Duke’s Defense Could Be Insane This Year

Khaman Maluach has the potential to be a stunning defender

Cooper Flagg has rightly gotten a lot of attention for his remarkable potential. He’s been called a generational talent and most mock drafts see him as the number one pick in next summer’s NBA Draft. He got heavy praise this summer from members of the U.S. Olympic Basketball team as he played fearlessly against the best players in the world.

We all understand how high his potential is and how promising he is.

We don’t necessarily all understand the promise of Khaman Maluach yet though.

The 7-2 kid Sudanese kid who grew up in Uganda is still learning the game, but he has shown a lot of potential. Still, most of us have heard about it rather than seeing it.

Well, you’re about to get a glimpse of what he brings to the court in a remarkable clip posted on X.

In this video, Flagg starts to take a jumper and as he does, on the edge of the frame you can see Maluach’s hand go up. And then he pulls of perhaps the most imposing block we’ve seen a Duke player do since Zion Williamson’s shocking block at Virginia in 2019.

And then when Flagg picks up the ball and heads to the basket, Maluach, who at first appears to be out of the play, casually follows him in and blocks it again.

We have no idea who Jon Scheyer is thinking about starting, but when he needs a defensive focus, he can put in Maluach, Flagg and Malik Brown and scoring inside against Duke is going to be very, very difficult.