Is Khaman Maluach poised to be the Brooklyn Nets’ anchor of the future?

Continuing our #DraftSeason deep-dives into players the Brooklyn Nets could take at #8 with another Blue Devil.

If you’ve read our previous prospect reports, Jeremiah Fears, Kon Knueppel, and Noa Essengue are all very different prospects the Brooklyn Nets could select at #8. Well, throw another one on the grill in Khaman Maluach.

Maluach, a South Sudanese soon-to-be 19 year old, is absolutely massive…

His case as a prospect the Brooklyn Nets heavily consider starts there. He’d walk into the NBA as a top-ten player in terms of both wingspan and standing reach, and while he is by no means a beanpole (look at the above photo), his relative youth suggests ample opportunity to add some strength, particularly in his lower body.

Make no mistake: Maluach did not waste his bountiful physical gifts in his lone season at Duke. Like Knueppel, he was blessed to play with fantastic teammates in a well-run system, but contributed to that environment as much as he benefitted from it.

He shot 77% from both the free-throw line and at the rim, showcasing both touch and force. He dunked the ball 81 times this year. This list isn’t without some clunkers, and it shouldn’t conclude the conversation around Maluach, but you don’t see freshman that efficient on high-value scoring opportunities that often…

Maluach is big, and he doesn’t waste the size. Check. The other key part of his physical profile? Lateral movement ability.

He was a fantastic lob threat for the Blue Devils because of his ability to set a screen on the perimeter and get to the cup quickly. Defensively, Maluach was deployed in a variety of coverages because he could really slide his feet, either containing ball-handlers in trapping situations or even switching from time-to-time. All of these plays showcase uncommon movement ability from, again, a truly massive teenager…

Of course, there were plays in 2025 where Maluach was caught flat-footed, beaten by a nice hesitation move on the perimeter or crossover in the lane. But these were largely the exception to the rule.

The worry, if there is one, is that Maluach didn’t finish a ton of defensive plays with tremendous explosion. That’s an understandable tradeoff given his size, but it may have played into the 6.8 block-rate; still a strong number, but much lower than prospects like Jalen Duren, Daniel Gafford, Andre Drummond, and even Jaxson Hayes.

Coming over in help against an Alabama guard driving to the cup, Maluach doesn’t exactly look like Dwight Howard here…

I worry less about these issues on defense; Maluach was uncommonly committed to staying down on pump-fakes and remaining vertical when he did jump, and I found him to have a pretty strong sense of playing between two, occasionally intercepting interior passes.

So, none of these plays get counted as blocks, but that doesn’t mean Maluach wasn’t a nightmare to score against around the rim…

Take the four big men I mentioned above, all of whom had far higher block-rates than Maluach in college. Their faulty positioning and tendency to chase blocks in the NBA subdued their defensive impact, though Duren and Gafford are still young and improving.

Alas, Khaman Maluach does not have an unquestionable athletic profile. Detractors will harp on his zero-rebound performance against Houston in the Final Four, where he consistently got pushed off his spot by burly athletes with a lower center of gravity. It’s fair.

This little compilation starts with a fluid, quick-jump effort, powering through a bit of contact — however, it continues with examples of Maluach being unable to grab a board or finish a play, not exploding through real contact or establishing a strong base down low…

It’s hard to truly fret over these plays, though. The 2025 Houston Cougars, chock-full of menacing athletes, almost all upperclassmen, were designed to give Maluach trouble. And they did, but not before the South Sudanese Olympian turned in a truly great season.

Filtering for only top-50 NCAA competition, Maluach was still a good, though not prolific rebounder for his size. His block-rate didn’t go down, his free-throw rate didn’t either, and his low turnover-rate stayed that way.

At Duke, there were certainly negative plays. There were mini-battles lost, which some fans will find “weak” or “soft” and will stick in the mind, but in combing through all the film and all the box-score stats, there just isn’t much evidence to suggest Maluach’s combination of size, touch, feel, and movement won’t be productive at worst, special at best.

