What if I told you that, two years after Victor Wembanyama's arrival in the NBA, there’s another French phenom with ridiculous upside who is poised to change basketball? Dominique Malonga is a 19-year-old, 6-foot-6 center from France with game-breaking potential. Her ability to alter time and space on either end with her length, explosiveness, and budding star power makes her one of the most tantalizing draft prospects in recent memory— even more so when you consider how the WNBA game is evolving.
In recent seasons, the league has undergone a shift similar to the NBA, where the 3-point boom has injected the game with more shooting, space, and tempo. Double-big lineups are harder to keep on the court, and guards have increasingly come to define the style of play. In turn, the center position, with all of its rules and requirements, has also shifted, perhaps more than any other archetype in the game.
Today’s centers have to be efficient and make decisions with the ball in their hands. They have to be able to guard their position and thrive defending in multiple pick-and-roll coverages. They have to be a deterrent at the rim. They need to be highly versatile and/or force opponents to change lineups and philosophies because they’re on the floor.
In short, they need to look more like Malonga. The multitalented French center is projected to be a top-four pick in April’s WNBA draft. Like Anthony Davis and Jaren Jackson Jr. in the NBA, Malonga enters the league with a rare combination of athleticism, skill, and, of course, potential. In terms of upside, Malonga could become not only the best player in this year's draft class but also one of the best in the world, full stop. Here's an in-depth breakdown of what makes her so special and how her still-developing game might translate to the next level.
The Most Fluid Big We’ve Ever Seen?
Every hyped prospect has a legendary moment that propels them from relative obscurity into the ether of the hoops world. Malonga’s was a 2022 viral video of her dunking in a practice gym, when she was just 16 years old and already a sprawling 6-foot-6. In the years since, she has continued to complement her eye-popping length and athleticism with a growing feel for the game and consistent, terrific basketball in the Ligue Féminine de Basketball, one of the best pro leagues in the world.
Malonga’s ability to throw it down, which she sometimes pulls off in games, understandably garners the most acclaim. But it’s not that she dunks that captivates me so much as how. There’s an ease and fluidity to her game that’s extremely rare. It’s one thing to be tall, it’s another to be tall and coordinated, and Malonga’s fluidity—which I’d consider her most impressive attribute—is what separates her as a prospect.
No play is seared deeper into my hippocampus than this one from an international exhibition in June 2024 between France and Finland. It seems like such a minor play, a relatively easy layup, but it popped out to me amidst a draft cycle in which possessions blur, games become data points, and everything starts to run together.
Watch this play back and really sink into it … At 6-foot-6, Malonga flips in and out of this screen with a fluidity we frankly don’t see in players her size. Look how explosive she is headed toward the basket, and how comfortable and confident she is putting the ball on the deck. Malonga plays with an air of assuredness: she doesn’t pause or hesitate.
And the icing on the cake is the back-tap on the board after the lay-in. Simple, but glorious.
Part of the reason this play stands out is because the W is going through its own offensive revolution, spurred on by the shift toward NBA pace-and-space principles. The modern women’s game is all about ball-screen-heavy offense, pressuring the rim, and adaptability. Just look at the most recent WNBA Finals matchup between New York and Minnesota, two very deep, switchy teams that thrive on skill and playmaking.
You watch Malonga switch with ease, operate well in guard-driven offenses, and flash her own budding skills, and it’s mesmerizing to envision her fit in the best league in the world as she grows into her own.
Dynamic in the Pick-and-Roll
With a new swath of guards emerging in the WNBA, pick-and-roll play and early offense is becoming even more of a staple. Offenses are spreading out consistently, off-the-dribble shooting is becoming more commonplace, and every player needs to be able to make decisions with the ball. True post play won’t just disappear, but what it means to be a post player in the W is evolving. It’s difficult to be efficient, or prop up an efficient offense, by camping out on the block. Modern bigs need to be a threat in the post and be dynamic as a screener and roller. They need to be able to face up, run a dribble handoff, and space the floor when they’re not involved in a play directly. Malonga has the potential to become the face of the next wave of post players in the W, particularly if she’s teammates with the right guard.
