Khaman Maluach’s GAME-CHANGING Defense ELEVATES Phoenix Suns | Stephen’s Studies

Khaman Maluach’s GAME-CHANGING Defense ELEVATES Phoenix Suns | Stephen’s Studies

against all the odds the Suns find a way to get a gym at number 10 in common Malawatch from Duke And I think to the surprise of everyone they Suns have a front court piece to work with Devin Booker to go into as far in the future as they desire And we are here to break down the film on common mile watch So let’s go ahead and dive into it All right let’s go ahead and dive into the film on from Duke’s round two win over Baylor but look specifically at Kam Malaw watch and all of the flaws as well as all of the strengths that he showed particularly on the defensive end in this in this specific film session It’s probably going to be a multi-part series So we’ll start here on the defensive end looking at it specifically in this game against Baylor on an NCAA national tournament stage So we’re going to go ahead and find Malawatch off rip here gonna start off finding him Look at him here Just kind of showing help early in action before play is really taking place This part in terms of the early help and just being able to show in the gap and be a presence before action even in a threatening fashion even takes place is important to note with him because it’s it shows his awareness It shows his IQ and it shows the impact that it has to help his teammates be themselves as individual defenders So as you kind of see play play out you can see his presence playing into the decision-m of the ball handler Ultimately that ball handler is still going to decide to go and threaten the space that Malawatch is is essentially kind of sitting in right now This gap here going to the ball handler’s left hand And as we get back to Malawatch just watch his decision- making within all of this How he ultimately plans to impact things A little bit of lay help Talked about the early help Then he gets to the lay help makes that non-threatening drive completely obsolete makes him terminate his dribble and now he allows for the rest of the team’s defensive shell to stay unpenetrated Everybody can stay home no one’s in rotation and they’ve already defended the first potential action that might come And next is where it really gets fun As you see him get into this close out and this is something we’ll kind of get into a little bit later on in this film session as well from this game against Baylor Watch how on balance he is with this rep And watch how he shoots wide to force the ball handler to go back to where he knows the rest of his help is around him If he allows for the ball handler to go baseline there’s no help outside of the actual baseline itself And with athlet with how athletic this matchup is right here it can probably slither past him if he’s not on balance So the fact that he’s trying to influence him to go to his right hand shows the awareness of him but also within the defensive shell and the principles of Duke him being aware of where everybody else should be if everybody’s on task with their individual defensive uh matchups with everything as well Does a good job terminating the initial drive Takes away the three-point shot here Takes away the drive to the baseline as well Again all of this work just keeping their defensive shell intact And then we’re going to see him kind of do things to finish it off here So he communicates here with his teammate to make sure he stays as the low man You want to stay low man so you can stay as close to the basket as possible and allow for his size as well as his shot blocking prowess and his shot deterrent prowess to have as much impact as it possibly can Job well done for Malawatch in that as well Ultimately see a left-hand drive Cooper Flag knows where Malawatch is so he allows for him to be influenced to that pocket a little bit but not just completely conceding a left-hand drive And you see him stay attached to the hip closes that airspace And again because Malawatch is where he is that forces the ball handler to go back to the right side and that’s right where Cooper flag was already planting his flag defensively staying attached to the hip Ends up being a contested too Heavily contested Not surprised the shot was even able to be getting gotten off Nonetheless Duke gets a stop And that’s all just the little things that Malawatch does well Showing a presence in the gaps being active with it communicating understanding where his help defense is when he is in rotation and just being that type of connective team defender and really a defensive anchor as well And speaking to his defensive anchorship we’re going to see a little bit of that coming into play here as well So obviously want to pick up on Malawatch So you see him as his matchup kind of flows in to get ready to set a screen here You see how connected he is and you see how he’s kind of dictating terms He’s not allowing for his matchups to just free flow into setting his screen He’s being a presence He’s physical He’s up to touch at the level of the screen Ultimately he’s going to kind of drop back a little bit He’s not going to be blitzing or anything crazy quite yet in this film session But these are the little things in detail that you want to see from someone that has the physical attributes that he does Being physical dictating terms that screen isn’t necessarily set in