Welcome to Inside the Suns, your weekly deep-down analysis of the current Phoenix Suns team. Each week, the Fantable — a round table of Bright Siders — gives their takes on the Suns’ latest issues and news.
Fantable Questions of the Week
This week there was one basic question, “What is your evaluation of __’s performance in Summer League?” which was asked about 4 players, Maluach, Fleming, Peat, and Brea.
Q1: Khaman Maluach
GuarGuar: I was absolutely blown away by the performance Khaman put on this summer. He was absolutely a dominant force on both
ends and he’s given me so much hope for this upcoming season. His defense and rebounding were elite, and his offensive game looked way more polished. The 3 point shot looked very legit. He shot a small sample size obviously but the form looked very solid and promising. He looked too good for summer league and that’s exactly what you want to see from ur raw potential project player. He gets an A++ from me.
zenzino: No notes. Mostly, this year’s Summer League was sunshine and rainbows for me. Mostly.
Was Khaman perfect? Nope. Is he ready to challenge for the starting position? Also nope. Did he show some real progress? Absolutely! I think we all loved what we saw from Man Man. His performance in Summer League showed he is ready for significant regular minutes in the center rotation. Who knows, he might get some starts in the second half of the season. Especially if there are injuries.
Ok, I lied. I have some notes. Offense and rebounding looked great. He was aggressive and confident, taking it to the basket. He also hit some nice 3s when they needed them. On defense, his footwork is looking better, but he still needs to improve. He also got lost and found himself out of position at times. That’s something that will get better with more playing time.
While some might say his performance in Summer League confirmed that he should have played more last season, I firmly believe it was strong evidence that the coaches’ player development is working.
I especially liked game 4 against the Pistons, when Man Man got off to a slow start in the first half and then recovered in the second to finish with 23 points and 15 rebounds. That showed maturity and grit.
Speaking of maturity, if you caught the post-game interviews, Man Man shone there, too. He embodies a part of the Suns culture that I think we all want to see. In addition to a future Suns star, we might just have the future leader on the court and in the locker room.
Ashton: I just wanted to get a couple of things out of the way first. I have AZ Family Channel and Prime, and still managed to miss most of the full games. So, I am probably not the most qualified person to answer these questions. There was a phrase used to fire back at gamers who complained, and it was “Get Gud”. I will be rating these players on their grades in “Gud” and “Get Gud” but without the stats, I will leave that to my peers.
Rating: Really Gud. Okay, I did not include “Really Gud” as a category, but can anyone really argue this one? He became an All-Summer League Second-teamer. A week ago, Inside the Suns had a question about the center position minutes, and I rated “Man-Man” last. I have previously stated that I would never call KM “Man-Man,” but I retract, as he deserves it. Hey Oso! 7’2” objects in the mirror are closer than they appear for your minutes.
OldAz: KM looked dominant and engaged on both ends of the floor. He certainly looks like he has put on some muscle and is comfortable using it, and appears very confident with his three-point shot. My only question about his summer league performance is the level of competition, because bigs who are only 1-2 years out of college ball often have a lot of development to do. However, KM is also very young, so he is certainly in a great place. My concern is just about readiness to show many of those same skills against true NBA centers. If he is, then the Suns will come out looking like the winners of the KD trade, and I don’t think it will be particularly close in the end.
Rod: Khaman was the most impressive of all the Suns’ SL players. He led the team in scoring and a points/rebounds double-double in each game isn’t an easy feat, even in Summer League. Add in 3.3 stocks per game and 40% shooting from three, and I’d say that Jordan Ott is going to have a hard time keeping him on the bench this season. I’d be surprised if he’s not given at least some minutes playing with either Williams or Ighodaro in a big frontcourt lineup at times. He’s still young, so I wouldn’t want to put too much pressure on him too early, but I don’t think Ott needs to be too cautious with him either.
Q2: Rasheer Fleming
GuarGuar: Fleming’s play style is better suited when he’s surrounded by stars. He’s a 3 and D guy and not as much a shot creator so he wasn’t going to “dominate” Summer League unless his play style completely changed. He had a rough game 1 but after that he was very solid and the 3pt shot looks a lot smoother and quicker. We know his defense is elite so don’t gotta worry about that. Overall give him a B+ for SL.
zenzino: I’m going to start by saying I am not worried about Sheer at all. Not even a little bit. He didn’t have the show-out Summer League that Man Man did, and that’s ok. He did have a breakout offensive game (3, I think). Defensively, he quietly showed he is going to be the type of player who can guard 1-5. His weight gain was also obvious, just by looking at him, and also by the way he wasn’t getting moved around in the paint like last season.
I would be shocked if he’s not part of the regular rotation as a backup to Miles Bridges. The only caveat to that is the next guy, right on his heels. Iron sharpens iron.
