Jul 29, 2024; Villeneuve-d'Ascq, France; France center Dominique Malonga (14) goes to the basket against Canada during the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games at Stade Pierre-Mauroy. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

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Dubbed the Female Wembanyama, Dominique Malonga Has Her Sights Set on the WNBA

the French getting ready to see another star this time in the WNBA!

French teenage sensation Dominique Malonga is turning quite a few heads and making waves as we inch closer to the much anticipated 2025 WNBA draft to be held in New York on April 14. At just 19 years of age, Malonga stands tall at 6 feet 6 inches, towering over most of the other players reminiscent of one Victor Wembanyama of the NBA.

Malonga, who was born in Yaoundé, Cameroon joined the French club ASVEL Féminin in June 2021. The versatile center averaged around 6 points per game in her first couple of seasons before nearly doubling that in her 2023-24 season while on loan with Tarbes Gespe Bigorre. She returned to ASVEL for the 2024-25 season rising to prominence after she became the first Frenchwoman to dunk in an official game.

Representing the French National team, Malonga won a silver medal at the 2024 Olympic games in Paris losing in a hard-fought narrow loss to the USA by a score of 66-67. She was also part of the FIBA Under-17 World Cup for the French National team in Hungary in 2022 where she walked away with the bronze medal. Malonga had a standout performance averaging a double-double for the entire tournament.

The French national is now eyeing a career in the WNBA and the latest mock drafts have her as a top 5 pick. Although Paige Bueckers is widely expected to be the first overall pick, Malonga could be taken anywhere between picks 2 and 5, but the latest buzz is that the Washington Mystics at number is most likely the place she will go.

What Makes Malonga the Female Wembanyama?

Apart from the fact that both are French nationals, the resemblance does not end there between the two highly talented athletes. It was ASVEL Féminin’s president Tony Parker who actually dubbed Malonga as the female Wembanyama due to the striking similarities between the two.

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Wembanyama stands at a massive height of 7 feet 3 inches but glides along the court effortlessly. The same can be attributed to Malonga who stands 6 feet 6 inches tall and moves around the court with ease. Both players are versatile centers who have adopted their game to suit the modern-day game.

Both are able to transition well from offense to defense and vice-versa making use of the reach and length to make big plays on defense such as steals and blocks.

Of course, on offense, the towering bodies of Wemby and Malonga are able to create space for themselves, while their fluidity and movement in the paint allow them to get easier buckets.

In the NBA, Wembanyama is seen as someone who will change the way the game is being played with his unique style and the same can be said of Malonga once she joins the WNBA. There is still a long way to go for both players, but they possess upsides that should take them higher not just in height but in their careers as well.

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Devavrat Kulkarni

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I am a content writer for the NFL team, and joined The Playoffs after working with Sportskeeda and NFL Analysis as an NFL writer. After starting my professional career as a French-to-English translator, working as a content writer is a new adventure for me. I started out in the sports media field for two main reasons: my love for sports in general, especially the NFL, NBA, and Tennis, as well as my passion for writing. The best part of this job is that I get to write a variety of pieces with the freedom to explore content from various angles. It also enables me to stay up to date with the sporting world, which otherwise can be difficult to do in the day-to-day grind. In a world full of chaos, sports unite and entertain like nothing else!