2025 NBA Draft: Breaking Town Top Center Prospets Khaman Maluach and Derik Queen

The 7-foot-2 center out of Duke started in all 39 games for the Blue Devils this past season. When looking at his stats, they don’t really pop to you, but when you watch him play live, you can really see the impact he makes on both ends of the floor. Defensively is where he impacts the game the most as of right now.

Maluach is a high-level rim-protecting prospect that has fantastic physical tools, great timing on his shot contests, and his defensive awareness has drastically improved throughout the season. He’s highly effective in drop coverage when defending ball-screens and does a great job at knowing when to drop to the big man or when to pick up the ball-handler.

Maluach has an incredibly high ceiling on the defensive end and due to how young he still is we should expect him to only get better on that end of the floor. Offensively, he shows a lot of promise. He’s a solid screener and a lob threat at all times due to his wide catch radius. His touch inside the painted area is a bit underrated as he does a great job at converting contested layups in the paint. Where Maluach entices scouts is his potential as a shooting center. He only made four 3-pointers on the season, but he shot 76.6% from the free-throw line which is a good indicator of how good his touch really is.

Maluach showed he was a capable shooter before entering college so if he can continue to expand that part of his game then it makes it clear as to why NBA decision-makers want to select him in the top ten of the 2025 NBA Draft.

Derik Queen | Maryland

The 6-foot-10 big man who looked like a star all year long for the Maryland Terrapins has skyrocketed his name up draft boards throughout the second half of the season. Queen in high school went undefeated in his senior year and helped Montverde Academy win the Chipotle National Championship back in 2024.

The talented big man is at his best when he has the ball in his hands on the offensive end. Queen is a very talented post scorer who has spectacular touch, great footwork, and a variety of different moves he can go to in the low post. Opposing bigs struggled to consistently defend Queen all season long due to his talent on the offensive end.

Not only is he an advanced scorer, but he’s a very good passing center and arguably the best passing center in this year’s draft. Queen has very good vision when passing out of the low post. His feel for the game is absolutely off the charts. The Maryland native doesn’t win with his athleticism as he’s quite average when it comes to athleticism. He wins with his high IQ and knowledge for the game of basketball.

Queen isn’t afraid of the moment and he showed that in the NCAA Tournament when Maryland knocked out Colorado State at the buzzer. He demanded the ball at the end of the game, which led to him hitting the buzzer-beater and leading Maryland to the next round. Queen is a protected top ten pick widely due to his offensive ability and whichever team that drafts him in the lottery will be getting a very talented player.