Reacting To First 2 Phoenix Suns Summer League Games: Maluach Is Here, Dunn Too Good & More

Reacting To First 2 Phoenix Suns Summer League Games: Maluach Is Here, Dunn Too Good & More

Today on locked on Phoenix Suns, two summer league games down and a lot of takes to get off. We’ll go through all of the big Suns players out there in Las Vegas and how they’ve looked so far. Let’s go. You are Locked On Suns, your daily Phoenix Suns podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Welcome back in to Locked on Phoenix Suns. I’m Brendan Clean, a staff writer at Offload Announcing and a credentialed Suns media member. Thank you for making Locked on Suns first listen here on this Monday. Don’t forget Locked on Suns free and available on all platforms including YouTube. Click that follower subscribe button. Do what thousands of other Suns fans have already done. Become an everydayer. Get locked on to the Phoenix Suns right here each and every day. Today’s episode brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can get $150 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. More from FanDuel later on in the show, but we’ve got a lot to dig through as the Suns looked pretty fun at the very least and downright impressive in the first game at the NBA Summer League. Joining me as always to break it down from the Wild West Valley, my fellow Suns Credential media member, how we feeling, Ben Garcia? Good, man. Uh, summer league, I texted you, I was like Kobe Brea, full segment. And it was funny because you just responded back July content. This is exactly what it is. The NBA has absolutely gotten this one thing right. Sometimes they like to tweak with things. Allstar game in season tournaments. The NBA summer league is perfect. It right as it gets really boring. It ends. Uh also, I don’t know if you get like upset about this, but it’s just like when I see Suns on the court and I’m watching a game, I want them to win. So like I am a little annoyed they lost. And I was kind of happy that they won on Friday. Like if we’re there, I want to win the championship. I want to win the summer league title. So I don’t know if you’re like that at all, but I guess it doesn’t really matter as long as the guys that are on the court are winning the minutes that they’re there. But I actually care about winning this stupid thing. It’s been a while since there was a team that you even would like get attached to. So I definitely get it this year. here. I mean, for the first time since what, probably 20, DeAndre Aton at summer league because Cam Johnson and Ty Drum didn’t play in 2019. So, it’s been a minute. And so, yeah, I think it’s it’s definitely been way more fun this year. And let’s start with two guys who might not actually be uh on the on the team if the Suns were to get into the weird playoff thing that they do at the end of summer league because the Suns might not want to hold him out there for so long. And that’s Ryan Dunn and Oso Igadaro, the two secondyear players who I think we were not not fully sure would even play here, but they have done I think Ben exactly what you wanted them to do. Ryan Dunn only played in the first game. Oso played in both. But when guys get that tap to play the second year, you want them to go out there and kill. And that’s exactly what they both have done. putting up Oso with with two one, you know, one and let’s just call it a second double double in these two games, nine rebounds on Sunday and Ryan Dunn filling it up with 17,5 and four. What have you thought from those two dudes who came back and and did it again here? Immediately watching Ryan Dunn, it’s almost like Oh, so Iodaro was the only one that was going to go, but they’re like buddies and the and the mom said, “No, you’re going to go do it if your little brother’s going to go do it.” done looked really good and both guys looked like the varsity players on a like a it’s a a high school basketball team that aren’t getting a lot of minutes so they go and play JV for a night and push around a bunch of freshman and sophomores and they looked bigger than the other teams or sorry than the other players. Ryan Dunn played bigger than the other players. And I thought you saw a bit of Ryan Dunn’s playmaking that you haven’t seen uh in in the actual NBA because he’s not usually facilitating the ball around. But his ability to dribble drive and and kick it out to uh I think it was Kobe Brea on a three-point shot underneath the basket. He him going to the uh to the to the rack and dunking it. Oso again with his left hand twice in two different games. Uh dunking it there. like both guys played aggressive and like what you had t you and I both talked about the confidence building the