Why This 7-Foot Prospect Is The DREAM Draft Pick For The Raptors

Why This 7-Foot Prospect Is The DREAM Draft Pick For The Raptors

common Malawash is the player most commonly mocked at the Raptors at the 2025 draft he is the player that appears most often in the comment section of my videos with Raptors fans wanting to draft him and it is extremely clear that he is a perfect fit for this Raptors roster but is he the right player to select at ninth overall let’s get into it this is Amateur Sports the YouTube channel that is completely dedicated to providing you with Toronto Raptors content and videos like this where we look at some of the top prospects the Raptors select at 9inth overall and learn everything about them if you enjoy this one along the way then make sure you hit that like button and subscribe to the channel for more content just like it what we’re going to do in today’s video we’re going to learn exactly who common Malawash is we’re going to go over what he did in his season with Duke we’re to go over his strengths his weaknesses finish off with a player comparable before deciding if he is the right selection for the Raptors at ninth overall and it’s very clear out the gate that Common Malawash like I said is a perfect fit for this Raptors roster but we know that the draft isn’t just about fit so along the way we’re going to learn if he has the right capabilities for that selection to be warranted ninth overall because the Raptors right now the roster there aren’t a lot of clear gaps in the team i mean at point guard there’s Emanuel Quickley there is Jamal Shed at the shooting guard position my god there’s there’s a catalog of players there rj Barrett will likely start in the quote unquote shooting guard position given the current roster state but you have Grady Dick Jacobe Walter OJ Abaji who technically is a shooting guard but if you want to lump him into the forwards I mean that’s an area of the team that might be even more crowded with players fighting to get in positions beyond Scotty Barnes and Brandon Ingram where there is that opening to be had is certainly in the center position the Raptors have Jakob Purle who was a fantastic starting center but beyond that it depends if you consider Jonathan Mo to be a center i would probably prefer not to classify him as such but kind of needs must with his current team and there’s also Colin Castleton who probably will struggle to make the roster this upcoming season there is a very very clear need for a backup center and a very very clear need for a backup center who can protect the rim and as we’re going to learn in this video common Malawatch can do just that has fantastic size to go with it 7 foot2 and measured at a 7 foot7 wingspan at the combine clearly a level of size that is intriguing and clearly a level of upside that is extremely intriguing for a player who won’t even be 19 years old when his name is called on draft night we’ll just have to wait and find out if it is the Raptors that are calling his name but there’s a lot of reason to suggest it could be the Raptors that are the ones going after him and a lot of those reasons appear a little bit beyond just the statistics and the box score the box score is semi-impressive here overall like this was an incredibly talented Duke team that was led by Cooper Flag but Common Malawatch found his role 8.6 points per game 6.3 rebounds which might be a little bit lower than you think it would be for somebody of his size which I’ll explain a little bit more in just a second and the same can be said about his blocks at 1.3 per game which I’ll explain a little bit more in just a second but his field goal percentage at 71.2 is fantastic i mean he’s right there at the rim a lot so you would expect the numbers to be in this range and they are which is good and I think what’s very promising for the player is the fact that his free throw percentage is 76.6 sometimes the concern with a big of this nature who is more paint oriented is that they can’t shoot free throws maybe they can’t hang on the court in the late stages of a game con Malaw kind of puts that to bed with the free throw percentage which does indicate as well that the shooting form exists to maybe space his game out a little bit more overall true shooting percentage difficult to really say for a guy who’s not taking threes or a lot of threes I guess but 73.6% overall true percentage is something you can absolutely be confident to work with but like I said the impact does go beyond just the box score the strength obviously the biggest one it’s that size and it’s the length i mean like I hate to put it as simply as this but no you cannot teach 7 foot2 7 foot7 wingspan that is something that immediately alongside the athleticism he has for his size like he’s not super athletic his combine results in fact were a little bit worse in the athletic categories than maybe people thought it would be including myself but decent athleticism for his size which just raises his floor quite a bit like there is a lot that he’s able to produce just by having the athleticism for being 7 foot2 with a 7 foot7 wingspan but he is a very good defender excellent in rim protection and is very clearly showing signs of being able to anchor a defense again that just goes what I’m saying about the fact that there’s going to be a pretty high floor on the defensive end of the court now offensively that might be where some more things need to be worked on but his shot conversion as we saw was very impressive with the percentages that we saw big- time lob threat with a big time catch radius now Raptors may not have the best players to completely maximize that sort of lob threat but I can’t really recall a player who has fit into that mold the Raptors had for a while so absolutely can be brought into the system and coached into the system we saw with the few free throw percentages there’s some shooting potential there now it’s going to take a lot of work to get there but there’s at least the flash is there to say that even if he can stretch his game out to the mid-range just get himself out of the paint a little bit more that’s going to help his game and that is going to help the team overall hard worker who has improved astronomically over the last two years and even in just the last year clearly there is talent here and if you can harness it it is absolutely monstrous upside that he can give you and I said with a pretty good floor but there still are weaknesses that you do have to worry about starting off with the self-creation yes he’s a big- time lob threat