Khaman Maluach’s rise is already paying dividends for Duke in the 2027 class.
What Maluach did in Durham, then on to the NBA, is giving Jon Scheyer’s program a real edge with five-star center Lewis Uvwo, who picked up a Duke offer at the start of the month. Uvwo put the connection plainly:
“I heard he made it to the NBA and I was like, ‘Oh, if you go to Duke, you make it to the NBA.’”
That line says plenty about how Maluach’s path is resonating. He came through NBA Academy Africa, spent one season with the Blue Devils, went No. 10 overall to the Phoenix Suns, and now looks poised for a major second-year leap after a rookie season that had its ups and downs. His growth this summer in Las Vegas has only added to the buzz.
For Duke, the bigger picture is obvious: Maluach’s success may reach well beyond his own time in Durham.
Uvwo and Maluach share that NBA Academy Africa background, and that common thread has clearly made an impression. Conor O’Neill’s profile of Uvwo, which is worth a read for On3 subscribers, details how Maluach’s route from the academy to Duke to the NBA opened Uvwo’s eyes.
The fit on the court is easy to see, too. Uvwo is still developing offensively, but his defensive value jumps off the page. The Prolific Prep star is regarded as the best shot blocker in high school basketball right now, and his athleticism makes him a live lob threat as well.
He sits inside the Top 10 of the composite rankings and is the No. 1 center in the 2027 class, exactly the kind of five Duke has long targeted. It’s not hard to picture what that could look like in 2027-28, with Uvwo anchoring the middle alongside a sophomore Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje.
Still, Duke is not alone here, and this recruitment is nowhere near finished. Uvwo’s offer sheet includes Alabama, Arkansas, BYU, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville, Miami, Michigan, Texas and UCLA, among many others.
The next big move for Scheyer is getting Uvwo on campus for an official visit this fall. If that happens, Duke figures to be a very hard team to beat. Durham visits have a way of making an impression, and with Maluach already helping sell the program’s NBA pipeline, the Blue Devils have a strong case working in their favor.
In Other News...
UCLA Fans Need To See How Much The 2027 Board Just Changed
The summer recruiting circuit has already shaken up the 2027 national board, and the latest live evaluations only made the picture clearer. Beckham Black sits at No. 1 for now, with CJ Rosser right behind him, but the biggest mover in the group is Cayden Daughtry, whose rise has turned plenty of heads after a strong EYBL season.
Daughtrys jump is the kind that changes the conversation around an entire class, especially when a prospect keeps stacking performances against elite competition. Rosser remains firmly in the mix as a high-end talent with room to climb, but the updated rankings suggest the race at the top is still very much in flux as more evaluations come in. [Read more 🡒]
Jon Scheyer May Be Rethinking Duke's 2027 Guard Plan
Jon Scheyer went into the 2027 cycle with a clear guard board, leaning on a handful of high-end targets while Duke kept building around bigger lead guards such as Beckham Black and Adan Diggs. The Blue Devils have also had their eyes on other elite names in that class, including Kager Knueppel and Lewis Uvwo, but the Peach Jam offered a reminder that recruiting plans can change quickly when a prospect forces his way into the conversation.
Cayden Daughtry did exactly that in front of a packed summer audience, and Scheyer was there to see it firsthand. The five-star guard has drawn plenty of attention with his scoring burst, and now the question for Duke is whether the staff can look past the concerns that come with his frame and decide he is worth pushing harder for as the 2027 board starts to take shape. [Read more 🡒]
This 2027 Guard May Be Too Hot For Duke To Ignore
Cayden Daughtry has been one of the louder names in the 2027 guard class after a strong run on the grassroots circuit, with his play at Nike EYBL and Nike Peach Jam putting him firmly on the radar of programs that track elite backcourt talent early. The 5-star point guard has shown the kind of scoring punch and playmaking that tends to travel, and his rise comes at a time when Duke already has a deep group of guards in the pipeline.
For the Blue Devils, that makes the question more about fit and timing than talent. Duke has not publicly shown interest in Daughtry, and there has been no report of Jon Scheyer and his staff making that move yet, but a prospect drawing this much attention rarely stays hidden for long. If the momentum keeps building, the conversation around whether Duke should get involved may start to feel less hypothetical. [Read more 🡒]