shooting the three-point jumper and not thinking about it twice also feeling the need to bump around some guys and grab a rebound so like overall just like the two quick twominute synopsis but I want to get your your uh reaction too I thought both guys looked like they were too good for summer league also in this second game at the beginning I thought was a little sloppy and then in the second quarter on just absolutely absolutely mollywapped everyone on the Hawk. So, uh, both guys building confidence and are doing things that we didn’t see in the NBA that we’re seeing now in the summer league. What about you? You are muted. would say that the two things that jumped out to me the most are Dun’s catch and drive game and his finishing in I mean he he took five threes so two of five on those is nice. Of course we want to continue to see that jump shot develop but in the situations where he did not take those threes putting the ball on the ground he had a couple of nice finishes through contact. He had uh one dish over to the corner to Brea that was, you know, another good play off of the bounce. And just that comfort is going to be huge for him. And I I kind of had the thought watching done in, you know, it it’s summer league. It’s not as if it’s the perfect distillation of how this team is going to play. But I think we all can just assume based on the personnel and just having watched Cleveland last year and and some other times throughout Jordan Kn’s career that he’s built an offense that it’s going to be a little bit more pick and roll, a little bit more straight line type of stuff than it was with Mike Benhoer’s random, you know, everybody pass it around the perimeter and everything. I feel like Ryan Dunn could thrive in that because I think he is more of a player that can just kind of use his athleticism and his physicality to affect the game. He doesn’t need all of that cute stuff or, you know, ball movement necessarily even to to get free. So, I like that. And then with Oso, I would say the I mean the times kind of kind of similar, not the same situations, but similar with him putting the ball on the ground. I think just using his physicality. We we heard him say, what did he gain? 15 lbs. He said like 12ish of it is muscle. Can kind of tell, right? Like he he’s had some nice finishes. He had eight offensive rebounds combined in these two games. 23 total. That’s all really, really good stuff to see. And I kind of liked Oso. I I know in Sunday’s game he kind of was a four or a five more often, but I don’t know. I I think we’re going to get to common malaw watch, but I I continue to believe that if Oso can click in with the right types of lineups and develop the right parts of his skill set, he may ultimately be more of a four than a five at the end of the day and and what he’s how he’s played in Vegas in these two games kind of supports that. I think I think the biggest thing out of both players that have surprised me the most like I have always been fond of Ryan Dunn’s athleticism, I think his ball handling looks a little bit better, but I don’t even know if that’s the case. I think it again it’s just confidence. Like I use that that reference of like the varsity players playing JV. It just looks like he knows he can get around these players if they swipe it away. He knows he can lower his shoulder and get to the hoop. Uh he knows he’ll find someone off the perimeter. think it makes it even more confidence when you have a guy like Kobe Baha on the other side of the wing just ready to catch the ball and shoot for you. But the biggest thing out of those two things that have shocked me is is the athleticism from Oso Igodaro. I don’t think I I saw like some glimpses of OSO dunking the ball earlier this year, but I did not see once uh on two different occasions, once on Friday and once today, where OSO took a guy on his hip and dunked the ball with his left hand with pure athleticism. I haven’t seen that. As well as down low, he’s had I think he’s just shy of 20 rebounds through two games, banging bodies with everyone. He’s not the biggest guy. He’s like 69, 610. But the athleticism I’ve seen from OSO, I think you’re right, that has come with some of the uh muscle that he’s put on bouncing off of guys. And again, just the confidence that maybe I was wrong about, you know, going after either of these guys playing in summer league to where they can take that in the regular season and feel like they belong because they were those guys last year. Uh, but also athletically, man. Dunking guy, dunking on it or dunking on people and uh uh passing him and Ryan Dunn. I’ve really liked it from both two guys. I think Dunn, though, is a little overshadowed by OSO