but doesn’t really have a polished game in the post can he create himself a shot in the low post posting up opposition defenders doesn’t really seem like that’s there right now definitely more raw on the offensive side of the floor and there’s some work that needs to be done there not the most sound ball handler though you may not be asking him to handle the ball very much for your team and defensively good defensive anchor but when asked to defend pick and rolls when asked to maybe go up on the perimeter his foot speed can be a little bit lacking again we saw the athletic stats from the combine again weren’t the best weren’t what some people were expecting them to be so there could be some issues there and stamina wise it was tough for him to really stay on the floor for extremely long periods of time in college now the good thing is he’s coming into the Raptors if he does get drafted by the Raptors as the backup center so it’s not as big of a deal and it’s something you can work on over the few years you would want to shape him as a backup center before conversations are had about him starting because this is not a player that I think is really going to be going anywhere realistically where he’s going to be starting center out the gate that’s completely fine for him to fit in that backup role for the Raptors we saw that the rebounding numbers and the block numbers were a little bit lower than expected but the way it’s been framed here is that he spent a good amount of time defending outside of the paint as good as he is defending the paint he spent a good amount of time defending outside of the paint so he wasn’t always right in those positions to get those rebounds first of all it could be higher it does leave a little bit to be desired but that is something that has been said about Malawash where wasn’t always occupying that paint position to get those rebounds and in terms of block rate like if you look at some of his older footage like you know you look at the some of his footage with South Sudan for example he was jumping trying to block everything and it made him a little bit foul heavy which was a bit of a problem but he’s got such length and such size like his standing reach is almost that of Victor Webbyama and it’s even a little bit taller than what Rudy Goar’s standing reach is so he really does a fantastic job of altering shots even when he’s not getting those block statistics and if it can be refined a little more those block numbers will elevate but in the end Duke played it a little bit safer he spent more of his time at the rim on his feet not jumping for things to stay out of foul trouble and he was still able to alter shots which isn’t quite showcased with the block numbers per game overall trying to figure out what the best player comparable is here i don’t like want I don’t think you should put too much stock into these player comparables i try to make myself come up with one for a little bit of fun for the videos but the player comparable that I see here is Mitchell Robinson and you know say what you want about the player a player like Mitchell Robinson he was massive for the New York Knicks even in the most recent rendition of the NBA playoffs like really changed how far they could potentially go in the playoffs by starting to play him a little bit more often the key here is that okay Malawash brings that fantastic rim protection he brings that defensive anchor presence that was brought for example by Mitchell Robinson a tidy finisher on the inside who may not be the best at creating their own shot but one of the keys here is that Mitchell Robinson shoots like well under 50% from the line con Malawash as we saw in college shooting above 75% and opportunities to get that number even higher so a lot of impact could be had in the NBA and I think that what will take Khan Malawash to the next level because some people right now might be watching thinking ninth overall pick and like you’re comparing him to Mitch Robinson again don’t read too much into these comparisons just hopefully a general idea of what sort of player you can expect but what is going to bring Malawash to the next level as an NBA player is going to be a little bit of work on the foot speed and stamina to be able to compete in more switchable scenarios maybe having to guard the point guard at times in pick and roll scenarios which he did an okay job at with Duke but it can stand to improve but I think the biggest swing for his game will be if he can start to spread his game out on offense doesn’t even need to be shooting threes which he’s had attempts at doing so he’s had like I wouldn’t even go as far as to call it moderate success but for a guy you would expect to not be able to shoot at all we’ll call it moderate success but even if we can spread that game into the mid-range like if we can even get this to like 16footers where he’s knocking down twos at in those areas to a consistent degree all of a sudden now we’re getting into more Jared Allen sort of conversations we’re getting to allstar center conversation with common Malawash with the monster upside on both ends of the floor and already like a pretty sound foundation to compete on the defensive end already this seems like a perfect fit for the Raptors right now to just fill in that backup point guard position and I think the upside is absolutely worth gambling on this is a fantastic talent there’s a ton of upside he’s super young i think the Raptors have the development team to really harness his game and take him to the next level they have a perfect situation where he can play behind Yakob Hurle for the time being and for me like if he’s available at 9 I’ll make my big board closer to the date of the draft but if he’s available at 9 I struggle to see somebody else being available where I’d say we’ll actually pass on common Malawatch at this point i agree with the majority of the comments that have talked about Malawatch being the biggest prize for the Raptors the hope for me is that he’s available at 9 yes he is the most commonly mocked player to the Raptors because if anybody does a mock draft or typically if a person does a mock draft where Malawash is available at nine they are putting him with the Raptors the issue is a lot of people are considering could he go sixth overall to the Washington Wizards could he go seventh overall to the New Orleans Pelicans could he go eighth overall to the Brooklyn Nets if he does the Raptors would have to look elsewhere but again if he’s available at 9 I’d be all in on getting Con Malwatch at this point