So many players come into the league needing to learn the nuances of pick-and-roll play, which is in part why we’ve seen such variation in how teams have (or haven’t) embraced spreading the court. Throughout her teen years, Malonga has sharpened her craft as a screener, roller, and finisher out of ball screens. Her combination of size, fluidity, and skill isn’t just rare, but singular. The closest comparison in that regard is probably former MVP Jonquel Jones, but even then, they’re quite different as players and athletes. Jones has the skill of a guard and is a good athlete in her own right, but Malonga moves like a guard. She’s remarkably explosive while also being able to flow through movements and planes of motion. She has a case as the best mover I’ve ever seen at her size.
Pick-and-roll play often gets misconstrued as simple, but any simplicity gets murky in the dregs of half-court offense. Possessions tend to be won with decisiveness and timing. Watch how quickly Malonga is able to set up this ball screen, flip it to attack the under coverage on the ball handler, and then utilize that footwork to explode into her roll. Getting to the rim in three half strides is just wild.
Since the start of the new year in particular, Malonga and her Lyon club have seen a ton of “ice” coverage, in which the defense aims to contain the ball on the sideline and deny the clean pass to the roller. This is something we saw Aliyah Boston and Caitlin Clark work through in their partnership this past W season, with Boston growing tremendously as a decision-maker on the short roll.
Watch how Malonga maneuvers against this coverage. Villeneuve, the opposing club, had iced ball screens with Malonga much of the game to contain the drive, so Malonga and her ball handler, Juste Jocyte, work a screen well outside the arc. Jocyte then looks off and rejects the screen as Malonga touches the defender. This creates a pocket of space as Jocyte engages two defenders before whipping the ball back to Malonga.
Malonga catches and faces up immediately. She takes a beat to scan the court, registers her defender’s top foot, and attacks the opposite foot with a left-handed drive and stride change to get to the rim.
It looks simple because there’s no hesitation, a growth this season as she’s seen more diverse coverages to try and prevent easy attempts off the roll. A half-second hesitation is the difference between this kind of finish and having to settle for a contested jumper or resetting the offense. But Malonga covers ground so quickly and efficiently, with and without the ball, that she can just torture a defense with the gravity she commands in roll actions.
According to Synergy Sports, Malonga is finishing 68.6 percent of her shots at the rim in EuroCup play. Out of the 116 players in the WNBA that took 25 or more layups last season, only Brittney Griner, Jonquel Jones, and Joyner Holmes shot higher than that mark at the rim.
The W is a far different league than EuroCup or EuroLeague, but Malonga’s hyper-efficient finishing ability stands out. It also makes her an absolute force in transition, where her rim runs lead to early mismatches and quick seals—if not easy buckets when she outruns opposing centers.
Defense
It’s worth noting that the French system is predicated on spacing, shooting, and playing quickly. Few national teams/federations have the kind of guard play the French do, which is a big reason why they challenged for gold this past summer when they hosted the Olympics. The French approach is a system through and through, and it trickles down from the senior team to U15, with every team running similar principles on both sides of the court.
As a result, Malonga has played in guard-oriented systems her entire career. She is already ahead of the curve for a role that will be incredibly important for her W career. That opens doors for further developmental pathways, which is especially important in a league that requires immediate impact to stick.
So much of what makes Malonga enticing on offense seeps through on defense. She’s a phenomenal mover, period, and she is absolutely special at her size and with her length.
Malonga is nimble, capable of switching onto perimeter players in a pinch and stifling ball handlers with hedges and shows. There are these brilliant flashes of dominance, where Malonga just evaporates space with her otherworldly blend of length and quickness, shocking shooters who thought they were cleanly open. Similarly, when she switches onto perimeter players, her quickness and size just outright stun ball handlers when Malonga jumps out to meet them.
Malonga needs to be more consistent on the defensive end, but she has the potential to become one of the most impactful defenders on the planet on a per-possession basis. That will depend on her continued dissection of angles, opponent tendencies, and stringing multiple actions together.