now because OSO’s played two games and Ryan Dunn’s only played one. And the consistency where now I’m starting to think, is OSO expendable? Like, would I have actually wanted to move Beal and Oso together to get off the contract? Because again, we’ll get to the Maw Watch stuff later. there might be a a a actual role for him to play this year. And then that leads me to believe I’m like, “Okay, so then Richards is gonna be the backup five. OSO is going to be just like the backup four and no one’s Yeah. I don’t know. I don’t know if we can determine rotations yet because like Fleming hasn’t played, right? like Fleming hasn’t played and I still I don’t even know who is a four on this. I don’t know who the Suns consider to be a four. Like I think Oso is being put into that role, but you know what what about Dunn versus Brooks? Yeah. What about you know some of these other guys? We’ll see. I definitely I wouldn’t say that I like I guess I’m just not as shocked at what like you seem like Yeah, I’m shocked by the athleticism. Expecting Well, what I don’t know what you mean by athleticism cuz you’re describing the muscle, which is what I said, but you’re saying athleticism. I knew he was an athlete like we’ve seen him do. Well, of course I know he’s an athlete. He’s a professional NBA player. No, I mean, we’ve known he is an above average like he can get near the basket and throw a dunk in. We’ve seen that. Sure. Yeah, I don’t think he can’t I I know what you’re saying. I don’t think that he’s just like just dunking the ball. The confidence to be able to rise up and dunk on someone knowing that they’re not moving. Like it’s not like catching a body where someone slides over trying to catch a charge. He’s got someone on his hip and he’s like firmly has made the decision I’m going to dunk on this person. And I think I think he’s in those positions because of his ball handling and because of the confidence to put the ball on the ground and get there. You don’t just happen into those opportunities. You got you got to get there. So the getting there I think is maybe been the difference in summer league versus the NBA where if it’s you know Evan Mobley in your way in an NBA game, you’re not going to dribble a couple times on him and try to rise up. Whereas if it’s some dude whose name we’re never going to hear again. I think that’s I think that’s been the difference is the the ability to create those shots. Oso. I have seen a lot of that kind of stuff grow where he has like my eyes have just been opened a little bit more to Oso. Like again, it’s summer league, but I’m just like, “Oh, I forgot how lengthy he is. Oh, I forgot how well he works the twoman game, which I wish I would have saw more of with him and Berea today, but I understand it’s, you know, everyone on that team is trying to catch a role.” Uh, but all those things, the passing, the dribbling, I think him and Dunn as well, but probably more oo than done. and getting to the basket and finishing. Like those are the confidence things that we hadn’t seen that now that they have a bigger role. Put the ball in their hands, we can see what they can do. And again, it’s led me to believe it’s just summer league. Okay. Oso isn’t I don’t Maybe he’s not as expendable as I thought. He’s got a little bit more of an offensive game to him than just the push shot that we saw today, but maybe he could rough ruffle up some feathers down low and get some easy putback dunks. That’s kind of where I’m thinking about with OSO. Let’s talk about somebody who definitely could be a nice fit to allow OSO to play the four and that is common Malawatch who is already letting it fly from deep one game into his NBA career. Next first today’s show brought to you by Hungry Route. Let’s be honest, meal planning and grocery shopping can be overwhelming between busy schedules, picky eaters in your house, and trying to eat healthy. It can be a lot. But that’s why we love Hungry Root. Here on the Lockdown Podcast Network, they take the stress out of planning by filling your cart for you with personalized grocery and meal options based on what you like and need. Hungry Root uses their smart cart technology to recommend groceries, recipes, and even supplements tailored to your preferences. Whether you’re dairy free, gluten-free, focused on gut health, or just trying to eat those healthier meals, Hungry Root has you covered. Here’s the deal. There’s tons of meal services. There’s tons of meal services where you can put your preferences in. We get all that. But the health focus, the nutrition goals, that is the big offer that Hungry Root makes very, very easy. It is stuff that you like, but it is also stuff that checks the boxes to get you where you