Signal Calling: It's easy to love Khaman Maluach
The signs were always there, but, Khaman Maluach's potential is coming fully into fruition late in his freshman campaign.
How many people have done what Khaman Maluach has done? He’s incredibly impactful as a defender, makes his presence felt under the rim as an offensive rebounder, and has even shown fluidity as a shooter, all as an underclassman.
The answer: eleven players.
Since 2008, there have been 10 drafted true-high-major underclassmen, standing 6-foot-11 or taller, to record a box plus-minus of at least 4.0, take 1.0 or more 3-pointers per 100 possessions, record a block percentage of at least six percent and an offensive rebound percentage of at least seven percent. The list goes as such:
DeAndre Ayton
Chet Holmgren
Evan Mobley
Jaren Jackson Jr.
Mohamed Bamba
Zach Collins
Myles Turner
Dereck Lively II
Kel’el Ware
Walker Kessler
Nic Claxton
If he maintains his above-those thresholds to finish his season, Maluach will be the 12th player to join this club—one that holds each player in the NBA to this day.
The one hole someone could poke in this query is Maluach’s block percentage. He’d be tied with Ayton for the lowest in this list and not far behind Ware, who is 1.5% behind Claxton, with a block percentage of eight percent—a common threshold used to define defensive anchors at the big man position.
It’s a puzzling issue, to say the least. Maluach is one of the 2025 class’s most imposing figures, standing 7-foot-2 with a plus-three wingspan and a 9-foot-8 standing reach, putting him just inches under the basket flat-footed.
So why isn’t Maluach a great rim protector—at least statistically—and does he do enough outside the rim to compensate for the weakness?
First, Maluach has incredible feet. He occupies a ton of space just by existing and moves well enough to feel like a one-man wall around the rim. His size alone is a deterrent, and his quickness on top of it would be enough for most scouts to throw aside the lack of swat production and just assume there’s something the stats aren’t telling us. That’s all reasonable.
The one visible Achilles heel of Maluach is his lack of pop off the floor and, by extension, his strength. Many of the rim protectors in the club above are exceptionally fast jumpers, capable of giving one or two (or more) efforts in the air to deter or swat a shot.
The strength issues lie particularly in the chest and core. As a product of the collegiate game, Maluach is facing more post-ups than he likely ever will. There are technique issues that make him susceptible to quick spins and pivots, like playing with his chest rather than using his arms to stay attached from a distance.
That said, there’s far more positive than negative with Maluach, but his lack of pop off the floor on the defensive end—especially around the rim—is damning. Thankfully, strength is easy to build, especially for someone like Maluach, whose development in this regard was hampered by his conditions growing up.
Post-ups are the primary area of concern in this regard, which makes the concern less of an issue in the long term, as post-up frequency is simply higher in college than it will be for him in the NBA.
Maluach has the potential to be a devastating drop and help defender, limiting options and covering ground with his length. His feet, as previously mentioned, are incredible. It shines mostly on switches, but his ability to move the way he does in an athletic stance, flipping his hips and feet angles, is incredibly important to being a great pick-and-roll defender.
These tools also allow him to let driving players commit to the shot before he commits to defending them, not just limiting options but tricking offensive players into a false option. The inherent space he has when defending space like this gives him the opportunity to load up for a cleaner jump, maximizing his tools.
When Maluach is blocking shots like his tools suggest he can, it looks horrifying.
Despite his giant-like frame, arguably where Maluach is most polished is switching out onto the perimeter. His feet give him inherent versatility in pick-and-roll coverage, and that includes just flat-out switching onto defenders.
Inherently, bigs have a more difficult time changing direction. The formula for momentum is mass times velocity, meaning, the heavier you are and the faster you’re going, the more force it takes to change directions. Maluach seemingly doesn’t understand this or has simply refined his technique to the point of not caring for it.
Famously, as the youngest Olympic competitor in men’s basketball this past summer, Maluach, playing for South Sudan against the United States, Maluach put together a handful of clips switching onto some of the world’s best offensive players.
This has continued at the collegiate level and has made Maluach a unicorn-potential type of defender. Referencing the list of players above, the best defenders among the group; Evan Mobley, Chet Holmgren and Jaren Jackson Jr.; have never been easily exploitable on the perimeter.
Here, he forces a turnover on former Duke guard Jaylen Blakes by staying in front of him on the switch, forcing a pick-up in a disadvantageous position allowing Proctor to focus on denying the pass to the cutter.
RECENT
His footwork defensively leads to his biggest offensive swing skill: shooting.
Maluach has made just 2-of-10 3-pointers in his career at Duke, but his fluidity on these shots is the real selling point. On top of great statistical indicators like his 73.6% clip from the free-throw line, Maluach’s shooting potential is clear.
As discussed in the preceding Signal Calling installment on Derik Queen, where we talked about his clear shooting prowess and potential despite efficiency, Maluach is not much different. He doesn’t have the handle to set up his shots that Queen does, but his footwork is varied, yet comfortable, on just about every attempt, with several setup options he can go to for a shot.
