
Does French teen phenom Dominique Malonga have the biggest upside in the WNBA Draft?
The 2025 WNBA Draft is here, and UConn's Paige Bueckers — fresh off a national championship — is widely projected to go No.1 overall to the Dallas Wings.
But another name to keep an eye on will be 19-year-old French power forward Dominique Malonga, who already has four seasons of professional basketball and an Olympic silver medal under her belt.
Advertisement
On the latest episode of 'No Offseason,' Zena Keita, Ben Pickman and Sabreena Merchant discussed why Malonga might have the highest upside of any player in the draft.
A partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available on the 'No Offseason' feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Keita: I want to know more about Dominique Malonga. One of the things he talked about at length, with the pun intended, is that as tall and long as Dominique is, the fluidity of her movement is surprising. She moves like a guard at 6-foot-6. It's crazy how she comes off pick-and-rolls and drives to the basket. Everything about her game is very smooth, and she's so young, so there's still so much more to develop. Ben, you're our international player expert. Give us some insight as to why Dominique Malonga is so special.
Pickman: A few years ago, when I first met Sabreena, it was like, 'Hi, I'm Ben, have you heard about Dominique Malonga (laughs)?' That might have been our first conversation to a T. I remember a couple of years back when executives started telling me about her, and what kind of prospect she could be. People were like, 'Hey, have you heard about this player? If not, go and watch some of these videos and all this tape on her.' That was when she was put on my radar. It's been fascinating to watch her explode from there and suddenly make the French Olympic team, and she's having a really good season in France right now with Lyon in Eurocup play. She's almost certainly going to be the No.2 or No. 3 pick in this WNBA Draft. Some people even think she could be the best prospect in this draft when we look back in five to 10 years, she has that kind of talent. Because physically, there are not a lot of players in the WNBA who have the raw athletic tools that she possesses. When we think about the NBA Draft, for example, you see that a lot of these high-upside athletes get chosen early. But traditionally in the WNBA, you either don't have that kind of prospect, or teams don't settle on them early.
Advertisement
But Dominique is definitely an exception, because we've seen just how skilled and impactful she already is at 19 years old playing professional basketball. Our colleague Mike Vorkunov, and this is a little bit of a tease here for Monday, spent some time earlier this year in Paris doing some work on the WNBA and NBA during the Paris Games. And during that time, he sat down with Dominique and learned more about her story. I would recommend people who are curious to learn more about her as a person and her interests to come back to the site on Monday morning to read a bit more about her journey. But also, to learn who she is as a person, her work ethic, and how she feels about being compared to Victor Wembanyama, obviously another French star for the San Antonio Spurs. She's been a prospect on people's radars for a while, and she could be the best player in this draft when it's all said and done. It's just again; she's 19 years old, so people have not heard about her. But she's had a lot of success in Europe already for someone so young. It's why so many people are so excited about her prospects and have been for three or four years now.
Keita: I just love that France is showing up and showing out. I didn't quite get the same water that Victor Wembanyama and Dominique Malonga did when I was growing up, but clearly France has just elevated all of their basketball prospects, particularly on the men's side. But now we're starting to see this with Carla Leite, Janelle Salaun and now Dominique Malonga on the women's side. Everyone keeps saying, 'She's amazing, she's a great prospect.' But Sabreena, I want to know in a forward dominant league — you think of players like A'ja Wilson, Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, who are all killing the game and leading their teams — what can Dominique bring to a WNBA roster?
Merchant: I think all of that. She has the skill set to do everything that those great power forwards are already doing, or great centres, depending on how you want to classify A'ja Wilson. She's capable of running an offense, running a pick-and-roll and coming off the pick-and-roll. She can do a little bit of the guard stuff and a little bit of the big stuff, and she's already a pretty good rim protector. She is quite skinny right now. She has the Sylvia Fowles length with her height, but not the toughness and build of a strong defensive rim protector yet. But she's still just 19 years old, so it will take some time for her to grow into that body. But if she does end up in Seattle (who hold the No. 2 overall pick), it's a great landing spot for her because they've seen this growth trajectory also with Ezi Magbegor. They drafted her very young and allowed her to develop in their system, and she's another long, athletic big with many tools. Dominique is just a better version of what Ezi was when she came into the WNBA, so it would be a really good spot for her. Especially in terms of an organization that knows how to give her some space and time, but also put her in situations that are going to allow her to succeed at a really high level.