That’s before you get to the hidden, star upside that his biggest fans believe in. His touch on hook shots and wildly impressive 77% free-throw shooting could portend something more.

In the Basketball Africa League, before arriving at Duke, Maluach shot a decent amount of 3-pointers. And as my Swish Theory colleague Matt Powers points out, his release looked pretty fluid…

Writes Powers: “The ball misses more than it makes in that video, but his percentages in the BAL were good for age and position, 32% on 57 attempts. Focus as well on the fluidity, where Maluach is able to keep his balance even when shooting off of some movement. The release is quick and high with a good follow-through. Draft analysts talk about energy transfer and the smoothness from set up to release jumps off the screen … the instincts are there. Convincingly.”

I understand why a Nets fan may not be thrilled with swinging on Maluach at #8. Is there All-Star upside for a player who can’t really create their own shot, regardless of any potential rim-protection instincts and soft hands? To that fan, I would say, please click on this post…

This is not a promise that Maluach is going to turn into a dominant post-up threat, strong enough to back opposing NBA centers into the rim. But as a gigantic teenager, he makes a ton of free-throws, and has shown real fluidity on not just catch-and-shoot 3-pointers but hook shots, floaters, and sometimes baseline turnarounds! It’s tough to project exactly what a star outcome looks like for him, but that is freaky, freaky stuff.

The Sell: Huge guys with soft hands that can move their feet don’t fail in the NBA, and even doubters have to admit Maluach falls into that category.No, he may not be a dominant vertical athlete, but he doesn’t convert every rim attempt in sight by accident, while deterring those same attempts on the other end.

That standing reach and ability to cover ground means he gets upstairs in the blink of an eye. NBA defenses will fear his rolls to the rim, and though I didn’t harp on it in the piece, he sets real screens for a player his age. He’s rarely lost on the court. Plus, the touch on hook shots, free-throws, and a decent variety of jumpers (going back to BAL) suggests this teenager might have real star qualities. Brooklyn isn’t going to let Nic Claxton and Day’Ron Sharpe stand in the way of that.

The Short: Maluach is going to have to be a defensive anchor in the NBA, and his communication skills leave a bit to be desired. Not to mention a relative lack of lower body strength means he might get pushed off his spot by tenacious offensive rebounders, and you can’t be losing the possession battle in 2025.

Investing a top-eight pick on a guy who is a safe bet to finish plays only if he doesn’t have to power through contact and will be a fine rim-protector on the other end just isn’t that appealing. Especially considering all the other skills are a long way from being NBA-ready. Just keep Day’Ron Sharpe around in RFA, who is proving himself to be a solid NBA player at only 23 years old.

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You can probably tell where I land.

The unanimous opinion among real scouts (not myself) is that Maluach improved daily as Blue Devil, specifically at executing defensive coverages and positioning. His role was fairly straight-forward at Duke, especially coming from the BAL, where he had much more freedom to explore, particularly on offense.

Maluach has been playing basketball since 2019, and in his fifth year of organized hoop, he was the anchor for one of the great college basketball teams in recent memory. He was an absolute nightmare for opposing drivers of any size and age to deal with, loved to set real screens, and didn’t miss free-throws. He will be a good an NBA player, and if he is an elite one, we’ll be looking back at some of the flashes from the past couple years and wondering how he wasn’t a top-3 pick.

Donovan Clingan sneakily had a great rookie season for the Portland Trail Blazers, and the Memphis Grizzlies were better with Zach Edey on the court than off it. Size matters, and not only is Maluach physically comparable to those two, but is far younger than each at draft time. He’s shown more star flashes. To me, there is no argument that he is in a lower tier than either V.J. Edgecombe or Ace Bailey as a teenage hooper.

If Khaman Maluach is there at #8, the Brooklyn Nets should draft him, current roster construction be damned. He is one hell of a prospect.