{"id":588345,"date":"2026-02-07T13:31:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T13:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/588345\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T13:31:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T13:31:13","slug":"malachi-moreno-is-creeping-up-nba-mock-drafts-and-big-boards-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/588345\/","title":{"rendered":"Malachi Moreno is creeping up NBA mock drafts and big boards"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coming into the season, the script was supposed to be simple. Kentucky Basketball<\/a> knew Jayden Quaintance was likely a one-and-done talent. Even with his injury struggles, the NBA scouts have been tracking him for years.<\/p>\n

But while everyone was watching Quaintance, another Wildcat has quietly, or maybe not so quietly anymore, snuck his way up the draft boards.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Malachi Moreno is playing his way into the first round, and Kentucky fans might need to start preparing for the reality that they could lose two 7-footers to the league this summer.<\/p>\n

The scouts are taking notice of Malachi Moreno<\/p>\n

Moreno wasn\u2019t necessarily projected as a \u201cone-and-done\u201d lottery pick when he arrived on campus, but his efficiency has forced the issue. Major outlets are now consistently ranking him as a top-30 prospect.<\/p>\n

FanSided ranks him at No. 20, <\/a>noting: \u201cDespite a fluctuating role, Malachi Moreno looks the part of an NBA contributor\u2026 He has ready-made size and strength for the next level, on top of impressive agility in space, which allows Moreno to fully weaponize his reported 7-foot-2 wingspan.\u201d<\/p>\n

SB Nation <\/a>lists him as the 23rd-best prospect in the entire class.<\/p>\n

Why Moreno is rising<\/p>\n

It is easy to see why the league is intrigued. In just 22 minutes per game, Moreno is putting up extremely productive numbers: 8.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks. He is shooting 58.6% from the field, proving he knows his role and doesn\u2019t force bad shots.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe recruited (Moreno) because we thought he could be a terrific passing big,\u201d Pope said.<\/p>\n

But what separates him from a standard \u201crim runner\u201d is his feel for the game. Moreno is averaging 1.7 assists per game, showing a passing ability that NBA teams crave in modern bigs. He can anchor a defense with his shot-blocking, but he is agile enough to hedge on screens and recover, a prerequisite for surviving on an NBA court.<\/p>\n

The one weakness<\/p>\n

The only thing holding him back from being a lottery lock is the modern NBA\u2019s obsession with spacing. Moreno has not made a 3 in college, shooting just 2 so far.<\/p>\n

In a league where \u201cstretch fives\u201d are king, he is a throwback. Could his versatility outweigh his shooting? Yeah, probably. You can\u2019t find a lot of very mobile 7-footers.<\/p>\n

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Kentucky fans were bracing to lose Quaintance. They probably weren\u2019t bracing to lose Moreno this fast. But when you are 7-feet tall, can protect the rim, and pass, the NBA comes calling quickly. It is beginning to look like Mark Pope might have to replace more than just 1 center.<\/p>\n

Drew Holbrook has been covering the Cats for over 10 years. In his free time, he enjoys downtime with his family and Premier League soccer.\u00a0You can find him on X here.<\/a>\u00a0Micah 7:7. #UptheAlbion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coming into the season, the script was supposed to be simple. Kentucky Basketball knew Jayden Quaintance was likely…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,187,6658,4000,79072,12713,6,12],"class_list":{"0":"post-588345","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-draft","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-denver-nuggets","10":"tag-jayden-quaintance","11":"tag-kentucky-basketball","12":"tag-kentucky-fans","13":"tag-malachi-moreno","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-nba-draft"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116029599603455017","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588345","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=588345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}