Welcome to our Phoenix Suns Season in Review series, where we revisit every player who suited up during the 2025\u201326 campaign through the lens of expectation, reality, and what it ultimately meant.<\/p>\n
Position: SGAge: 23Contract Status: Two-Way, RFA this offseasonSunsRank (Preseason): 15SunsRank (Postseason): 17<\/p>\n
*SunsRank is based on Bright Side writers\u2019 ranking.<\/p>\n
There weren\u2019t huge expectations, but we could have hoped for a bit more production based on the tools he had, and in the end, the overall outcome was still solid.<\/p>\n
2025-26 StatsGPMINPPGRPGAPGSTLFG%3PT%FT%OFFRTGDEFRTG+\/- (TOTAL)127.03.80.70.80.141.7%43.3%1.00%101.8106.0-15<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s look at some Valley Suns numbers, seeing as he spent most of the season in the G League.<\/p>\n
2025-26 G League StatsGPMINPPGRPGAPGSTLFG%3PT%FT%OFFRTGDEFRTG+\/- (TOTAL)2333.415.04.62.41.038.4%36.5%80.0%109.3115.3-137<\/p>\n
Before the start of the season, Koby Brea was seen as one of the best shooters in this 2025 draft class, if not the best. (43.4% from three on 730 NCAA career attempts). Despite some weaknesses in creation and defense, he was projected to be a piece capable of bringing treys and spacing off the bench \u2014 a coherent addition for the team when you look at his qualities and the system implemented by Jordan Ott this season.<\/p>\n
In short, people thought Brea could be a player capable of bringing some competition to Phoenix\u2019s backcourt.<\/p>\n
Reality is often very different from previews. Sure, he confirmed his shooting talents, but unfortunately, his playing time was very low this season: only 12 appearances for a total of 84 minutes played (28th lowest among the 103 rookies), mainly due to very tough competition and a rotation that settled quickly.<\/p>\n
For his first season, he mostly showed himself in the G\u2011League; the NBA step is maybe still a bit high for him. He\u2019s only 23 years old (which is young for a specialized shooter), but the talent is there. He just needs to trust the process. I\u2019m sure he can get closer to players like Sam Merrill or Sam Hauser, not next year, but maybe later in his career.<\/p>\n
With hindsight, Koby Brea had almost no impact on Phoenix\u2019s results this season (except for the last game against OKC), and that\u2019s normal: low appearances, low impact. However, he did manage to take the few opportunities given by finishing at least 11 of his 12 games with a shot attempt (generally from three).<\/p>\n
I think next year he will keep his small contract and his important role in the G\u2011League, with maybe a few more appearances above 10 minutes and an evolution in his game: +38% shooting with more volume, a more important role as a connector, and an evolution in his defensive approach (more confident, smarter). He will always remain a shooter and off\u2011ball finisher, but with, I hope, a bigger impact on both Suns teams.<\/p>\n
Of course, his standout performance was against OKC in the last game of the season: 20 points and a nice 6\/9 from three. A game where we saw his whole outside palette: catch\u2011and\u2011shoot, pull\u2011up threes, off\u2011screen threes, deep threes, and more generally shots taken in rhythm.<\/p>\n
Why this C grade? Simply because it\u2019s average, his season isn\u2019t positive because we could have and maybe expected more (not better), but his season isn\u2019t negative either because you can feel the effort, the work and the desire to do well in each of his outings. What do you think?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to our Phoenix Suns Season in Review series, where we revisit every player who suited up during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":725450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3791],"tags":[7,6,2065,472,4045,604,4054],"class_list":["post-725449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix-suns","tag-basketball","tag-nba","tag-phoenix","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-phoenixsuns","tag-suns","tag-suns-roster"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116516400931289041","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=725449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/725450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}