Khaman Maluach, the top big man in the 2024 recruiting class, has committed to Duke, he tells Jonathan Givony of ESPN. Maluach had been playing at the NBA Academy Africa in Senegal.
The 7’2″ center, who is projected by ESPN to be the No. 3 overall pick in the 2025 NBA draft, will join projected No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg as part of a star-studded recruiting class for the Blue Devils. He chose Duke after also visiting Kentucky, Kansas, and UCLA and receiving offers from the G League Ignite and Australia’s NBL Next Stars program, per Givony.
“Duke is home, that’s where I belong.” Maluach said. “This was the hardest decision I’ve ever made. I felt like I could succeed anywhere, but I was most comfortable going to Duke. All the schools that were recruiting me are big-time programs, but in terms of my development and the relationships I built with the coaches, they were the best.”
Maluach became the third-youngest player in World Cup history last summer when – at age 16 – he played for a South Sudan squad that qualified for the Olympics for the first time ever.
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo of ESPN (Insider link) have updated their rankings of 2024’s top draft prospects, while Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report has published a new 2024 mock draft. ESPN’s top five now includes two Kentucky prospects – Rob Dillingham at No. 3 and Reed Sheppard at No. 5 – while French forward Zaccharie Risacher still holds the top spot. Another French prospect – Alexandre Sarr – is atop Wasserman’s mock draft, which features two G League Ignite prospects in the top five: Ron Holland at No. 4 and Matas Buzelis at No. 5.
- The NBA formally announced on Wednesday that it will be headed back to Abu Dhabi in the fall of 2024, with the Celtics and Nuggets set to play a pair of preseason games on Friday, October 4 and Sunday, Oct. 6 in the United Arab Emirates’ capital city. It will be third consecutive year that the league has played exhibition games in Abu Dhabi.
- Will any active NBA player join LeBron James in the 40,000-point club? Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press explores that question, suggesting that the only current players with career scoring averages higher than LeBron’s – Kevin Durant, Joel Embiid, and Luka Doncic – are long shots, given the durability and longevity required.
Khaman Maluach and Cooper Flagg on the same team. That will be something to see. Flagg looks like the next one. Khaman picked up basketball late. So this kid is getting better all the time. Great recruiting year.