{"id":2160,"date":"2025-04-27T17:34:06","date_gmt":"2025-04-27T17:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/2160\/"},"modified":"2025-04-27T17:34:06","modified_gmt":"2025-04-27T17:34:06","slug":"freshman-khaman-maluach-to-enter-2025-nba-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/2160\/","title":{"rendered":"Freshman Khaman Maluach to enter 2025 NBA draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Duke<\/a> freshman center Khaman Maluach is entering the 2025 NBA draft after one season with the Blue Devils, the program announced on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Maluach, who was born in South Sudan, was named to the ACC All-Freshman Team after averaging 8.6 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.3 blocks on 71.2% shooting from the field in 39 games. He ranked sixth in the country in offensive rebound percentage (16.5) and 2-point percentage (75.4).<\/p>\n

The 7-footer scored in double figures 17 times, including a season-high 19 points, 10 rebounds and one blocked shot on Jan. 11 in a win over Notre Dame. He ranked third among all freshmen in the conference in double-doubles (5).<\/p>\n

Maluach, along with freshman teammates Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel, helped the Blue Devils reach the Final Four for the first time since 2022. They are each projected to be first-round picks this year, with Maluach considered one of the top rim protectors in the draft.<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old represented South Sudan last year in the 2024 Olympic Games after helping the group finish 1-2 in only its second international tournament appearance. He totaled two points and four rebounds in 13 minutes across three games.<\/p>\n

Maluach started playing basketball roughly seven years ago in Uganda. He joined the NBA Africa Academy in Senegal and has made a rapid rise because of his size and versatility as a player who can shoot and defend, with his reported 7-foot, 4 1\/2-inch wingspan.<\/p>\n

The 2025 NBA draft will occur June 25-26 in New York City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Duke freshman center Khaman Maluach is entering the 2025 NBA draft after one season with the Blue Devils,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,243,319,325,1529,1531,667,98,666,692,318,70,85,6,12,67,61,134,132,66,83,73,1530],"class_list":{"0":"post-2160","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-draft","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-blue","10":"tag-college","11":"tag-college-sports","12":"tag-colleges","13":"tag-colleges-u0026-universities","14":"tag-devils","15":"tag-draft","16":"tag-duke","17":"tag-duke-blue-devils-mens-basketball","18":"tag-mens","19":"tag-national","20":"tag-national-sports","21":"tag-nba","22":"tag-nba-draft","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-overall","25":"tag-overall-positive","26":"tag-positive","27":"tag-sports","28":"tag-sports-news","29":"tag-u0026","30":"tag-universities"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114411134234999342","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}