Swish Theory editor and co-founder Matt Powers, one of Maluach’s biggest fans in the draft space, showcases it beautifully in this post on X (formerly Twitter). The fluidity and coordination he showcases on his rare jump shots are incredible for a player of his size.
Maluach’s primary form of offense, as it stands, is as a pick-and-roll roll man, where he is the most efficient player in the country. In 37 possessions, Maluach has scored 67 points, going 30-of-33 (91 percent) from the floor.
He has great patience in these settings, and his passing vision over the top allows for great shots on just about every possession he’s involved in, even when he’s not the one scoring.
He sets hard screens, generating the initial advantage by allowing his ball-handler to get downhill and float or sprint to the spot he needs to be in, dependent on coverage. While suffering from issues in jumping defensively, he’s an incredible lob and dunk threat on offense, ranking tenth in the nation in dunks.
Against Stanford once again, he sets a great screen for Kon Knueppel, forcing Maxime Raynaud to show high, generating a runway for Maluach to run to the rim for the lob.
It’s hard to say Maluach is raw offensively, as in regards to the things he does well, he does them really, really well.
In complement to his elite finishing under the rim and roll-man capabilities, Maluach is an elite offensive rebounder. With a 17.1 percent offensive rebounding percentage, Maluach is the only freshman in the category’s top eight nationally, ranking fifth.
He rarely ever comes back down to the floor with the ball, and if he does, it’s usually because he’s grabbing the ball through a foul. He’s long enough, with soft enough touch, to simply float the ball back into the rim more often than not, with over 20 percent of his total points coming off offensive rebounds.
Among the nation’s most prolific offensive rebounders, Maluach has the highest true shooting percentage (73.8%) of anybody in the top 60 and the second-lowest turnover percentage (12.2%) of the top 25, ranking only behind National Player of the Year candidate Johni Broome. All this to say, Maluach is one of the most efficient offensive players in the country and the 2025 NBA Draft class.
BIG BOARD
2025 NBA Draft Big Board 4.0
Conference play has started for just about every team that isn’t an independent, which means, for a lot of prospects, we’re entering the most dense, challenging stretch of their season. The SEC, which features six of the top 10 teams in the AP Poll will be a bloodbath for freshmen getting their first taste of teams like Tennessee and Auburn, and it’s not a whole lot different for prospects in the Big Ten, Big 12 or ACC.
While Maluach isn’t perfect, he’s established himself as one of the 2025 Draft class’s top prospects as his freshman campaign has progressed. He’s a unique prospect, not because of his shortcomings, but because of his strengths—his size, fluidity and bevy of micro-skills he utilizes on a possession-by-possession basis.
Quick Hits!
One of my goals for Prospects & Concepts is to provide my complete thoughts on the draft landscape. I can’t write my complete opinions on the countless prospects deserving of writing, so, these quick hits will be an opportunity to lay out my thoughts on a handful of prospects who are hot names.
Danny Wolf continues to improve and thus skyrocket up my big board. While maintaining his unique playstyle as a pick-and-roll ball-handling 7-footer with a legitimate bag off the dribble, he’s lessened his turnover rate. In his last six games, he’s had two or fewer turnovers in five, with Michigan winning all six. In that stretch as well, he’s been over 40 percent from three, averaging 15.7 points, 10.7 rebounds and 2.8 assists.
Thomas Sorber has fallen off the radar a bit, but it doesn’t mean he’s been any less good. He’s been one of the most productive and impactful freshmen in the nation. Only three first years have a usage rate over 15 percent, a block percentage higher than five percent and a steal percentage higher than 2 percent: Arizona State’s Jayden Quaintance, Arizona’s Carter Bryant and Sorber.
Miles Byrd is still one of the 2025 class’s best 3&D-plus bets despite his struggles in the second half of his season thus far. In the first eleven games Byrd played, he averaged 13.9 points on 58.6 percent true shooting, along with 2.5 stocks and assists per game. In games 12 to 22, he has put up 12.4 points on 47.8 percent true shooting. On a high note, he’s kept his production elsewhere at the same level, but if the shot is going to fail to this degree, he will start to fall down boards.
Alex Condon has jumped from an intriguing freshman off Florida’s bench last year to one of the nation’s most impactful players, changing his playstyle in the process. In the query above about Maluach, Condon missed the cut by a tenth of a percent on his block percentage but is even more productive getting to the free throw line, shooting from beyond the arc, while ranking sixth in the nation in box plus-minus.
Ryan Kalkbrenner recently suffered what could be a season-ending injury, but upon returning to the film, I’ve started to change my view on the massive big for Creighton. Kalkbrenner has gone 76.3 percent from under the rim, while being one of the nation’s best rim protectors. I’m not one for comparisons, but there’s a little Diet-Zach Edey to the way he plays.