You can listen to full episodes of No Offseason for free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and watch on YouTube.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


USA Today
36 minutes ago
- USA Today
The case for the WNBA extending its season into NFL territory
The case for the WNBA extending its season into NFL territory What we're all watching this summer is technically the longest WNBA season ever. All 13 teams across the league will play 44 games over 118 days, from May 16 to September 11. When it's all said and done, this will be the most games ever played in a WNBA season. As a fan, I'm thankful on one hand. The more WNBA the better. On the other, this new schedule already seems to be posing a problem for players around the league, and the season isn't even quite a month old yet. Players expressed their concerns about the schedule in an article from Front Office Sports' Annie Costabile. The crux of it is this: The WNBA's schedule has increased the number of games played over four years, from 32 in 2021 to 44 in 2025. While the league has added more games, it hasn't added the requisite amount of time in between these games for proper rest and recovery for its players. That packed schedule has resulted in stints where players are playing four games in six nights or, like in the Phoenix Mercury's case, nine games in 18 days. That's grueling and, really, unnecessary. That packed schedule is only going to get worse. The WNBA is adding two more teams next season, in the Toronto Tempo and the Portland expansion team. We're probably looking at another few games added to the schedule with those two teams coming. If that happens, an expansion on the season is desperately needed. The only argument against the expansion is that the WNBA will be encroaching deep into NFL territory, which is something essentially every league is afraid of these days. The NFL is a ratings monster. Go up against a football game — especially during primetime — and your audience is probably going to get cannibalized. It could also run up against the NBA, which could be a source of internal strife among the two organizations. MLB will also be playing the World Series around this time. However, I'd argue that these are not things the WNBA should be concerned with at this point. As far as TV ratings go, the WNBA should be confident enough at this point to believe it can hold its own against any other league it might run up against. And, yes, that includes the NFL. The W's most popular players are drawing nearly 3 million viewers to regular-season games at this point. You could argue that's a bit anomalous because it's Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese and people will watch every time they play. But when games are being played that late in the season in September and October, we're either talking about late regular-season matchups that have significance for playoff seeding or we're talking about playoffs outright. People will be drawn to these games. But, honestly, the ratings conversation doesn't even really matter here. We've said it once before and we'll say it again: The WNBA has already signed the biggest TV deal in the league's history. That deal is locked in for the next decade. Ratings no longer matter in conversations about this league. They won't until it's time to lock in the next deal, and once we arrive there, the league will likely be light years ahead of where it is today. In the end, ratings shouldn't take precedence over player health. We're only a few weeks into the season and we've already seen so many players suffer from soft tissue injuries that you can't help but feel like they could've been avoided if not for so much wear and tear on the talent. If extending the WNBA's calendar out another month or so can alleviate some of that, then so be it. The league should do it, no matter what the NFL, NBA, or anyone else thinks. Bennedict Mathurin becomes Michael Jordan The Indiana Pacers are two wins away from winning an NBA championship and pulling off one of the biggest upsets in the league's history and it's all thanks to Bennedict Mathurin, who was the hero of Game 3 for Indy. The dude scored 27 points in 22 minutes, which is bonkers. But it gets even more bonkers when you see the conversation he just entered. Mathurin is only 22 years old. Here's the list of dudes who've scored at least 25 points in the NBA Finals at 22 or younger: There are a bunch of Hall of Famers on that list and then there's Mathurin, who is still charting his course. I have no idea where things go from here for the Pacers' forward, but that's a pretty good list to be on. Byron Buxton to the moon I don't even know what to say about Byron Buxton's 479-foot homer against the Rangers. The Twins' broadcast team didn't, either. All they could do was laugh. Here's Cory Woodroof on the moonshot: "It's one of the longest home runs of the 2025 MLB season, and it's one that left the Twins television broadcast in stitches over just how dominant it really was. I mean, he sent that baseball into another time zone. You don't often see an MLB player hammer a homer like this, but Buxton slammed this baseball in stride. You know you've done well when all your team's broadcast team can do is laugh at how great of a home run it was." Look at this thing. It truly is comical. Insane. Quick hits: A new consensus mock ... The Knicks get rejected again ... and more — Here's Bryan Kalbrosky with a new consensus NBA mock draft for you. Can't believe it's almost draft season. — The Knicks really need to go find a head coach who doesn't already have a team, man. Charles Curtis has more on their latest rejections. — Our Meg Hall had a nice chat with Sha'Carri Richardson! Y'all know you need to click this one. — A dentist is playing in the US Open. No, seriously. Charles Curtis has five facts you need to know about him. — Charles Barkley roasted the Knicks' coaching search. Absolutely love this. — Here's Robert Zeglinski on Kyle Shanahan being annoyed with how fans overreact to NFL practices. This is brilliant. That's a wrap, folks. Thanks for reading. Peace. -Sykes ✌️ This is For The Win's daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here.