the capacity that Baylor desires for it to that some of that is because of the screen navigation from James on ball but it’s also Malaw doing his part They do a great job of kind of sussing through that And now they’re going to ultimately get to where you see is a late switch taking place So obviously James was initially on the ball He gets to this point where the ball handler turns the corner just a little bit and because of where Malawatch is he’s able to just completely flatten out that drive turns it into a non-threatening drive And this is where it gets fun with him because he’s able to stay disciplined at this point where it turns into a late switch here Stays on balance is not reaching is not doing too much He understands that simply walling off the drive and cutting off that momentum is the job done in and of itself And now the secondary part is to not pick up a foul And he does a good job here containing the drive just being big walling up not fouling Ultimately ends up getting back to where the matchups originally were whereas you see the ball handler kind of nash it under the basket Nothing comes of all of that that takes place and Duke ends up getting a stop Great job there from Malawatch as well as his teammates with screen navigation They get to the late switch Milo watch is on schedule He’s on balance and he’s able to help them get that stop And then here on this rep this one was fun as well You see a little bit of a screen coming in to be set for Milo watch You see Baylor’s kind of getting into a little three player three player action Not truly Spain pick and roll Not necessarily roll and replace either but what they’re trying to do is just create a little bit of confusion to open up some space What we want to do here is pay close attention to Malawatch’s decision- making and how he ultimately flattens things out because of his routes chosen and how he kind of undoes everything that Baylor’s trying to get into just kind of muddying up the middle third of the paint So you see this screen going to be set It’s kind of it’s kind of a variation of Spain pick and roll which if you’re a Suns fan you’ve seen that run a billion times the last four to five seasons Because Malawash doesn’t chase over and he decides to go under For one it allows him space to take away what ultimately Baylor is trying to get into here which is a dribble drive to the left hand to get into this pocket of the court here Because Malawise doesn’t sh doesn’t trail and chase his man over this screen but simply takes the route and going underneath knowing that his matchup is eventually going to come back to him It doubles as him being in position to not let the roller get behind him in terms of losing his leverage for a potential alleyoop over the top But it also allows for him to take away this pull up pocket or even driving lane here to the left hand for Baylor All of this decision- making preemptively allows for the the Duke the Dookies to kind of stay in great position in here within their defensive shell Ultimately they allowed for themselves to keep a drive from even happening in the first place And now you see him get back to this matchup And now they’re getting into multiple picking roles They’re really trying to test Malawash and target him and see how disciplined and how impactful he can be getting into not just one screen of defense but also doing so multiple times within one possession and also doing it in rapid succession with one another So he gets to this point here he’s ultimately able to defensive coverage He’s screaming weak weak weak He’s forcing the ball handler in terms of communicating to his point of attack defender to force the ball handler to his weak hand Keep him to the weak hand You can kind of dictate terms with the defense Malawatch is s is sitting at the nail just being a presence doesn’t have to do too much to impact the ball until I pause it here and you get to this point which is like we talked about on the second rep another late switch scenario where it’s a situation where the ball handler breaks the free throw line it’s a it becomes instead of a probe a threatening drive and rather than the ball handlers match up trying to fight back over into him and potentially putting himself into a foul situation because Malawatch is big and he’s a presence there he’s able to simply step over This is the late switch They also call it a veer back where this guy here that’s defending at the point of attack who was guarding the ball veers back into the body and into the legs of the roller They do a great job of that here And we’re ultimately going to see Duke get a stop here on a great contest from Malawatch And then on this rep a whole lot more fun with Malawatch Another late switch scenario This time it’s happening in a more kind of chaotic scenario Nonetheless you’re going to see him do a good job walling up but it’s the it’s the rim deterrence from him right here It’s not necessarily the rim protection in terms of literally blocking a shot It’s just his presence The fact that when this guard turns the corner and breaks the free throw line he knows that Malawatch is there all of the sense of timing and where he is on the court in respect to the angle on the basket that he’s trying to put this up off the backboard with Everything’s expedited and everything kind of gets blurry because it’s Malawatch Malawatch