Khaman Maluach: Unicorns Aren't Real
Stephen dives into the game of Khaman Maluach, applying historic data and current success.
Taking a Look Back
If you look at the past three draft classes, you may notice a change that has taken place with big men. In 2022, Chet Holmgren was the first big man taken. The following year, we saw Victor Wembanyama selected with the first pick. Alex Sarr would follow suit as the first big taken. It made sense as to why Sarr would be the first big man to come off the board in 2024. Teams saw the way that Chet and Wemby had contributed to their teams in meaningful ways. Seeing as how Sarr is archetypically similar to those two, it was no surprise that Washington took a chance on him.
Sarr wasn’t the only player to benefit from the success of skilled bigs. Tidjane Salaun—who was widely viewed as the ultimate project within the class—was taken with the sixth pick. The idea of ball skill, potential floor spacing, ground coverage on defense, and some ball skill wrapped in a larger frame proved to be too enticing to pass up for the Charlotte Hornets.
Once the Hornets took Salaun, Portland took Donovan Clingan with the very next pick. Two picks later, the Memphis Grizzlies took Zach Edey. Kel’el Ware went to Miami with the 15th pick, and the Pelicans took Yves Missi 21st overall. Ware offered floor spacing, but Miami has used him at the rim on more than 57% of his possessions—ranking in the 83rd percentile. The point: the idea of style was valued over a more simple and proven substance.
We saw that play out during the previous two drafts as well. Of course, it worked out in 2023 when the Spurs took the 7’6” alien in Victor Wembanyama, but 10 other teams passed on the rim-running Dereck Lively II—a player who, in his rookie season, helped Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks, make it to the NBA finals. In 2022, Jalen Duren was the next big man taken, at 13th overall. Mark Williams—a player who the Lakers attempted to send out Dalton Knecht and future draft picks to acquire—fell to the 15th pick. Walker Kessler fell to Utah at the 22nd pick, and he has been a name that has been linked to countless star-level trades based on his production.
This takes us to the featured prospect, Khaman Maluach.
Khaman Maluach is listed at 7’2” and 250 pounds, playing for Duke. As of now, Maluach has a listed 7’5” wingspan and a 9’8” standing reach. Before stepping foot on a court in Durham, he was awarded MVP of the Basketball Without Borders Africa Camp in 2023, played for South Sudan in qualifying for the Paris Olympics, and was graded as the third-highest prospect for his draft class. Quite the accolades for the young man.
Khaman came into this draft cycle with a perceived high ceiling, based on a few factors. For one, he didn’t play basketball until he was 13. That means that it took less than five years of playing organized hoops for Khaman to become the top center in his draft class. On top of the aptitude, Maluach was believed to have some touch that could be tapped into. We’ll tackle whether or not that should be important as we march along in this piece.
How does his skill set hold up? How much should the potential of a jumper matter when considering drafting him? Let’s dive in.
Offense
A lot has been made of Khaman’s offense—in terms of both what it is now, and what it could become. Despite his low usage percentage of 16.4, he ranks in the 99th percentile in points per possession (1.276 PPP). This is due, in large part, to him spending about 81% of his time in the vicinity of the rim. His offense may seem very rudimentary, but it is effective. I believe this is why scouts—myself included—have ranked players like him lower historically.
Pick and Roll Finishing
It has been noted on several occasions that Duke does not have a “true” point guard on their roster. While this may be true, players like Sion James, Kon Knueppel, and Cooper Flagg have grown to be reliable playmakers for their positions. Khaman Maluach has benefitted from their improvements, but he has also contributed to it as a fantastic roll man.
In this clip against Syracuse, we see Maluach pave a few roads before diving to the rim. A back screen is is set by Khaman to allow Caleb Foster to cut to the rim. This causes Khaman’s defender, Eddie Lampkin, to stay deep to prevent a potential layup. Maluach then screens Cooper Flagg’s defender, allowing Flagg to drive right and head to the paint. Lampkin then has to step up to challenge Cooper’s drive.
Maluach is then in a prime position, as Lampkin is in front of Flagg, while Flagg’s defender is a step behind the play. Our guy dives to the rim and receives a well-placed bounce pass from Flagg. He then gathers the pass and elevates for an easy two-handed jam.
This may seem like an easy play, but Khaman has to do a lot of work to make this action a viable one for scoring. Setting an effective screen is a dying art in basketball; there is a difference between standing in the way and carving out space.
Lob Threat
Khaman Maluach ranks in the 99th percentile in possessions where he is the roll man. Of all of his credited play types, Khaman spends 22.5% of his time operating as the roller. That grades in the 84th percentile.