San Francisco Chronicle
39 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
The Paris Games flame rises again — but it's no longer ‘Olympic'
PARIS (AP) — The Paris Games may be over, but the flame is still rising — just don't call it Olympic. The helium-powered hot-air balloon that lit up the French capital's skyline during the 2024 Games is making a dramatic comeback to the Tuileries Gardens, reborn as the 'Paris Cauldron.' Thanks to an agreement with the International Olympic Committee, the renamed marvel will now lift off into the sky each summer evening — a ghostly echo of last year's opening ceremony — from June 21 to Sept. 14, for the next three years. Gone is the official 'Olympic' branding — forbidden under IOC reuse rules — but not the spectacle. The 30-meter-tall (98-foot) floating ring, dreamed up by French designer Mathieu Lehanneur and powered by French energy giant EDF, simulates flame without fire: LED lights, mist jets, and high-pressure fans create a luminous halo that hovers above the city at dusk, visible from rooftops across the capital. 'It's one of those monuments in Paris that could stay,' said Laurent Broéze, a local architect pausing in the gardens Thursday. 'It was set up temporarily, but a bit like the Eiffel Tower, it makes sense for it to return. It's a bit of a shame they want to take it down later, but maybe it could be installed somewhere else, I don't know.' Though it stole the show in 2024, the cauldron's original aluminum-and-balloon build was only meant to be temporary — not engineered for multi-year outdoor exposure. To transform it into a summer staple, engineers reinforced it: The aluminum ring and tether points were rebuilt with tougher components to handle rain, sun, and temperature changes over several seasons. Aérophile, Paris's tethered balloon specialist, redesigned the winch and tether system to meet aviation rules, allowing safe operation in winds up to 20–25 kmh (12-15 mph). Hydraulic, electrical, and misting systems were fortified — not only to ensure smooth nightly flights but to endure months of wear and tear untested on the original design. These retrofits shift the cauldron from a fragile, one-off spectacle to a resilient, summer-long landmark — prepared to withstand everything Paris summers can throw at it. The structure first dazzled during the Paris 2024 Games, ignited on July 26 by Olympic champions Marie-José Pérec and Teddy Riner. Over just 40 days, it drew more than 200,000 visitors, according to officials. Now perched in the center of the drained Tuileries pond, the cauldron's return is part of President Emmanuel Macron's effort to preserve the Games' spirit in the city, as Paris looks ahead to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. Visitors have already begun to gather. 'Beautiful,' said Javier Smith, a tourist from Texas. 'And the place where it's going to be, or is sitting now, it's beautiful. All these beautiful buildings, the Louvre, all that is fantastic.' Access is free and unticketed. The cauldron will be on display from morning to night, igniting with light from 10 a.m. and lifting off each evening after the garden closes — 10:30 pm in June and July, with earlier times through September. It will float above the city for several hours before quietly descending around 1 a.m. The 'flame,' while entirely electric, still conjures a sense of Olympic poetry. 'Yes, we came for a little outing focused on the statues related to mythology in the Tuileries Garden,' said Chloé Solana, a teacher visiting with her students. 'But it's true we're also taking advantage of the opportunity, because last week the Olympic cauldron wasn't here yet, so it was really nice to be able to show it to the students.' The cauldron's ascent may become a new rhythm of the Parisian summer, with special flights planned for Bastille Day on July 14 and the one-year anniversary of the 2024 opening ceremony on July 26. It no longer carries the Olympic name. But this phoenix-like cauldron is still lifting Paris into the clouds — and into memory. ___ Nicolas Garriga in Paris contributed to this report


Washington Post
42 minutes ago
- Washington Post
The Paris Games flame rises again — but it's no longer ‘Olympic'
PARIS — The Paris Games may be over, but the flame is still rising — just don't call it Olympic. The helium-powered hot-air balloon that lit up the French capital's skyline during the 2024 Games is making a dramatic comeback to the Tuileries Gardens, reborn as the 'Paris Cauldron.'