Duke basketball brought in top-ranked freshman [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] this offseason, the presumed No. 1 pick in next summer’s NBA draft, but he isn’t the only key prospect on the Blue Devils roster this year.
Head coach [autotag]Jon Scheyer[/autotag] landed commitments from three other five-star prospects, including South Sudanese 7-footer [autotag]Khaman Maluach[/autotag]. The NBA Academy Africa product represented his country at the 2024 Olympic Games, and at 17 years old, he was the youngest player in the competition.
ESPN basketball writers Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo released a Friday article elaborating on the most important college players to watch in 2024-25, and Woo sounded pretty bullish on Maluach’s chances to establish himself this fall and spring.
Woo pointed out that, while Maluach played pretty limited minutes in Paris, the incoming Blue Devil held his own against NBA MVPs and champions during a one-point exhibition loss to Team USA in July.
“Maluach’s above-average speed gives him a chance to be a high-impact player on defense,” Woo wrote. “He needs to work on positioning, awareness and patience as he habitually leaves his feet early to contest shots. But he has more tools than most players his age and size, pointing to his immense potential on that end.”
https://twitter.com/DraftExpress/status/1834589737526411658
The optimism is a welcome change from recent trends around Maluach’s draft stock. When the rim protector first committed to the Blue Devils back in March, he was considered a slam-dunk top-five pick in the 2025 draft thanks to his tape and defensive ceiling. However, some uneven performances at exhibitions like the Nike Hoop Summit made fans question his learning curve for Division I basketball.
Combine that with the emergence of [autotag]Kon Knueppel[/autotag], another five-star Duke signee and the darling of offseason workouts, and plenty of sites don’t even list Maluach as the second-best prospect on the Blue Devils anymore.
Even if Maluach looks more like his floor than his ceiling in November, he should be one of the best defenders in the country from the opening bell. He’ll be a shoo-in to average at least 1.5 blocks per game, and fans just need some patience if he looks rough around the edges before conference play.