want to be physically. So, take advantage of our exclusive offer for a limited time, 40% off your first box, plus a free item in each box for life by going to hungryroot.com/lockedon NBA and using the code locked on NBA at checkout. That’s hungryroot.com/locktonnba. Code locked on NBA to get 40% off your first box and a free item of your choice for life. All right, Ben, let’s keep it rolling here. So, common mall watch also was held out of Sunday’s game where the Suns have another one Monday. They basically are are load managing in Vegas. Can I ask you quickly what you thought of that? Not Ryan Dunn, but Malawatch. I thought of it the same way with both guys, honestly. And Fleming to a degree. I would imagine we’ll probably get Fleming Monday. Well, no, I’m just saying I think he probably he was a game time decision, too. I think I mean, it’s it’s what you were talking about when we when we discussed Oso and and Dunn being part of this where is it really worth the injury risk? So, I think why push it, right? I mean, I think I don’t know what what was your take? I I don’t I just don’t have a lot to work from. It was kind of a surprise decision and I’m just trying to guess, I guess. Well, Rashir Fleming, you and I both were like, I don’t know what we’re really going to see from him. We just both think we just got a high floor player who is going to do all the things in summer league that he’s going to do in the NBA. Like, I don’t really see that there. Uh Ryan Dunn as well, like he showed out in the first game. Give him a break. Who cares? Maybe he’s done. But, uh he might just be done. Yeah, I think he might just be done. Malawatch, I think OSO might be done too after this, but Malawatch. Uh if if we’re keeping Nick Richards, and it looks like right now that they are, and you have Oso, and you have um Mark Williams, it doesn’t seem like Malawatch is going to play like a ton, so why not get the reps now? And they’re like, well, yeah, Malawatch is going to be the backup center on opening night. I don’t think Nick Rich is going to be the backup center. I the only reason why I think either way potentially maybe not or whatever but I I would I would lean towards Malawatch could be he’s the 10th overall pick so I won’t fight with you there but it’s just like also he’s 18 like if he doesn’t have an injury even if he stubbed his toe like I get it and maybe he does and they’re just not saying that I just he’s 18 uh play basketball I mean when I was 18 I’d play six straight games and granted I’m not playing in the NBA 71 I think that’s that’s probably the answer there right I I think that’s a good point I think that that’s the thing with him is. And and not even just that, I think you always just have to be careful with dudes like that, but at the same time, if you go back to his college, he only played 21 minutes a night. Part of that’s because he was foulrone. And so there were some games like, you know, the U of A game, I think in the tournament, he was an example of that. There were some others where he just had to. But I think they were pretty careful also. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing. But yeah, I mean, I don’t know if there was actually some kind of, hey, he he just a little sore in this one area and we’re just going to call it load management or whatever. But yeah, I guess we’ll see Monday. If he doesn’t play Monday, then I guess then it starts. Are they managing this because it’s actually a problem or you know, I have no idea. I’m just assuming he’ll be back. I don’t expect assume because they otherwise I think they would have just listed it as an injury. But if things change in the next 24 hours and all of a sudden he’s a late scratch again, then I think it’s fair to start to say, “Hey, what’s going on?” But he was great on Friday. That’s the absolute bottom line of it. Um, you know, not if not the most efficient game, but that’s because he was taking threes out of nowhere. He was one of six from from three-point land. Played exactly that same 21 minutes that I just said he did at Duke. And if you look at just the, you know, two-point shots, he was four of seven, which is a lot closer to what you would expect. Two blocks, five rebounds, and only a couple of turnovers, which is nice to see, and only two fouls, which is nice to see, limiting some of those, you know, developmental young big types of mistakes. and he had a pretty decent matchup to test him, Ben, with Alex Sar, who not only can match him, you know, physically, one-on-one, heightwise, and and lengthwise and everything else, but of course is one of these same guys like Don Oso, who is a secondyear player with a lot of pedigree that may or may not have actually, you