We get a chance to see how effective Maluach is as a lob target on this possession. Sion James (#14 in white) starts this play with the ball at the top of the key. Our guy will start off on the right wing. Cooper Flagg sets a down screen for Kon Knueppel, who then gets the ball from James. Maluach comes over to screen for Kon, who immediately drives to his right. This play has Kon and Khaman as the only players on the right side, as everyone else spaces out on the weak side.
As soon as Kon drives right, our guy darts to the right. Similar to the play above, Maluach sets such a good screen that his man has to switch onto Kon to prevent the drive. That leaves the only other defender behind Khaman.
Kon sees the open lane that Khaman has and throws up the lob, to which Maluach finishes beautifully. Another impressive finishing stat for Khaman is that he spends over 55% of his at-rim finishes dunking the ball. That ranks in the 98th percentile. These aren’t just the typical “I’m big” dunks—many times, he catches the ball on the move or catches a lob and converts above the rim.
Being able to be so effective at this skill is immensely valuable for big men in the NBA. To compare him to other bigs, Mark Williams dunked on his at-rim shots 48.4% of his time at Duke. Donovan Clingan dunked on only 22.3% of his interior finishes. Yves Missi was at 36.9%. Walker Kessler was at 44%. Zach Edey, 41.6%. Only Dereck Lively II, who finished over 64% of his inside shots with a dunk, ranked higher within that player group.
Putback Threat
Khaman Maluach averages 2.7 offensive rebounds per game, which converts into an offensive rebound percentage of 16.6. Of the names that we have compared him to this point, only Zach Edey had a higher rate at Purdue (18.1). Of course, Maluach’s measurables allow him to crash the boards the way he does, but he shows a high level of feel and anticipation in his rebounding.
In this clip against California, Cooper Flagg gets the ball at the top of the key and looks to knock down the open three. If you look closely at where Khaman is at the time the ball is released, you’ll see he is actually in a disadvantageous position compared to his man, Lee Dort (#34 in blue). Our guy does a good job of getting his right shoulder under the arm of Dort, and creating room to go up and tip the ball back in. The level of strength and body control to create the required separation is impressive, but the soft tip shot to finish it off is the chef’s kiss.
Not only can Khaman finish on soft tip-ins, but he can also rise above the defense and finish with force. What I feel is an underrated aspect of his physical game is the multiple efforts he can give on a single play.
In this clip against Georgia Tech, we see Cooper Flagg start the play with an attempted layup deep in the paint. Of course, Cooper misses but Khaman follows up the miss with the rebound. With an impressive second jump, Maluach goes right back up before the defense can recover, and finishes with the jam. Per Synergy Sports, Maluach spends about 24% of his time on putback dunks. That time allotted ranks in the 93rd percentile, but he ranks in the 58th percentile in points per possession on putbacks. That grades out as “Good”.
Shooting Potential
This is what scouts would call the “swing skill” regarding the high-end outcome that Maluach could reach if Khaman could add a jumper to his game. If you recall, Donovan Clingan was getting a lot of the same sort of projection to his ceiling—the potential to add a reliable shot. We won’t really ever know if that went into the Trail Blazers selecting Clingan, but it’s hard to imagine that it wasn’t at least a discussion.
I did some hand-jamming to help illustrate how much the three-point shot has impacted the big men of the NBA. Of 70 players that I determined to be credible for use (lineup data and positional listing—no Jalen Williams used for this one), there were 21 big men that shot 0% from deep. Of those 21 names, nine haven’t attempted a three to this point; 11 of those names have shot under four attempts. That leaves Isaiah Hartenstein, who is the only big shooting 0% from three in double-digit attempts. Only 5 big men on this list are shooting between 1%-19%. Eight bigs are shooting between 20%-29%. Nine big men are shooting between 30%-33%, and another nine are shooting between 34%-36%. Twelve are shooting between 37%-40%, and six are shooting 41% or better.
It’s clear that having a floor-spacing big man can be valuable and that over 38% of the aggregated big men are shooting at least 34% from deep. However, that doesn’t mean that you have to shoot to be valuable. Among the names that haven’t even attempted a three-pointer, you’ll find multi-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert, the All-Star Jarrett Allen, and Rookie of the Year Contender Yves Missi.
