On Saturday’s episode of Locked On Women’s Basketball, hosts Emily Adler, Hunter Cruse and Lincoln Shafer break down the top international prospects in the 2025 WNBA Draft.
The consensus top international prospect, and one of the top prospects in the entire draft class, is French center Dominique Malonga. The draft trio had some questions about Malonga in their initial 2025 Draft big board in October, with the biggest question focused on defense. Adler thinks Malonga has answered those.
“I think the biggest thing has been her defensive feel, the ability to shift, switch between assignments as a room protector, between different drivers, back to assignment,” Adler said. “Her positioning is excellent, especially her feel for drop, both contesting at the level and then recovering back to the roller. And she’s held up really, really well on switches. There’s a lot to like about her defense.”
Adler compared Malonga to another international big, Storm forward Ezi Magbegor, but Shafer noted that Malonga is both taller (6’6) and longer (7’1 wingspan) than Magbegor in calling Malonga a “one-of-a-kind athlete at her size.”
“You just don’t see players that move like this at 6’6 ever,” Shafer said. “She’s, like, throwing down one-hand dunks off vert in the French league — no run-up, just catch the ball and dunk it. That is rare, to say the least, The athleticism is out of this world. There are also flashes of this shot creation upside, her ability to kind of create off the bounce, to take these slower posts off the dribble from the three point line, from the mid range, and just the way that she creates is very promising.”
At just 19, the crew has seen Malonga be “the best player on the court” in the French league and believe every WNBA fan should be prepared to get to know a lot about her because she will be a top-three pick.
The draft crew broke down the profile for Malonga’s teammate in France, Juste Jocyte, as well as Slovenian forward Ajsa Sivka, and Russian forward Anastasiia Olairi Kosu — someone Cruse called the “most underrated prospect” in this year’s draft class.
“Becoming Caitlin Clark” is out now!
Howard Megdal’s newest book is here! “Becoming Caitlin Clark: The Unknown Origin Story of a Modern Basketball Superstar” captures both the historic nature of Clark’s rise and the critical context over the previous century that helped make it possible, including interviews with Clark, Lisa Bluder (who also wrote the foreword), C. Vivian Stringer, Jan Jensen, Molly Kazmer and many others.
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