know, you could make a case shouldn’t have even gone to summer league if you thought he showed enough as a rookie. So, I thought with all that in mind, it was an incredible debut for common Malawatch. I thought he was awesome. I think it’s very clear who actually watched the game and who was box score watching. Malawatch, I feel like you should just like push his six threes to the side. His final one was the one he actually made. And honestly, each three-point shot Malawatch threw up, maybe besides I think one of them was really bad, all of them looked pretty good. Um, what did Malawatch do well, which is what we wanted him to do well, uh, coming out of the draft. He protected the paint pretty well. He had two blocks and, uh, on the perimeter as well. He was a couple of feet away from a couple of different three-point shots and contesting them really well because he’s so long. And I was like, okay, check perimeter defense looks pretty good. Check interior defense looks pretty good. I thought in the first quarter he started he looked like for the first six eight minutes or so he looked a little uh a little like behind like the game was a little fast for him immediately the first two points of the game was he got caught behind a back screen and someone threw an alley oop right on uh with him nowhere to be found down low he looked good three-point shooting I actually thought he had a crisper three-point shot than the than maybe he we thought he was going to have coming out of uh coming out of Duke Let me ask you this. Let me ask you this I thought. Are we wrong about how they’re going to utilize Come on Mwatch. Or this is just a or is this just a a clear like spring training baseball? Work on your curveball cuz it’s your worst pitch. Work on the three-point shot cuz it’s your worst shot selection. Are we wrong about how they’re going to use Kam Malawatch is or is he going to be a stretch five like immediately? So I think that that’s kind of two different questions. one. I think you wouldn’t be having him let it fly to this degree if you didn’t think that that could be part of what he was. I just I I so I think like I probably if you would asked me on draft night Ben and I I I did kind of shut it down on draft night reaction show I was like well no I was going to say asked me the overunder on how many threes he would have taken tonight or on Friday night in this first game. I probably would have said one one, you know, maybe one and a half or or whatever. And for him to take six, I think it absolutely has to change our expectations for what his role is going to be, what they think of his skill set as being. And frankly, like John Shy must have been, you know, subturfing the draft. Like if if I feel like if if teams knew that he had this and there were some whispers like there was enough of it out there that you and I talked about it on draft night and everything, but six is a lot to even have the comfort. And so I think it I think it does spell a little bit of a different approach offensively than maybe we thought he would have. But it it honestly goes beyond the the three-point shot to me. And I’ll then I’ll answer the second part of the question because he just has a crazy level of feel and fluidity and skill as an offensive player versus what I thought he was at Duke. Like he he’ll bust out like a couple between the legs dribbles when he’s getting ready to do like a dribble handoff. He had a couple of face up possessions at the elbow where he took a mid-range jumper or at least thought about it, you know, like he just seems to to have he’s just at ease looking to score in not just in the restricted area and I was not expecting that. But as for like if he’s going to be a stretch three, I mean, he has to make them otherwise teams aren’t going to respect it. teams aren’t going to go contest or close out on him at all. And then the coaching staff eventually is going to have to tell him to stop taking them because it’s not really doing anything to just brick threes like kind of we saw with Yousef Nerkach at the beginning of that first season with Frank Vogle for instance where it went nowhere and then he stopped doing it. Like that’s how it can go. But I definitely think if he, you know, the rest of summer league, if he plays preeason and at least at the beginning of the year, if he gets minutes, I think that they’re thinking, hey, let’s try to see stretch this guy’s skill set out as much as we possibly can. Yeah. Um, you talked about his fluidity, and I had this written down from uh Friday. Yes, I agree. You know, some of the dribble handoffs, he’d throw the ball in between his legs. Uh, what I really liked when we talked about fluidity is his footwork down