For as much as the French system has prepared Malonga to play an agile, rangy, and versatile defensive style, there are also certain aspects of defense in the W that will be new to her. Perhaps the largest area for growth will be her ability to deter at the rim and impose her will as a rim protector. She already blocks shots at a high level, using her length and reactivity, but she’s not accustomed to anchoring a defense yet, as she hasn’t necessarily been asked to do so from the schemes she’s been part of. You can see this in her defensive rebounding and general timing around the rim; she is often slightly off in angles or a split-second late to cut off a drive or box out. Like on offense, shaving off those tenths of a second is the difference between good and great.
WNBA teams deploy hedging and aggressive coverages as a whole, but given where the game is trending, my bet is we’ll see less of that in the coming years and a greater emphasis on positional length, defensive playmaking, and awareness.
This is where Malonga’s age becomes even more of a factor. We’ve seen players come into professional basketball with similar defensive profiles to Malonga: not quite dominant, but with the tools and chops to become that. But at just 19, Malonga is two years younger than most players who come into the W out of college. A great analog for Malonga is Seattle Storm and Aussie star Ezi Magbegor, a mobile and versatile big who came into the league capable of blocking shots but has developed into a perennial DPOY candidate as she’s rounded out the nuances of half-court defense. It takes time to excel at the highest level of basketball and to learn and apply the ins and outs of a craft.
Additionally, adding strength and playing through physicality will be a significant point of emphasis. We saw that stick out sorely in EuroCup play against a veteran Galatasaray team. It’s not difficult for smaller players or stronger players to knock her off position in the post on either side of the ball. Her face-up game and handle have made massive strides, but bump-offs can affect her ability to finish quite a bit. Still, she’s just 19! Having trouble with some aspects of physicality is to be expected at that age.
Shooting and Face-Up Potential
I really like the mechanics and motion of Malonga's shooting form, and it's been great to see her get up more 3s this season (nearly two per game). At present, she's a better shooter from outside the arc than from midrange, and mainly from the trail spot above the break. She often shows off this one-footed turnaround, which isn't effective at the moment, but could become a very effective counter in time given how high her release is. Watching a budding shotmaker toy with the depth of their bag and ability to create is exciting stuff, particularly at this size.
There’s an assumption that the corner 3 is the easiest deep-ball location for every player on court, but that’s not always the case. Since Malonga’s shot has a slower release, she sometimes gets blocked when shooting from the corner or in the midrange, where defenders have less ground to cover on closeouts. She needs time to get comfortable and into her rhythm.
But again, I can’t reiterate enough, the weaknesses that are brought up with Malonga can be attributed to youth. Nearly every player has to adjust to timing on defense, timing on shot release, and physicality in a new league. It’s worth reiterating that Malonga is on a different curve than the majority of players in her draft class, some of whom are four years her elder.
Sometimes, you have to pull clips like this to remind yourself that there just aren’t players doing this. The list of players this size, with a workable handle, the fluidity to attack, and the aggression and confidence to do it regularly is but a handful of names.
Are there fair questions about how much time she’ll spend in the W or when she’ll come over? Of course, and I can’t answer those. Prioritization in the WNBA and how the league works with national teams and federations to make it possible for players to participate will be notable to track in the coming years. But, with the collective bargaining agreement changing prior to the 2026 season, the expansion of the league, growth in visibility, and more money starting to funnel in, this is as good of a time as any for front offices to fully invest in the international game.
A new wave of star guards has altered the game, something we saw Caitlin Clark contribute to last season in a stellar rookie year. Paige Bueckers and Olivia Miles have the potential to keep tipping that table as well.
That turning tide of style has also shifted the course for frontcourt players, and the versatility, athleticism, and skill of the next wave of bigs in the WNBA will be transformative.
Malonga is a great prospect by any measure of the word, but if an organization truly approaches her from the perspective of long-term development and growth as a franchise, she could truly be special, and play a part in altering the game itself.
