{"id":790667,"date":"2026-07-19T16:21:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T16:21:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/790667\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T16:21:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T16:21:19","slug":"the-suns-biggest-summer-league-win-was-khaman-maluach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/790667\/","title":{"rendered":"The Suns\u2019 biggest Summer League win was Khaman Maluach"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 Summer League is in the books for the Phoenix Suns. They leave Las Vegas with a 3-2 record, a number that will disappear into the desert haze long before anyone cares to remember it. What should stick with you is the feeling.<\/p>\n

This organization arrived in Las Vegas with one mission: develop the young core. Mission accomplished? Never. But on the right track? Indeed. The Suns put their future under the brightest lights they could find, and those young players didn\u2019t blink. They attacked, they flashed, and they gave fans something tangible to hold onto as the franchise continues building toward what comes next.<\/p>\n

Which brings us to one final Summer League tradition, the Second Annual Bright Side Baller of the Summer League.<\/p>\n

Sure, it\u2019s a little ridiculous. We\u2019re handing out imaginary awards for games that don\u2019t count. Then again, that\u2019s part of the fun. Around here, we do it after every game. The Bright Side community votes on who they believe was the best player that night. I make the graphic, we celebrate the performance, and it becomes another bookmark in the archive. A snapshot of who owned that moment before the basketball calendar swept everyone into the next one.<\/p>\n

Last season, the voting (like the performances that garnered votes) was inconsistent. Nobody truly separated from the pack. Oso Ighodaro eventually claimed the Summer League crown with two Bright Side Baller awards, edging out Koby Brea and Ryan Dunn, who each collected one. It was a team searching for standout moments, and finding them in different places every night.<\/p>\n

This year? There wasn\u2019t a debate. Khaman Maluach owned Summer League. In the four games he played, he walked away with the Bright Side Baller award every single time. Four games, four wins, and one closed case.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The leap went far beyond the box score, although the box score certainly did its part in feeding the excitement.<\/p>\n

MINPTSREBASTBLKSTLOFFRTGDEFRTGNETRTGREB%27.419.512.81.02.01.2113.888.8+25.022.4%<\/p>\n

Those numbers make it easy to dream about what Maluach could become. They grab your attention immediately. But the statistics only tell part of the story. The real takeaway came from everything that never finds its way onto a stat sheet. His aggression on both ends of the floor. His communication as the anchor of the defense. His leadership. His energy. His passion. Every game, every possession, every timeout, it poured out of him.<\/p>\n

Even in the finale against the Spurs when he sat in street clothes, you could still feel his fingerprints all over the game. He was on the bench barking at teammates, celebrating every big play, jawing with the opposition, completely invested in every possession like a man who couldn\u2019t stand being separated from the action.<\/p>\n

If there was one word that defined Khaman Maluach throughout this entire Summer League, it was \u201cengaged\u201d. He wasn\u2019t there to survive the experience. He was there to consume it, to drag everyone around him into the fight, and to leave Las Vegas looking like someone who knows exactly where he\u2019s headed.<\/p>\n

Summer League is its own ecosystem. It\u2019s a place where elite young talent gets to stretch its legs, where future role players become stars for a week, and confidence grows with every possession. The biggest fish find themselves swimming in a much smaller pond. That was Khaman Maluach in the summer of 2026. He rose above everyone around him. He imposed his will on games. More importantly, he looked like he expected to. There was never a sense that he was hoping things would work out. He carried himself like someone who believed he belonged at the center of the conversation.<\/p>\n

Now comes October, and the pond gets a whole lot bigger. Maluach returns to being the young guy, another name on the depth chart, another player fighting for minutes in a league that doesn\u2019t hand out opportunities because of a strong week in Las Vegas. Every possession has to be earned and every minute has to be taken.<\/p>\n

The difference is that Summer League gave us something real to believe in. He looks ready for the next step. Not because he dominated a handful of exhibition games, but because his approach changed. His mind seems to be catching up to the incredible physical tools he has always possessed. The game is slowing down and the confidence is becoming authentic.<\/p>\n

The Suns know there will be opportunities. Mark Williams isn\u2019t going to carry the load for all 82 games, and every season has a way of creating minutes for players who prove they\u2019re ready. That\u2019s what changed in Las Vegas. Before Summer League, Maluach\u2019s potential lived almost entirely in his physical gifts. Now it\u2019s supported by confidence, communication, and a growing understanding of the game. October will present a much tougher challenge than July ever could, but for the first time, it feels like we\u2019re waiting for an opportunity rather than wondering if one will ever come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 Summer League is in the books for the Phoenix Suns. They leave Las Vegas with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":790668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3791],"tags":[7,62461,6,2065,472,4045,604,26018],"class_list":["post-790667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix-suns","tag-basketball","tag-bright-side-baller","tag-nba","tag-phoenix","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-phoenixsuns","tag-suns","tag-suns-summer-league"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116947562547827508","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790667","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=790667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}