low. He had a couple of like almost hakee hook shots and real good touch on them to where like a few of them kind of spun around the rim but soft touch around and had a couple of uh easy buckets down there. Again, some of those were with Alex Sar draped all over him. Like those are hard shots. Like that’s the fluidity and the feel for the game that we’re talking about. However, um he is a 7 foot2 player with like an 8 and 1/2t wingspan. So I get it. The handle wasn’t great at times and like the dribbling from the three-point line and trying to get down low. It almost like he had the power to back a dude down but not the fluid motion to hold the ball with one hand. Is there any terms of like the ball handling maybe some uncoordination that worried you at all? This is just stuff I saw. Look, so the I think the lack of coordination is definitely going to be a thing when he’s rolling to the basket and catching that he was a high turnover player at Duke. He had like an a 10 or 11% turnover rate uh at Duke. I can pull that up as I’m talking. It was 12% turnover rate, which is which is high. That’s like what Bookers is or something, for instance. Um you know, so for a center who’s not even handling the ball, that’s a lot. But look, I mean, if we’re questioning if he’s going to ever, you know, still like, can he really make threes still dribbling the ball? I mean, we’re talking five, six years away if he ever does it. So, I’m not going to be that that to me is the it’s it’s spring training. Try your curveball. He’s not going to be driving from the three-point line in the NBA. That’s absurd. You know how few how few centers in the league do that? It’s like Embiid, Towns, and Joic. Yeah, I would agree with you. Only three. So, that is really far-fetched. Even if the three-point shooting is a little closer to reality than we might Yeah. Let me ask you this final question because the these are things that I’m seeing and I wrote down uh because I’m like, “Oh, okay. Let’s let’s list these concerns and throw them at Brenton.” Um, do you feel like through one game, it’s one game, this is what it is. We’re overreacting in July. Suns made the right selection at 10. Or do you feel like, oh man, Carter Bryant looked really good. That’s a defensive stopper. I mean, he didn’t couldn’t hit a shot offensively, but like do you feel better about the Suns draft pick or are you still like, we’ll see? I feel much better about, you know, I think you’d have to feel great about Malawatch from the early returns given the level of communication, the comfort that I mentioned on the offensive end, the physical dominance and overwhelming nature of him as a defensive player, but at the same time, it’s 21 minutes in one summer league game. So, I and I haven’t watched a single ounce of anyone else. So, I I’m not I haven’t I have not reconsidered the draft. Let me put it that way. Well, that’s good. I have watched a couple of different things. Uh, and yesterday I watched I haven’t watched anyone else that they could have picked at 10 outside of some of the Carter Bryant highlight re. Let me put Gotcha. Well, that that’s kind of what I’m looking at is Mhm. I feel I’ll be honest with you, the the Suns draft as a whole, we’ll get to the last guy in just a second. Like it does feel like they’ve got the drafting potentially down potentially. Like I kind of just look at last year and this year. I mean, a lot of the same scouts they kept on from last year. I’m like, makes you feel a little better about where the Suns are going, especially in the draft. And like, ah, maybe you shouldn’t have traded so many of those picks away. Yeah. Well, uh, they technically have next year’s pick, but it’ll be probably Orlando’s as far as we can tell now after they just got a lot better. So, they’ll have to keep hitting on those. But yeah, Malawatch, I think, fantastic debut for sure. Let’s talk about the surprise star of it all, Kobe Brea, who might have been the most fun dude across the first two games. Did the Suns get a steal at 41 next? First, today’s show brought to you by the FanDuel Sportsbook. Summer sports are in full swing. Man, I’ve been watching a lot of summer sports. Baseball under the lights, high stakes soccer action, tennis, two different tournaments have been really, really good. FanDuel, the best way to make every game even more exciting. You’re already following the action. Why not make it a little more thrilling with FanDuel? You can get in on the game while your friends are getting sunburned at the beach. They have that in here. And I always am like, well, why can’t you can be on the beach and still have some fun. I don’t see why those two things have to be mutually exclusive. Just watch your