doesn’t even put up a true contest on this before the shot actually goes up and he can’t ultimately get to this because of how high up on the backboard it goes But this is him playing into the psyche of opponents on offense And this is the deterrence part though No he doesn’t get a block shot here Doesn’t even get a deflection in any capacity but it’s just his presence that speeds things up And then of course this the multiple efforts he’s also able to get back into it to get on the glass to help his teammates out And then on this rep again you’re going to see Malawatch again This time at the elbow We’re going to see him doing a good job rather than helping This time he’s defending the primary ball handler As you see the elbow touch here This guy’s going to clear through It’s going to be look like it’s going to almost look like they’re trying to get into inverted pick and roll in a sense Malawash is going to do a great job simply staying connected being physical to the legal limit and doing so without fouling and we’re going to see what ultimately comes from that Flattens that drive out and now he’s going to be in position to help and show for his teammates Does a good job fighting the post Wait for another drive to come as he knows it’s going to happen Does a good job just being a presence there And this is where we’re going to start to pay close attention to the detail on his close out as we talked about in the rep a little bit earlier So you find Malaw watch again He’s right here He’s going to ultimately obviously after showing help to put out the fire on this drive Close out to his matchup who’s popping to the three-point line off a set drive And what we’re going to do here is pay close attention to the weight distribution of Maluatch Pay attention to the body language in terms of the angle of his close out You want to see him a little bit more on balance with this And this is something that a lot of big men do stubble with at times You want to see him be a little better with this You also want to see him do a better job as I bring it back just a little bit Be a little bit better with the discipline on his feet So watch his feet and watch how it ultimately gives an angle for the person with the ball to attack his close out He does a good job staying on balance but because he’s conceding a top foot on this closeout as a offensive player especially if you’re if you’re a player with skill you’re always told to attack that top foot If he doesn’t give him that top foot and he’s a little more balanced after he gets to the point where he wants to stop on his close out he’ll be in better position to ultimately cut this drive off and keep Cooper flag from being engaged but also potentially even keep this drive from getting to the restricted area Because of all of those things just a little bit of fault in process with him in that transition he ultimately gives up this layup and he’s able to get a bucket Then his next possession here is a watch Again going to pay close attention to how physical he is pay attention to what’s going on as he kind of gets into his defense And this is what we want to pay close attention to right here in particular It’s him pushing this catch for the post player up the floor as much as he possibly can Does a great job here in isolation defense And because he pushes that catch point up so high he’s able to keep himself in defensive advantage in terms of his defense And though he does give up the basket the last thing you want to pay attention to after he does his work early as he pushes this catch up as we’re getting to what he doesn’t want to allow for the opponent to do is get into his chest And this is what a lot of offensive talents in the NBA especially traditional post whether it’s a four or a five They’re going to look to try to get into his chest in his chest to negate the size that he has Create just enough space to get a soft touch layup off the glass or hook shot like we see here And that’s what you have So there you have it flaws and all common Malawatch is a player that’s gonna be fun to watch with the Suns and Jordan system around the offensive talents of Devin Booker as well as Jaylen Green brings a ton of athleticism as well as some IQ and though there is certainly room for improvement he is still already at this moment in time a player that is ready to make impact in the NBA rotation upon uh upon his first game played That’s all we have for the original exclusive to our die hards which if you want to become a die hard to unlock the rest of this film session as well as written content from all of our sports beats that we cover here at phnx sports you can go ahead and log in there make an account and you’ll have access to more minutes of this film session on common mile watch like

How high can Duke’s Khaman Maluach elevate the Phoenix Suns’ defense after being selected 10th in the 2025 NBA Draft? Stephen is back to dive into the film and show the world just how much of a game-changer the 7’2″ prospect can be at the next level. How does Maluach defend in space? Around the rim? Can he be effective in multiple coverages? It was clear last year that Phoenix was in desperate need of having an interior presence on the defensive end, and they might have drafted their long-term solution in Cooper Flagg’s former teammate.

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