So even though floor spacing from a big man isn’t a requirement, you’ll have to be elite in other areas if you plan on playing valuable, rotational minutes. Heck, if you’re Rudy Gobert, Jarret Allen, Dereck Lively, Ivica Zubac, Yves Missi, Mark Williams, Jalen Duren, Jakob Poeltl, Trayce Jackson-Davis, Nick Richards, or Clint Capela, you could even start! That’s for about a third of the league, by the way.
Of the ten three-pointers Maluach has taken, too many of them end up like this shot above. It’s not that he does not have good spatial awareness or shot preparation. Often for bigs, it’s trying to find the feel of the ball when it is so small in their hands. Fundamentally, Khaman’s form is fine. The base is strong. There is not a ton of dip in his form. The release is high, and he keeps a clean follow-through. He airballs the attempts long here. Perhaps the corner three in college is a bit too short, but we just saw a clip of him hitting it from the opposite corner in the clip before this one.
Despite not really connecting on a ton of his attempts, it is encouraging to see that Khaman is looking to add the deep ball to his game. In this clip against California, we get the chance to see him work on a catch-and-shoot look with Cooper Flagg.
Khaman is all alone at the top of the key at the start of this clip. Many may see this and think that he should have shot it being so open. For many—especially inefficient shooters—having rhythm and stepping into the shot increases the likelihood of the shot dropping. Cooper runs over from the left wing and gets into a DHO look with our guy. Maluach’s man is deep in drop, daring him to shoot the ball from deep. There may have been the slightest bit of reluctancy from Flagg to hit Khaman on the wing so early in the game, but he does get him the rock.
Maluach has all the time he needs to shoot here. There was no hesitancy in our guy, as he went straight into his shooting motion upon receipt. He gets the shot up clean, and it falls. It’s easy to see why some are so high on his ability to add the jumper. There was talk of him shooting coming out of Basketball Without Borders, so there are some remnants of belief from there. He is also shooting over 73% from the free-throw line. Based on the success of other rim-running bigs, Khaman shouldn’t need to shoot to be a reliable weapon on offense.
But what about on defense?
Defense
The metrics that Maluach has to this point are below the average of the recently drafted big men that he has been compared to in this piece. The defensive rebounding is fine, as he ranks higher than what we saw from Yves Missi and Dereck Lively. What appears to be more concerning is how far behind he ranks as a shot blocker. Of the group excluding Khaman, Zach Edey was the lowest-ranked shot blocker, but even he was better by more than half of a percent. Yves Missi was the second lowest, and he almost topped what we’ve seen from Maluach by almost an entire percentage point.
Post Defense
To be completely honest, the numbers that are recorded for Khaman’s post defense skew what the film actually shows. There are some highs and lows when watching how Maluach has fared when being on an island against other collegiate bigs. Above is an example of a high.
In one of Khaman’s first major challenges of the season, he is tasked to cover the Kansas Jayhawk, Hunter Dickinson (#1 in blue). Dickinson gets the ball on the right block—a place that he loves to operate. Khaman meets him. Dickinson takes a couple of dribbles facing to his right. Our guy does a good job of playing the middle of Hunter, anticipating Dickinson turning to his left and looking to finish. As Dickinson spins, you can see Khaman raising his left hand to challenge where the ball is going.
The biggest thing that shocked me about the film behind the post defense numbers was how many of the misses Maluach was credited with were heavily helped by others. If anything, I came away more impressed with Cooper Flagg watching Khaman Maluach post defense film.
In the recent game against Maxime Raynaud (#42 in black), Maluach had some opportunities to defend the senior Stanford. This clip starts with Raynaud getting the ball on the right block. Maxime gives Maluach a bump on the block to create some separation. Raynaud gives Khaman a quick head fake that our guy bites on, and Maluach goes up to block an attempt. As this is taking place, Cooper Flagg leaves his assignment to help challenge the big man. This was needed, as Maxime would have likely scored on the shot following the up-fake. Instead, Flagg rises up and forces a difficult look that doesn’t drop.
Duke does this often, letting Cooper play the Shai Gilgeous-Alexander roamer role to induce chaos. This allows him to help apply pressure to the opposing big pretty frequently. What takes me off guard on the defensive film is how much less athletic Khaman looks compared to the offensive stuff.
Defending a Floor Spacer
Understanding and reminding yourself that Maluach has been playing basketball for just 5 years is almost a requirement on plays like this. Sticking with the Stanford game, we get to see how our guy does defending Raynaud outside the paint.