winnings come in while you’re lounging around in the sun. It doesn’t have to be from your couch. Although, of course, it’s a little more fun when you’re watching. But, of course, we’re talking about NBA Summer League right now. I would be remiss not to mention that of course FanDuel has odds for summer league as well. Let’s see, what do we got here? Monday, the Hawks and the Rockets. The Suns play again. Of course, go crazy. Have some fun. Try to get that $150 in bonus bets for all new customers who win their first $5 bet. Just open the FanDuel app today or visit fanuel.com to get started. All right, Ben. Quick hit on Kobe Bray to wrap things up here. The number 41 overall pick who may or may not even have been a pick the Suns thought they would actually keep. I’m still not fully sure as they were trying to get up to 31 to get Fleming if they meant to get 41 or not. But the pick is rewarding them. The player is rewarding them. Kobe Brea 19 points on Friday, seven of 10 from the field. And then on Sunday, 15 points, six of 14 from the field. The fluidity, the knowhow, the offensive IQ, this just seems like a readymade perimeter shot maker and potentially even more than that as a scorer from day one. Ben, say who he looked like, Brandon. Say it. Say his name. He looked like Devin Booker. I mean, he looks like stylistically like if you like those things that have gotten popular on Twitter where they have like a highlight and then it’ll be a shadow like a black hole of a like if you did that and you did it with Brea from summer league obviously we would know cuz it’s summer league but you might guess Deon Booker um and it makes sense and this is what I was kind of telling you before the show and and I get the the uh like worry to overreaction to summerly but like it’s July who cares and I don’t know a few guys put out there like I’m I we know what he looks like but I’m too afraid to say the name. And then you remember like his favorite player is Devin Booker. I’ve looked at a couple of clips where it was like he said he sees a lot of Deon Booker’s game in him or vice versa. Um the most telling thing we were like oh my god like he kind of looks like Devin Booker is his pull up get a dude on his hip elbow jumper that he had earlier in this game. And I was like, “What the this dude looks exactly like Devin Booker falling to his left, the control patience.” Yes. It was very He let the game come to him and it was like, “Wait a second. A second round pick would do that.” You’re like, “Well, he’s 22 years old. He’s very seasoned. Maybe player in college.” Yeah. Yeah. Maybe this is more of his ceiling than it is floor. But like if you’re telling me I got a rotational player that can shoot the three ball effectively, I still can’t tell defensively if he’s a bad defender. Like right now the only reason why I think he fell in the draft was his age. And like you have told me many times that’s stupid. And I agree in the second round I think that’s stupid. And later in the first round I think that’s stupid. But I mean like I I don’t get it cuz like defensively I haven’t seen it. Maybe he is a cone but like we’ve mentioned before summer league is a little bit harder to do that. But the three-point shot looks really fluid. He shoots it with confidence and every time he shoots it, it looks like it’s going in. It’s funny because like that’s the one game about Devin Booker that you think he’s better at than he actually is. Three-point shooting. Like this guy is got a clear shot on him and you’re like, is there a spot for him? And you say to yourself, is he a two-way player? But they’re kind of loaded at the guard position. This guy might be taking the year to develop under the G-League as well. uh because we got Grayson Allen and Booker and Green and everyone at the position. It just was really telling to be like, “Oh my god, this guy can shoot the leather out of the basketball.” So, I’ll kick it over to you, but even the playmaking, the the passing, uh all of it was really impressive. He was he was the most he had a back door cut along the baseline for a dunk. He the the one dribble into a midi that you mentioned. um you know the variety of ways that he got his threes off. Whether that was off of a screen, whether that was relocating where he’s facing in one position, then the play continues and then he kind of shades over to be in an opening wherever based on where the ball has gone. Um yeah, a deep range in addition to the corner like it wasn’t just, you know, wide open right foot on the line. It was some deep ones like everything that we thought. and his release is basically unblockable in addition to being as tall as he is. Well, quick but high. It’s arching and so it’s