Ashton: Rating: Gud. The question posed by a recent John Voita article was whether Sheer could be the next 3-and-D wing for the future. I think he has a good shot at it. Yes, good defense is not normally recognized by the casual audience, especially those who weren’t watching SL games… oh wait, I have turned into that casual fan? I am also encouraged by his three-point shooting.
OldAz: I thought Fleming looked good, especially when doing the things the big club will want him to do this coming season. He looked good shooting from the corner and played good defense. His stat lines in the summer league obviously suffered from the guard play, as the Suns have not had NBA-level play (even grading on an SL curve) for a long time. Again, Fleming looks bigger and stronger, but that might also be due to comparisons with summer league competition.
Rod: Rasheer started out a bit slow offensively but seemed solid defensively and ultimately hit 42.1% of his threes. I’m not sure SL was the best environment for Fleming to thrive, as both the offensive and defensive schemes are very simple in those games and without much structure, more akin to pickup games than a real NBA game. Also, with CJ Huntley sidelined with a hamstring injury, Fleming was occasionally pressed into service at center, which I don’t believe was inside his comfort zone.
Overall, what I saw at SL tells me that Fleming is ready for some steady rotation minutes in 2026-27. I believe he could be effective at either the 3 or 4 spots as a 3&D player.
Q3: Koa Peat
GuarGuar: I was really impressed with how polished Koa looked from game 1. He seemed like he was almost always in control and showed a really nice finishing ability throughout the week. The 3 point shot is a massive issue but if he somehow figured that out this dude can be special. He does literally everything else good on the court, including playmaking which impressed me a lot. I think this was a great pick by the Suns and am excited to see him progress. A for Koa.
zenzino: BG did it again. Turned a “nothing to see here” draft for the Suns into an exciting first round draft day (for Suns fans) that ESPN totally botched (shocking). I don’t watch college ball so I don’t judge drafts on draft day. I just knew that Peat was someone the Suns wanted and then got him. And I’m really glad they did.
My Summer League overreaction is that the Suns need to think long and hard about that Miles Bridges extension. They might have drafted the power forwards they needed last year and this year.
I heard ‘poor man’s Aaron Gordon’ comparisons and thought, “meh”. Then someone said Grandma (IYKYK). YAS! Larry Johnson! I see it.
I’m glad he changed his shot for the combine. And I’m glad he changed it back for Summer League. It looked fine to me. Small sample size, I know. His NBA-ready body showed through his post moves, dunks, and rebounds. He ran the floor really well and was solid on defense. I think he showed out like a lottery player.
He’s not ready for primetime, yet. But I also don’t think he’s a big project.
19 years old. 4 High School State Championships. 4 Team USA FIBA Gold Medals. Final Four his freshman year. Pro Bowl older brother. This guy knows what it takes to win. I couldn’t be more excited for his future with the Suns.
Ashton: Rating: Really Gud. Okay, Okay. Just Kidding! That was my Arizona bias coming through, so I will just rate it as “Gud”. Still, I really enjoyed the Bucks game when Peat and former teammate, Brayden Burries were going at it. It seemed like Burries was blowing by everyone on the Suns squad, but he was blowing by everyone to his SL MVP. I would say that all of the front-court defenses will need to learn to contain smaller, quicker guards, and Peat had to do it against Burries for a year.
Koa is who I thought was coming out of college. He is going to the hoop, not shooting mid-range shots or threes. He plays decent defense and can lob or pass the ball out. And if he gets some minutes under Ott’s system (get it to the paint, please), there is real potential for defensive mismatches from the opposing team, as he can stop them from spacing the floor if he gets the rock and they collapse on him. All eyes are on Miles Bridges this season, but Koa has serious potential to be a fan-favorite off the bench.
Final note. I thought there was good synergy between Koa and KM. I wonder if they ever talk smack about the Arizona/ Duke game in the 2024 Sweet 16?
OldAz: Really impressed with his basketball IQ in knowing where to be, when to cut, and how to attack. Certainly showed a lot of tools he can build on, but I still expect the Suns to bring him along slowly like they did with RF and KM last season.
Rod: I was impressed by his aggressiveness and his ability to get to the basket. He seemed very confident in himself, which also seemed to be well placed. One thing I really liked about his drives to the basket was that, while he didn’t try to avoid contact, he also didn’t seem to initiate contact to draw fouls. He was going in to score first and, if he got fouled on the way there, so be it, but he wasn’t hunting fouls at the expense of getting off a good shot.
Q4 : Koby Brea
GuarGuar: Koby had one great game but outside of that he was pretty horrendous and the most disappointing of all our main prospects by far. His shot wasn’t falling most of the summer but my biggest issue is he showed nothing positive he can contribute in other areas. He was a turnover machine and not great at defense either. I give Koby a D for the week.
zenzino: Now we get to the ‘mostly’. Summer League exposed Koby. The lack of ball movement really hurt him as his strength is catch-and-shoot 3s. Game 3 had better ball movement, and he had a really good game.
