He Can’t Shoot. Can’t Even Score. And The Spurs STILL Drafted Him
Maliq Brown doesn’t look like an NBA player when you look at the box score.
He averaged just 4.9 points per game, shot 16.7% from three, and never developed into much of an offensive creator.
Yet after becoming one of the best defenders in college basketball, the San Antonio Spurs selected him with the 44th pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.
And even his defense doesn’t make complete sense.
Despite standing 6’9″ and becoming one of the most impactful defenders in the country, Brown averaged just 0.6 blocks per game.
So what exactly makes Maliq Brown such a special defender?
In this video, we break down the film behind Brown’s defensive impact, including his positioning, anticipation, ball-screen defense, physicality, steals, deflections, and ability to impact possessions before a shot is ever taken.
Maliq Brown has been one of my favorite players to watch at Duke since Scheyer has taken over. I love the little things he does, and when he does step up in the big moments it counts for so much.
Love prospect vids, love the work as always, theirs this one dude, Hamad Moussa, trying to become the first Qatari NBA player, he honestly seems like the next Yaxel / Knect I think he’s seriously worth looking into! The dude is 6 “9” avg 38% from 3 on about 7 attempts per game for Cal Poly and I don’t even see him on top 100 boards!! Id invest a lot of stock into him
Not Kawhi level but can see him knocking down 3’s and a small mid range game that can be used. That is like 3 or 4 years down the road though so a good project for a team that is gonna be winning for a good while. Spurs are starting to think about the future
Spurs got the staff to develop this guy.
First of all, great breakdown.
This kid’s defense is sick. He reminds me a lot of Ben Simmons with the way he just eats up guards. Rare for a guy his size to move that well. Super unorthodox how he doesn’t move his feet until he needs to. Makes him look like the Terminator. Feel like that’s part of why he’s not as much of a vertical shot blocker but his playstyle should work nicely next to Wemby.
Coaches must loved him
Not worried, Spurs will develop this guy. Great pick!
Good. Likely a defensive specialist at the PF position.
he’s not a 3 and D player he’s a
B and D player bricks and defence
hopefully he can get that 16% up over 30%
he honestly would of fit perfectly with the nuggets, but as a spurs fan i do want to see when ball handlers try to attack him since thats a bit of a unknown