2023-24 Spurs Player Reviews: Malaki Branham

Daniel Dunn-USA TODAY Sports

Branham is young and talented but he hasn’t shown enough improvement in key areas yet to be considered a shoo-in for minutes next season.

Welcome to Pounding the Rock’s 2023-24 player reviews! The series will look at the 15 players who finished the season with the San Antonio Spurs on guaranteed contracts (so no two-way players because we saw so little of them this year, and no Doug McDermott). Enjoy!

Malaki Branham

2023-24 stats: 75 games, 9.2 points, 2.0 rebounds, 2.1 assists

Contract Status: team option on the third year of rookie contract picked up.

Age: 21 on May 12, 2024

Branham gave fans every reason for optimism about a potential leap between the end of his rookie year and the start of his sophomore campaign. He finished the 2022/23 season on a high note, averaging 12.6 points in 26 minutes a game after the All-Star break to go with four rebounds, and then he excelled in two of his three total games in Summer League. In both settings, his outside shot was off, but he made eight of his 17 threes in preseason, which provided some hope that his unconventional release was not a huge issue. Branham didn’t look like he would be the most consistent floor spacer, but a streaky shooter who can handle the ball and create his own looks in a pinch is a useful piece.

Things didn’t go as planned. The three-pointers fell every few games and when they didn’t, Branham couldn’t do much else to make himself useful. There were good nights in which he’d sink some mid-range jumpers, took care of some playmaking duties and kept the ball moving, but he couldn’t be the floor spacer the team needed him to be nor fill the reliable bench scorer role he seems best suited for. It didn’t help that the Spurs as a whole were a mess during the Point Sochan experiment or that Branham was tasked to take over as the nominal point guard when Gregg Popovich decided to shake things up. The young guard has some ball-handling skills, but he isn’t a floor general and his defense was an issue. After some good and a lot of bad, Branham lost his spot in the rotation to Blake Wesley.

To Branham’s credit, he took the demotion well and seemed reenergized when he got the opportunity to claim regular rotation minutes back. The outside shots started to fall, with Malaki shooting close to 40 percent after the All-Star break even after upping his number of attempts. He remained inconsistent as an outside threat, but he made up for the bad nights with flurries in which he looked like he couldn’t miss. The issues on defense remained, and there was nothing to suggest Branham would become a primary ball handler soon, but he left a much better impression on everyone by the end of the season than most could have expected when he was struggling the most earlier in the year.

Looking forward

The Spurs are at a crossroads with Branham. He’s clearly neither a point guard nor a movement shooter from beyond the arc, which is what they need in the backcourt off the bench. Reports suggest that San Antonio might have a quiet offseason, but it would be surprising if the front office lets the summer pass without adding a veteran guard. If that’s the plan, what happens to Branham? He lacks the strength to play small forward so he could see his minutes dwindle. There is a case for just riding another year out with him as a 20-minute-a-game player, but it’s based mostly on his youth. He’s not über athletic or physically imposing like fellow projects Blake Wesley and Sidy Cissoko and doesn’t seem to fit most archetypes for modern guards.

Fortunately, he’s still cheap, talented and durable, so there should be a place for him in San Antonio both this upcoming season and the next. Playing next to guards who can break down a defense could unlock his potential as a secondary playmaker, which is reasonably high. His off-ball movement needs to improve, but his cutting is far from terrible. The defensive issues will probably remain, but he did play hard last season, especially after being demoted to the bench, and he does have a 6’10 wingspan he could put to good use to at least be disruptive in the perimeter. There’s a version of Branham that hits outside shots at a decent level, attacks gaps both on and off the ball, finds the open man when opponents rotate, and doesn’t hurt the team on defense.

It’s unfair to discard players before they get a chance to find a role on a roster and a rotation that makes sense. At the same time, a roster and a rotation that makes sense probably doesn’t feature the current version of Branham as anything more than a bit player. If the Spurs are patient, they could still develop the young guard into a quality contributor. Guys like Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Coby White showed this season that sometimes it just takes time. But there is such a thing as too many development projects and Brahnam could fall by the wayside soon if he doesn’t show improvement on key skills.