He needs to get better at creating space, on-ball and off-ball. When he had the ball, he was struggling to get to a spot and get an even semi-open shot. When he didn’t have the ball, he’d get open enough to get a pass, but by the time the ball reached him, the defender had closed out. This was due more to not creating enough space than to smothering defense.
I heard early on he was patterning his game around Booker. I don’t see it. I think he should be more like Steph, particularly in the way Steph never stops moving when he doesn’t have the ball to create open shots for himself.
In game 3, we saw what Koby could do when he was getting open catch-and-shoot looks.
Summer League is a different animal. Offensively speaking, bigger guys and players that can get put-backs and create their own shots show out better, as Man Man and Peat did. Players like Sheer and Koby, who rely on kick-outs and teammates setting them up, don’t look as good in this format.
I think what happens in the next 2-and-a-half months of workouts and practices will have more to do with rotations and playing time than Summer League did.
Meanwhile, we had a fun interlude of Suns basketball to try to hold us over until the preseason begins. And I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Ashton: Rating: Get Gud. I was all aboard last season’s SL hype train that Brea could be the future Suns sharp shooter. A decent G League stint did not deter me. But wow! He basically turned in one good game out of five. How were those Las Vegas clubs, Brea? This is not inspiring confidence for a team that needs more sharp shooters of the bench. In fact, if a two-way spot needs to open up, Brea would probably be the one targeted.
All in all, I came away from Summer League feeling “Gud” about our future prospects. Rod’s new format blew me for a loop, and had I known, I would have made a more concerted effort to watch and research.
OldAz: Has he been released yet? I 5ink he had one good shooting game in there, but for someone who was billed as a shooting specialist, he has vastly underdelivered, and I believe will be released at some point when the Suns need a player in his 2-way spot. Up till now, he seems to just be occupying that roster spot and needs to show something soon in training camp and G-League opportunities.
Rod: To put it mildly, Brea was pretty unimpressive in the SL games. Three-point shooting was supposed to be his one true NBA-ready skill, but he wound up hitting only 28.6% from three. Brian Gregory must still have hope in Brea turning it all around, but I’m thinking that Brea’s two-way roster spot might be better used on another player. I don’t know who that might be, but I’m sure Gregory keeps an updated list of prospects in his pocket and quite likely already has a replacement in mind to go after if/when he feels the need to do so.
As always, many thanks to our Fantable members for all their extra effort this week!
Suns Trivia/History
On July 20, 2007, on the same day that Tim Donaghy was officially investigated by the FBI, the Phoenix Suns traded Kurt Thomas plus two firsts in 2008 (Serge Ibaka) and 2010 (Quincy Pondexter) to the Seattle SuperSonics. The Suns gained… luxury tax relief.
On July 24, 1996, the Suns officially signed their 1st-round pick (15th), Steve Nash, to a 3-year deal worth $992,300 per season. When asked what kind of player he expected to be, Nash joked, “Probably a little bit like Michael Jordan at first.”
On July 26, 2010, the Suns waived Taylor Griffin (the older brother of Blake Griffin), whom they had drafted with the 48th pick in the 2009 NBA Draft. Taylor turned out not to be anywhere near the player his soon-to-be NBA All-Star younger brother would become, and played in only 8 games for the Suns (averaging only 4 minutes per game) throughout the season. He would not play in the NBA again, although he was briefly picked up by the Charlotte Bobcats for 9 days in December before being waived yet again without seeing any court time there. Taylor did actually make the Suns’ highlight reel once, though…
On July 27, 2013, the Suns traded Luis Scola to the Indiana Pacers for Gerald Green, Miles Plumlee, and a 2014 1st round draft pick (Bogdan Bogdanović was later selected). Green and Plumlee played integral parts in the Suns’ short-lived turnaround in 2013-14 when they went 48-34. They improved by 23 wins over the previous season (25-57) and just barely missed the playoffs in an extremely tough Western Conference. That 23-win turnaround is tied with the 1969-70 Suns for the 4th largest in team history. The 1st is 33 wins by the 1004-05 Suns, 2nd is 27 wins by the 1988-89 Suns, and 3rd is 26 wins by the 1999-00 Suns.
Important Future Dates
Late September (dates TBD) – NBA Training Camps open
Oct. 10 – Suns vs. Spurs (preseason) 7:00 PM
Oct. 14 – Suns at Spurs (preseason) 5:00 PM
Dec. 15 – Most players signed to new contracts can be traded
Jan. 5 – 10-day contracts may now be signed
Jan. 10 – All NBA contracts are guaranteed for the remainder of the season
Jan. 15 – All players signed to new contracts can be traded
Feb. 19-21 – NBA All-Star 2027