The Toronto Raptors are reportedly eyeing a center at the 2025 NBA draft, and perhaps the perfect fit for the team with the 9th overall pick is Khaman Maluach.

Jacob Gramegna breaks down everything you need to know about this prospect to discover if it is the player that Masai Ujiri’s front office should be selecting.

✅ Shop The Merch: https://www.kijiji.ca/o-profile/1006686825/listings/1

➡️ Become a channel member to access exclusive content and perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMwXNsmiYEOqzP0whnslrFg/join

🏀 PayPal: paypal.me/jacobgramegna
🏀 Subscribe to my Live Stream Highlights Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@AmateurHourReactions
🏀 Join the Amateur Hour Discord: https://discord.gg/2NgdqRJSrg
🏀 Follow Jacob Gramegna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jacob_gramegna

0:00 – The Raptors could select Khaman Maluach with the 9th overall pick
2:44 – Season stats 2024-2025
4:01 – Strengths
6:02 – Weaknesses
8:37 – Player Comparable
10:54 – Should the Raptors take him in the 2025 draft?

This is Amateur Hour Sports. On this channel, Jacob Gramegna analyzes and breaks down the latest on the Toronto Raptors NBA team from trade rumors to post-game reactions, analysis, and much more. By subscribing to this channel you will be there first to watch and enjoy 3-4 videos a week all focused on this team and on game days Jacob goes live on the channel for a watch party where he interacts with chat, answers your questions, and analyses the game as it happens with play by play and commentary. Join the Amateur Hour Army today by subscribing and consider becoming a member to give extra support to the channel and help create better content more often.

See you again next time

#raptors #torontoraptors #NBA