This clip starts with Raynaud on the left wing and Khaman recovering to challenge him. Maxime catches the ball and goes with an up fake. Maluach sells out on the pump fake, which allows his man to drive to his left and throw down the dunk. Khaman has no way to recover. As a big, it may be a bit much to ask for Maluach to close out with choppy steps, raise a hand to contest, and position himself for the drive. A quick look at some film and a scouting report will show that Maxime has some capability to drive—especially off of a pump fake.
These open spaced looks are where Maluach can be in a bit of trouble.
Switched Onto Guards
Not that it’s something that one should expect Maluach to do frequently, but there will be times when NBA teams will look to challenge him. That will depend on the defensive scheme he falls to, but Maluach's capability will likely impact the type of defense his team plays. In other words, there is a sort of “give-and-take” as to the marriage of scheme and skill of a big man.
In this clip against Pittsburgh, you can see what I mean. Pitt’s guard, Ishmael Leggett (#5 in blue), gets the ball along the left wing with about 11 seconds to get a shot off. Leggett gets into a pick-and-roll set to have Maluach switched onto him. Our guy fronts Leggett dead center, which gives the ball handler their choice of how to break him down off of the dribble. Khaman tries to keep his feet moving in anticipation of either a drive or step back.
Leggett takes a few dribbles and crosses hard from left to right, and bursts to his right. Khaman tries to flip his hips and recover, but his footwork is a bit slow to challenge the shot. Leggett seems to feel comfortable looking to get to the rim against Khaman—who ranks in the 99th percentile in defending isolations, oddly enough. On those plays, he grades out in the 51st percentile, or “Average” per Synergy.
Potential Promise In Space
While there are apparent concerns about Khaman’s ability to switch out on the perimeter, there are also glimmers of hope that he can do it—even if just on a few plays per night.
In this clip against Seattle, we get a chance to see Khaman switch out to defend Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe—a player who has played for Oklahoma State and Georgia. The ball is swung to Moncrieffe (#12 in red) on the left wing.
Watch how Khaman closes out well, but also maintains positioning to defend the drive as well. Moncrieffe drives to the lane, but our guy does a great job of shifting his weight, flipping his hips, and sliding his feet. Maluach is able to contest the shot well. He doesn’t block it, but the attempt put up by Moncrieffe is a difficult one that ultimately misses. Moments like these show that there may be some real juice in Maluach’s defense.
Here’s another look at Maluach’s defense on the move. In this clip against Notre Dame, Maluach is tasked with defending Tae Davis (#7 in dark blue)—the Irish’s second-leading scorer.
Davis starts with the ball at the top of the key with a screen being set to his left. Davis rejects the screen left, and goes to his right. That puts our guy on him. Khaman is on his heels but flips his hips to close off the middle of the lane. Davis continues his pursuit of the rim, and does a euro step to catch Khaman off guard.
Maluach is able to flip his hips to the other side, raise up, and block the shot. Again, this is not something you want Maluach doing frequently, but it is an encouragement to see him stay on his line and recover to counters like this.
Curtains
You’ve heard the phrase “modern NBA” used countless times. You may even be desensitized to it at this point. What do those words even mean, though? For the most part, it has to do with the way that the game is played. I won’t relitigate the data, but, by and large, the three-point shot has become such a large part of the game that the NBA has batted around the idea of adding a four-pointer (I certainly am not going to give my takes on that today).
With such an emphasis on the three, offensive positional roles have adapted to make the best use of the math advantage the three-pointer provides. Point guards have leaned away from being the primary initiators to a degree, and have been relied upon to space the floor. Power forwards have turned more into finesse forwards, and typically have a baseline level of ball skill, connective passing, average-or-better defense, and the ability to space the floor. Even the big men of the NBA have seen their positional duties shift to some degree.
This is something that I feel most of the draft community—I’m speaking to myself as much as anyone else—needs to remember when evaluating any draft class. Sure, a 7-footer that can hit a stand-still jumper can be appealing, but how does that 200-ish pound prospect screen? How do they rim-run? Do they have good hands? What does their footwork look like? Can they convert lobs? Sure, maybe they can block shots from the weak side, but can they maintain their positioning when backed down? Do they give second efforts on defense? Can they slide their feet while defending the pick and roll? Do they attack the glass? There are a lot of boxes that must be checked beyond being tall and hitting a jumper.
It is important to remember that for players like Khaman Maluach—who can do so much of the “lunch pail” things that are still required for big men—there is still incredible value in being gigantic. There is still incredible value in being large and mobile. There is a place, still, for prospects that do the “traditional” skills of big men. If teams continue to chase after “unicorns” every time, they will miss out on the incredible talent of players like Khaman Maluach—and likely stay at the top of drafts.
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