2020 NBA Draft Prospect Spotlight: Theo Maledon

Jackson Law / NBA / August 25, 2020

Theo Maledon is another interesting prospect coming from overseas. The French guard is an efficient scorer but perhaps doesn’t score as much as teams would like. He’s not bad by any means, but he just doesn’t jump right off the page. What is Maledon’s ceiling and what are some possible landing spots in the 2020 NBA Draft? Let’s find out.

Strengths: Shooting, Efficiency

Maledon entered professional basketball at just 16. He’s had a lot of experience against some of France’s best ballers, so Maledon immediately comes in with tons of experience. Take the experience and add an increase in workload, and you can see Maledon is both getting better and doing it efficiently. I sometimes feel efficiency can be overlooked when a player has tons of talent. But in the later parts of the draft, efficiency can be someones ticket onto and NBA roster.

Maledon can also shoot the ball decently. He’s shooting around the 37% mark from 3, which isn’t terrible. Maledon played on a team with numerous amounts of guards, so teams should have no problem sliding him over off the ball if they need to.

https://twitter.com/SKPearlman/status/1161423296371593217

It’s a Theo Maledon morning 🔥 pic.twitter.com/Amvd93blN9
— Simon Rath (@HawksDraftNerd) May 19, 2020

https://twitter.com/LosCrossovers/status/1064160817292042240

Weaknesses: Playmaking, Volume

For a guard, Maledon’s playmaking skills are a little lackluster. Maledon averaged 3 assists per game this past season but also averaged 2 turnovers per game. I’m not saying he has to play perfect every game, but he needs to increase those assist numbers to clean up the stat sheet. His defense seems good but could be better. When I say volume is a weakness, I mean that Maledon needs to take more shots. Yes, his efficiency is good, but he needs to take more than 6 shots a game. If he can double his shots and stay relatively the same in efficiency, then he will be an amazing pickup.

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Theo Maledon is not a bad player, but I do not have him as high as others do. I don’t think Maledon is a lottery pick, but could easily go in the early-mid 20s. He may never be anything more than a role player or bench guy, but if he can stay efficient and be that “guy” off the bench, then maybe that’s not so bad.