like impossible to block. I just think he’s going to be uh he’s going to be a three-point shot maker, I think, immediately. I mean, you don’t you don’t make 50 in your fourth year at Dayton and then 44 at Kentucky in the SEC on accident on high volume. like he he’s he should be a good shooter and two games into summer league he’s proving that to be the case. I would just say for the sake of yeah, we’ll see what he is at against NBA level athletes on the defensive end. It’s hard to make any assumptions about that on based on summer league. But the other thing just for the sake of like not even devil’s advocate, but just to lay it out of why he’s like not exactly Deon Booker besides the age, I think the quickness isn’t quite there. And Devin Booker, we all kind of know, is like a he can break out a level of athleticism in the open court or on drives to the basket when he wants to. I’m not positive if that’s going to be there for Brea. Like the Devin Booker’s first step beating somebody off the dribble when he’s in that mode is really really good. That’s why not every player has that. You know what I mean? to be able to get get to your spots by yourself, not having it to have to come where the defense is already rotating. You catch it and you, you know, attack a close out and get Booker can get to that midi just off of the dribble. You know, that some of that I think is is the difference just to say it where we’re not just putting this crazy expectation on the dude. But I agree with you. I think it’s going to it could be a question pretty soon into the season like should this guy just be getting these minutes over a Grayson Allen at the very least because he’s 22 and he could be part of the long-term plans where Allen could be traded you know so we’ll see what comes but a great debut for him in these two games for sure. I mean I mean you talk about Allen potentially being expendable too like Allen is smaller than the guy and I would assume maybe a little bit more heavier than Grace maybe a little less heavier than Grace Nen but yeah I think so uh here’s the thing that is more important than all that Grace Nen makes a lot of money and Kobe Brea makes no money like the Suns in addition to getting younger needed to get significantly cheaper for future free agencies for bringing other players in like whatever, right? And if this guy can hit, let’s just say he’s Grayson. Like, let’s just say his ceiling is Grayson Allen. He’s a bigger, shoots the ball better, and maybe defends a little less than Grayson. I’m not saying it’s a perfect comp, but whatever, right? You’re going from a player who’s Grayson Allen who makes a lot of money a year, I think it’s like 15, well, feels like a lot of money a year because of the Sun’s payroll, 15, $18 million a year, or you go to Kobe Brea, who I think is still eating Taco Bell for lunch while he’s in Vegas. So like that is an important aspect too. The Suns are getting cheaper with Ryan Dunn, Oso, Malawatch obviously, and then potentially Rishiier Flaming and Kobe Bryan. Like that’s a big aspect that the Suns need to have rectified pretty soon here because we got a lot of money for a team that isn’t winning a lot of games. It might allow you to get to take a worse deal for Grayson, too, right? Not not I I still don’t love the idea of like attaching stuff to him, especially now that they’ve done the are about to do the Beal stretch and they don’t even need other ways of getting under these tax lines. But maybe if some team just gives you some junk back, but it clears your cap, you can afford to do a trade like that and not get anything really special back because you have somebody that can backfill. Maybe not even this season, but maybe you’re looking ahead way to the 2026 27 season or yeah, potentially for the end of this season, whatever it ends up being, that might allow you to to have a little more comfort in some of those trade talks, too, given that you just drafted a very similar guy who does a lot of the same things for your team. We’ll see what happens the rest of the way. Another game Monday. We’ll obviously break it down for you right here. So, hit follow, subscribe if you have not already. become an everyday as we walk through the rest of summer league. That be stretch coming soon and much more to talk about here in the valley. We’ll talk to you then.

The Phoenix Suns have been a blast so far at NBA Summer League, led by Khaman Maluach and the rest of the youngsters.

Brendon Kleen and Ben Garcia break down the first two games in Las Vegas, including Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro looking right on schedule and Koby Brea’s surprise start.

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