The Suns are playing 4D Chess…

The Phoenix Suns are playing 4D chess as their rookies continue to dominate and improve daybyday in the G-League and we’re going to talk about what exactly they have been doing in the G-League while not attaining any minutes on the NBA floor as well as look at some comments from today’s practice from Jordan Goodman as well as Demar Buouay. But guys, before we get into all that, make sure to subscribe if you haven’t already. hit that notification down below as well as comment about how you feel about the Phoenix Suns this season and their game heading into the Los Angeles Lakers this coming week and we’ll talk about that just a little bit later. But guys, we got to talk about the rookies, the guys who are the newbies coming into the Phoenix Suns right now and they are just impressing across the board in the NBA G-League for the Valley Suns, the G-League affiliate of the Phoenix Suns. And specifically, I want to take a look at right now Common Malawatch, who has been uh so dominant this season so far. We’ve covered a video about him before, but wanted to take a look at all three rookies now today. And Rashir Fleming, Kobe Brea, and Common Malawatch. And you can see here from this tweet, 2025 number 10 overall pick, Common Malawatch produced a dominant performance for the Suns G-League affiliate last night, putting up 22 points, 19 rebounds, and four blocks. Phoenix is taking a patient approach with Malawatch this season, especially with Mark Williams strong play. Now, of course, it’s easy to take a step back here with Kamala watch given that there was a lot of I don’t want to say the word the controversy because that makes it sound like a bad thing, but there was a lot of question marks when the Phoenix Suns picked Kamal watch because there was already uh two pretty uh solidified centers here on the team with of course Mark Williams and Nick Richards. But now with Nick Richards being included in trade rumors, I know the the Phoenix Suns have basically made him publicly available for any team that wants him right now. And Mark Williams is obviously, of course, dominating right now at the center position. He’s one of the best guys uh at the center position, finishing around the rim, not even at his own position, but around the NBA. He’s one of the best rim finishers uh and around in the paint. So, he has been excellent this season in all fats of the game uh offensively and defensively. So, you don’t want to take him out of his rhythm and just put in Kam Malawatch because the Suns are obviously rolling right now with the starting center in Mark Williams. But of course, Common Malawatch is obviously a very talented player. And again, there was a lot of question marks when they they picked him, but obviously Brian Gregory picked him for a reason because he thinks that he is the true center, the true future center of the Phoenix Suns. Now, Mark Williams of course is playing well. Mark Williams is still very, very young. He’s only been in the NBA for I believe this is his fourth or fifth year now in the NBA. He’s still of course uh a young player, but there is a reason of course again why Brian Gregory drafted someone like Kamov. obviously see something in him coming out of a powerhouse school like Duke. He’s 7 foot2. He is an excellent rim protector. As you can see here, he just put up four blocks. And what I want to look at right now is the G-League overall for the Phoenix Suns. And all of their averages across the board, you can see here that the Suns rookies in the G-League this season. You have Kobe Bray at the top there. 20 points per game, six rebounds, three assists on 56 true shooting percentage. And that’s in nine games played. Kamal watch is averaging 16 points per game, 12 rebounds, three blocks on 71 on 71% true shooting in five games. And then you have Rasher Fleming who’s averaging nearly 17 points per game, eight rebounds, one and a half steals on 59 true shooting percentage, and only in four games. Looks like the Suns drafted well this year. And of course, this is a testament to Brian Gregory, the new GM coming in and really just setting a tone. He’s been such uh he’s been so great at hiring the right staff so far this year. Of course, the number one guy being in head coached or not, who has brought a completely new identity to this Suns team, making it a complete turnaround of what everyone thought it was going to be this past offseason when people were pitting it as a 13 seed, one of the bottom teams in the West, which is, you know, something I’ve said in a lot of videos now before, but it’s just I kind of just keep bring it up because it’s so impressive what the Suns have been doing this season and what they’ve brought to the table and how they’ve been so competitive against uh the best teams in the NBA like the Los Angeles Lakers and their first game against their first game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, not their last one where they just had the worst loss in franchise history. But Jordan Go made some comments on that later and we’ll get into that in a little bit. But overall guys, uh, rookies are just super impressive this year. We’ll take a look here at Kama Malawatch here who was the 10th overall pick uh, in the NBA draft this year. And again, I I did have some, you know, things firing off my head going like, well, you know, they didn’t really need a center. I don’t know why they drafted someone like common match. I understand the best player available uh notion going on there and why they wanted to draft him, but I do really like the pick now. Of course, being that he is playing excellent there in the G-League and even in the limited minutes that he’s getting. I mean, he’s only getting around