Sam Vecenie reveals why he believes draft stock is rising for Khaman Maluach

Sam Vecenie is gradually getting there when it comes to the stock for Duke C Khaman Maluach.

In a mock draft episode of ‘The Game Theory Podcast’ on Monday, Vecenie and Bryce Simon broke down Maluach after Simon selected him seventh overall to the Brooklyn Nets in the 2025 NBA Draft. That’s with Vecenie getting higher on Maluach on a prospect if for no other reason as of now than the floor he has.

“Yeah, for what it’s worth, like, I don’t think he – like, I don’t see the ceiling,” Vecenie said. “I think that, more than anything, I see a level of safety now with Khaman that I hadn’t seen previously and that’s exciting.”

What Maluach can eventually be as a defender at the next level is setting that floor for Vecenie. He’s averaging 6.2 rebounds and 1.1 blocks right now as a freshman for the Blue Devils with room to grow still on that side with the size he already has.

“The fact that I think he’s gonna be a really good defender? Like, I’ve seen enough from him defensively where I’m just like, okay, he moves super well, he’s switchable, he’s athletic enough to, like, guard on the perimeter a little bit. He doesn’t really block shots, which is weird, but I think he is, like, a pretty good rim protector, actually. Like, I think that he uses his length around the basket fairly well,” said Vecenie. “The ball-screen defense is still weird, in my opinion. When I watch him, I am still questionable on, okay, his gaps are a little bit off, he’s a little bit off in terms of getting stuck in no-man’s land. But he’s seven-foot-two with a seven-foot-six wingspan.

“As soon as he gets taught those things? Like, he has so much more margin for error than somebody even, like, Asa Newell, right…Maluach is just, like, a higher-level impact defender than what Asa Newell is.”

That said, Vecenie is still forming his opinion on Maluach as a player in the NBA. Most of those concerns with where he is on the offensive end for now as a center with his hands and a lack of ability to stretch it with ten attempts from three, two of those being makes, this season

“I worry about the hands with Maluach. I’ve talked about that all season. That remains true,” said Vecenie. “I don’t really think Maluach is gonna shoot.”

As he went, Vecenie then shared a pro comparison he’d heard for Maluach. He used that to justify that, despite those limitations, he can still become a productive big in the association as he develops.

“Like, someone, I was talking to somebody for a team and they brought – this is a hilarious, like, cross-racial comparison. They brought up Jakob Poeltl to me and I was like, huh. When Poeltl was coming out of Utah, his hands were kind of funky. He’s developed that. Like, he has really, really good hands now. He’s pretty good in terms of switching ability but wasn’t like a massive, massive blocks guy if I remember correctly. But he just kind of produces – he rebounds, he finishes around the basket well…It was kind of a weird comparison that I was like, the more I think about it, the more I understand where you’re going with it and that sounds reasonable to me.”

Maluach may not be a certain thing as far as lottery selection this year for Vecenie in the NBA Draft. Still, with what he does have already with his size and game, he doesn’t know how it isn’t eventually a good pick to some extent with that floor.

“If you can get the hands right, to where he just literally catches lobs above his face? There’s – it’s hard to see this failing, to me,” Vecenie said.