistent All-Defensive staple and that alone is worth a top-three pick in the majority of draft classes.

Maluach is a highly efficient interior scorer

Most arguments against Maluach will disparage his offensive toolkit and ceiling. His lack of outside shooting and poor 0.6 assist-to-turnover ratio aren’t encouraging signs by any means. But Maluach is already a dominant interior scorer despite his need for more physical, mental and skill progression.

Maluach finishes nearly everything in his area at the rim, sporting some of the best touch of any recent center prospect. He’s shooting 79.6% at the hoop with 52 dunks, which are absurd numbers for any prospect, let alone a teenage freshman. 

Maluach doesn’t just rely on dunks, as he’s converted an elite 73.7% of his half-court layups. When his teammates toss up lobs to Maluach, he can convert lobs and finish without dunking, tapping in touch shots from difficult angles.

Even if Maluach never expands his offensive game, he should develop into a dominant play finisher assuming he continues to add strength. That makes him the kind of player who thrives next to other elite talents and perimeter playmakers, only increasing his value to great basketball teams.

His unseen ceiling is sky-high

Stars often develop in unexpected ways, and Maluach could follow this path. Most view Maluach as a traditional defensive, rim-running center, which is largely accurate today. Impact and age predict future stars better than almost any other method, and Maluach is the fourth-youngest player in the class.

His streamlined role at Duke matches most bigs to come through Durham. He’s not an unwilling shooter, as he’s made two 3-pointers this season. Despite his numbers this season, he has shown the willingness to shoot threes at his past stops before college basketball and his outlier touch around the basket could lead to some unexpected shooting progression. 

He’s also passed and dribbled more in the past, flashing the ability to run dribble handoffs, handle in space and make basic passes. His size and coordination could make him an offensive force if his future NBA team taps into any of these glimpses.

Most of Maluach’s range of outcomes likely have him as a rim-running big who makes the majority of his money on the interior. There’s a world, though, where Maluach expands his game out to the perimeter. If that happens, even to a minor extend, there’s no telling how high Maluach’s ceiling can reach.