uh you can see uh maybe like four minutes per game right now in the NBA, which is, you know, of course that’s going to happen. He needs to show what he can do on the floor. Dor not plays him here and there sometimes when he’s not playing for the Valley Suns, but he looks I would say not totally comfortable yet, but he’s only really playing in garbage time along with guys like Rashir Fleming who I mean is someone that the Suns are really going to need uh in the future given that they don’t really have a true power forward right now. I mean I believe Ryan Dunn is most or Royce Ryan Dunn or Royce Anil is are the guys that are playing the power forward position right now. Ryan Dunn’s more a small forward but really there’s no traditional positions anymore in the NBA. That’s kind of the word that’s been thrown around now for a few years, but there really is no true positions. I mean, when you have a guy in Denver who’s 7 feet tall and he’s, I believe, leading the league in assists right now. Uh, that word doesn’t really come around as much anymore. But guys like Rashe Fleming are just I mean, I I’m really high on Rashir Fleming, guys. I’ll be honest with you. I really think he has the ability at his ceiling to become one of the elite 2-way players in the NBA. I mean, when you see just things like this where he’s picking up a men Thompson full court. Now, this is an uh this is I believe this this is the first or second matchup for the Yeah, this is the first one here. I like got confused with the reds there, but picking up someone like Amen Thompson Fullcourt as a rookie is nothing to scoff at. I mean, Amen Thompson is one of the he’s he is going to be one of the most dangerous two-way players in the NBA. is already one of the best all-around defenders in the NBA. But to pick up a guy like that, one of the most athletic guys in the NBA, full court, and you know, given the business, you didn’t see in the video there, but he actually kind of didn’t poke away the ball from there, but he definitely made him uncomfortable and definitely made him lose his grip there and uh definitely got in his head and making sure that he’s not going to be comfortable around Rashir, a guy like Rashir Fleming who really just has an a relentless motor. You can see it in the minutes that he’s been given. You know, of course, it’s it’s garbage time minutes, but at the end of the day, whatever minutes Rashir Fleming is getting, he is making sure that he is making a statement. He’s making sure he’s going to earn those minutes and that he is going to show Jordan not why he should be a starter on this Sun’s team in the future. But then we get into a guy like Kobe Brea who made his way from Dayton for his first few years of college, then he went over to Kentucky. And what’s interesting about him going to Kentucky is that I mean Kentucky is a I don’t know what I don’t know what they got in the water over there in Kentucky, but for some reason they just seem to keep on producing uh elite guards. You have Tyrese Maxi over there in Philadelphia who is just progressing extremely yearbyear. He’s putting up 30 almost 30 points per game right now. He’s almost averaging a block and two steals as well. So he’s becoming an even better two-way player. And of course, you have the reigning MVP in Shay Gilders Alexander who came over from Kentucky and is leading the league in points per game right now if I’m not mistaken or he did last year at least. But guy like Kobe Brea who is the leading scoreer right now on the Valley of the Suns and I really think that he can bring something to the table as well being you know 6’5 215 great um build for a guard. I really think that um it’s great depth for this team to have at the guard position even though we have so much depth right now at the guard position. uh even guys like Jamari Buouet, who we’ll actually take a look at here and uh had some comments here about his time in the NBA and his goals and such. And we’ll kind of just look at what he said. He said that playing with these guys I play with every day is super special. They’re so unselfish. They find me in the right spots. My ultimate goal is to just is just to play in the NBA for as long as possible. Continuing to work hard and practice every day and never taking it for granted. The guys since I got here from day one just told me to play my game. It helps me not have to not have to think too much or have too much pressure. And then we’ll kind of transition over here to Jordan who had some comments about the Oklahoma City Thunder game saying, “Definitely don’t like how that game went, especially for this team, the whole Valley Nation, but we can’t dwell on it. We still got the Lakers here in a couple of days, so we’re trying to get that one.” Now, of course, the Los Angeles Lakers here. We’re playing next week and taking a look at their injury list right now. They’re actually pretty healthy overall, but again, we hope that Devin Booker can be available for this game. He did practice today, which is a very positive update in his progression for his injury. But guys, let me know down below about what you think about our rookies this year and how you think they’re performing right now, even on the NBA court, even in the limited niche they’re get in that they’re getting, but also in the G-League as well. And as always guys, go Suns.

Jack Kieley breaks down Brian Gregory’s masterclass offseason where he acquired 3 rookies who are dominating the G-League and also hired Jordan Ott. We dive into young upcoming players such as Khaman Maluach, Raasheer Fleming, and Koby Brea and how they could become the future for the Phoenix Suns if they keep up their elite level of play.
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