A scouting report on NBA draft prospect Khaman Maluach:
- Position: Center
- Height: 7-0.75(without shoes)
- Weight: 253 pounds
- College: Duke
Strengths
Maluach’s size is an obvious place to start; he’s a bona fide big man whose 7-6.75 wingspan was the highest at the draft combine.
His youth and potential to make major progress are worth highlighting, too. Maluach began playing basketball in 2019 and represented South Sudan at the Paris Olympics as a 17-year-old. He’ll be 18 on draft night.
While Maluach wasn’t a Donovan Clingan-esque shot blocker in his one year at Duke, he did record 2.5 rejections per 40 minutes and has talent in the rim protection department outside of raw size. Maluach understands the importance of verticality and knows he can help his team through deterring and disrupting drivers.
In the NBA, Maluach looks like he should be able to do more than simply patrol the paint. He slides his feet quite well for someone over 7 feet and isn’t in an automatically hopeless position if he’s switched onto a perimeter player.
Offensively, Maluach largely sticks to his strengths. He’s a serious pick-and-roll lob threat, a skill that shined with Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel. And Maluach’s relative lack of basketball experience doesn’t show in his non-dunk finishing. He shot 80.6 percent at the rim, per The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie.
At the foul line, Maluach finished the season with a 76.6 percent mark. He was mainly an interior player and went just 4 for 16 from three-point range, but his touch and that foul shooting success are encouraging.
Weaknesses
Maluach’s freshman year production was not that of a player guaranteed to become a star. Over 21.9 minutes per game, he averaged 8.6 points and 6.6 rebounds. Maluach did very little as a passer, totaling 20 assists and 30 turnovers across Duke’s 39 games.
Maluach had zero rebounds in 21 minutes during the Blue Devils’ national championship game loss to Houston. Defensive rebounding stands out as a weaker area of his game. One reason is he doesn’t possess great lower-body strength or bounce.
Maluach ranked near the bottom in most of the combine’s athletic testing, including standing vertical leap (24 inches). That’s fine for a player of Maluach’s size, but it does seem that he has considerable room to improve at carving out position inside and snagging contested boards.
Self-awareness is a valuable trait in the NBA. With that said, there’s valid big-picture questions about how limited Maluach will be as a professional. Will he one day be able to score regularly in ways outside of lobs and put-backs? Will he be solid in multiple pick-and-roll coverages (drop, switch, at the level) and capable of playing high-quality playoff minutes?
Fit
Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey’s stated philosophy is to take the best player he can. Of course, Joel Embiid’s presence on the Sixers wouldn’t be irrelevant at all if the team wound up selecting Maluach, whether that’s as a surprise pick at No. 3 or later in the draft following a trade down.
If Embiid returns to good health and still has elite prime years ahead of him, there wouldn’t be many minutes available for a player like Maluach. However, with the 31-year-old Embiid’s persistent left knee problems, that world doesn’t appear to be a certainty.
Morey drafted a center in 2024 with the 41st overall pick and Adem Bona had a very positive home stretch of the season, starting the Sixers’ final nine games and posting 15.3 points, 8.6 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per contest. Other second-round center selections during Morey’s tenure include Paul Reed (58th overall in 2020), Filip Petrusev (50th overall in 2021) and Charles Bassey (53rd overall in 2021).
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