Highlighting Khaman Maluach’s Strengths and Weaknesses Ahead of NBA Draft

Duke made the NCAA Tournament this past season as a number one seed and was one of the defensive teams in the country. This is widely due to Khaman Maluach, a massive center who has elite rim protection potential.

Let’s dive into his strengths and areas of improvement.

Strengths

The most NBA-ready skill for Maluach is elite rim protection upside. He possesses great physical tools as he has the second-longest wingspan in the 2025 NBA Draft, as it’s nearly 7-foot-7. He’s also very close to 7-foot-2 with shoes on so the elite size will cause a lot of problems for opposing teams on both ends of the floor, but especially the defensive end. The massive center has good mobility and has a ton of potential to be a versatile pick and roll defender. One day Maluach has a chance to be able to anchor a defense for a NBA organization.

Maluach is a lob threat at all times and dominates as a vertical floor spacer. He does struggle occasionally at catching the ball, but overall, he can finish plays and consistently get his team easy points when they need it. Given he has the second-longest wingspan and a wide catch radius, it allows the lob passer to throw it anywhere and he will be able to at least have an opportunity to catch it.

Although Maluach didn’t show a lot of it in college, he does have a lot of stretch big potential. The massive center has a good touch and it shows on his push shots and floater percentage. When compared to players at his size, he’s the best free-throw shooting center. If he ends up becoming a consistent outside shooter, then he has a real shot of being a versatile offensive threat.

Areas Of Improvement

The biggest area of improvement for Maluach is his overall offensive game. He’s very unpolished and raw at this stage. He’s not a creator by any means and struggles to consistently score in the low post despite having the size advantage on opposing defenders. The lengthy center is very awkward dribbling the ball and doesn’t look comfortable when he has the ball for an extended period of time. He tends to disappear on the offensive end.

The next step for Maluach is adding strength. Although he’s young, he still needs to bulk up and get stronger. Once he’s in the NBA, he will be facing grown men who play extremely physical, and as we see in the NBA playoffs, physicality is important. In his final college game he had zero rebounds and that’s just simply unacceptable out of a center with his physical tools. Being more aggressive and stronger will help him battle centers in the NBA.