2025 NBA Draft: Top 5 Centers ft. Khaman Maluach and Alex Condon

For the next edition of our 2025 NBA Draft position rankings, we’ll tackle the class's centers. We’re grouping prospects by the possible role they could fill at the NBA level, and we began the series with the class's forwards.

Centers carry incredible value in the modern NBA, as the league upsizes and becomes more skilled at each position. Centers can thrive creating and scoring for a team’s offense (Wemby, KAT, Evan Mobley) but often anchor the team’s defense.

In our mock draft simulator, we’ll differentiate “centers” from “bigs.” Centers must be tall, near seven feet, or with incredible length/standing reach otherwise, and often can’t function on the perimeter (though there are obvious exceptions like the players we mentioned previously).

The “bigs” ranking will come soon, and it will feature many of the higher-profile frontcourt prospects in the draft. There aren’t many true fives in the class worth investing in given the scarcity and importance of the position. Some non-star NBA examples of centers include Brook Lopez, Walker Kessler and Kel’el Ware — tall, interior defenders with some physical or skill limitations stretching out to the perimeter.

Let’s rank and discuss our top five centers in the 2025 class, including a few honorable mentions at the end.

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2025 NBA Draft: Top 5 Centers

NCAA Basketball: Stanford at Duke - Source: Imagn

1. Khaman Maluach, Duke

For some reason, Maluach isn’t considered a lock as a top prospect in the 2025 class. Most mock drafts have him falling out of the top five, which would lead to some team finding an astronomical steal. True, center-sized players with Mauach’s tools, skillset, and production often develop into defensive anchors, who are some of the most valuable players in basketball.

There aren’t many 7-foot-2 18-year-olds as nimble as Maluach, capable of defending at the level of the screen and moving in space. He’s a productive shot blocker (6.0% block rate) as expected, but Maluach’s mobility provides him sky sky-high defensive upside. Modern elite centers must defend outside of the paint and Maluach has the tools to do that, even if he’s not a fully switchable big.

Maluach’s lack of perimeter offensive skills doesn’t match the likes of Evan Mobley, Chet Holmgren, or even Alex Sarr, but he’s bigger than all of those players. His special finishing talent (80.6% at the rim) makes him an ideal rim running big who should produce huge efficiency next to elite offensive talents. He’s the kind of player who could develop into a franchise cornerstone and that kind of prospect shouldn’t fall outside of the top five in any draft.

2. Thomas Sorber, Georgetown

After Maluach, there aren’t any elite true center prospects in this class. Sorber is the clear second, though, and the only other one worthy of a lottery selection at this point. Like Maluach, he’s produced at a high level as a freshman and thrives as a paint defender. Unlike Maluach, Sorber stands at 6-foot-10, casting some doubt on his center projection. It’s hard to thrive as a shorter big even with great athletic and physical tools. He’ll compensate with great length and standing reach but Sorber’s size shows up when defending taller bigs.

He’s an excellent college defender regardless of his height, winning with his incredible feel, explosive vertical pop, and solid movement skills. Sorber easily fits into a multitude of defensive schemes and roles, working as a versatile pick-and-roll defender, drop-big defender, or occasional help defender.

Sorber isn’t an outside shooting threat (16.7%, 6 of 37 on 3-pointers) but his dribbling and playmaking skill help compensate for his height. Modern centers often operate on the perimeter as offensive hubs and Sorber’s ability to dribble and pass should allow him to excel here. Sorber might not feature the star ceiling of a player like Maluach, but his bevy of impressive skills and tools should coalesce into a solid NBA big.

3. Alex Condon, Florida

NCAA Basketball: Florida at Auburn - Source: Imagn

Condon broke out for Florida this season, developing into one of the country’s most productive and impactful bigs. The 6-foot-11 sophomore Aussie will function in the perimeter hub role as well as any center prospect in the class. He’s comfortable dribbling through traffic on the perimeter to set up his drives and passes out to cutters and shooters. Tall, skilled bigs who process the floor like Condon (2.2 assist-to-turnover ratio) often become valuable offensive players.

Scoring will be Condon’s main improvement point and will keep him out of top-20 conversations. He’s a physical, aggressive player on the interior but lacks the touch to stretch the floor or create his shots inside the arc. In the NBA, he’ll function primarily as a play finisher, as he does at Florida, if he ends up succeeding and finding a role.

He’ll need to add strength to thrive on defense, but Condon’s mobility and feel for the game help him win on that end as well. Condon’s ability to defend in space, diagnose and shut down offensive actions and maintain physicality all should lend to positive NBA defensive value at the five assuming he can bulk up.

4. Rocco Zikarsky, Brisbane

Zikarsky couldn’t follow an incredibly promising 17-year-old NBL season this year. He’s only playing five more minutes than he did last season and is scoring less efficiently and blocking fewer shots than he did a year before. It can be challenging to translate production in a small minute share to a higher minute role and that’s been the case for Zikarsky to this point.

Still, Zikarsky’s tools and skillset are worth investing in. He towers over opponents at 7-foot-3 and has enough footspeed and dexterity to develop into a fearsome rim protector at the NBA level. He’s only 18 years old playing in a solid pro league and his lack of strength and anchoring power severely limit his defensive impact at the current moment.

Gigantic bigs like Zikarsky who defend the rim as he does with enough mobility to survive on the outside often return quite a bit of value. He’s a solid play finisher who’s flashed basic dribbling skill and post creation and will be worth a late first/early second-round pick for teams needing big man help.

5. Johni Broome, Auburn

Similarly to Zach Edey last season, scouts will debate Broome’s ability to translate his dominant college impact to the NBA level. Broome, unlike Edey, isn’t a gargantuan human being, measuring at 6-foot-9 at last spring’s NBA combine. He’s an unstoppable interior force at this level, though, defending the rim and scoring at the basket over every defender.

Broome isn’t a volume floor spacer but compensates for that with impressive mid-range scoring, dribbling and passing feel for his size. But even at the college level, taller players will occasionally limit his scoring at the rim and interior defense. Broome’s stock will fall all over the place for different teams and scouts who weigh production, age and physical tools differently.

Honorable Mentions: Bogoljub Markovic, Maxime Raynaud, Tomislav Ivisic