{"id":790742,"date":"2026-07-19T18:24:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T18:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/790742\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T18:24:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T18:24:17","slug":"suns-notes-maluach-peat-booker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/790742\/","title":{"rendered":"Suns Notes: Maluach, Peat, Booker"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Duke center Khaman Maluach<\/a> didn\u2019t play much for the Suns as a rookie after being drafted 10th overall in last year, averaging 3.0 points and 2.9 rebounds in 8.9 minutes per game across 46 appearances. He got more playing time at the G League level, averaging 16.5 PPG, 12.7 RPG and 2.5 BPG in 11 contests<\/a> (30.3 MPG).<\/p>\n

Still just 19 years old, the 7\u20191\u2033 big man from South Sudan starred for Phoenix\u2019s Summer League team in Las Vegas, putting up 19.5 PPG, 12.8 RPG, 2.0 BPG and 1.3 SPG in four games (27.4 MPG). He also showed improvement with his outside shot, converting 8-of-20 from three-point range (40.0%).<\/p>\n

Speaking to Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic<\/a>, Maluach said he\u2019s been working on improving his hands, rebounding and decision-making in the pocket this summer. He knows he\u2019ll have to provide a strong interior presence to earn playing time in year two.<\/p>\n

\u201cRebounding. Playing defense. That\u2019s what our team needs,\u201d Maluach said. \u201cI got to show what our team needs and show I can do it now and keep on getting better. I can\u2019t repeat the same mistakes I did a year ago. I just got to keep on getting better. It\u2019s OK for rookies to make mistakes, but the problem is if you keep on making the same mistakes all the time. I just got to find a way to keep on getting better and learning from my mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s more on the Suns:<\/p>\n

While he recognizes that his outside shot could be key to unlocking his full potential, Maluach told Rankin it\u2019s not his main priority right now, calling it the \u201cicing on the cake.\u201d Instead he\u2019s focused on being able to \u201cdominate on the inside.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s really just strength. Speed. Really just working on my body,\u201d Maluach said of improving his rebounding and defense. \u201cBeing able to stay healthy and being able to play the whole season and go through that. It\u2019s just really my strength, my base, my hands. Those are the things I\u2019ve been working on this summer. Hand-eye coordination, the feet and everything else.\u201d
\nPhoenix acquired the draft rights to Koa Peat<\/a>, the 30th overall pick in last month\u2019s draft, in a four-team trade<\/a> with New York. The former Arizona star averaged 16.8 PPG, 4.8 RPG, 2.3 APG and 1.5 SPG in four games in Las Vegas (27.2 MPG). The 19-year-old forward told Andre Iguodala<\/a> in an NBA on Prime interview that he plans to keep working in preparation for his rookie season (Twitter video link<\/a> via Rankin). \u201cTaking it one day at a time,\u201d Peat said. \u201cGetting better every day. Not taking any of these days for granted. Staying in the gym. After this, I\u2019m going to go back to Phoenix. Get to work. Stay in the gym. Try to become the best version of myself.\u201d
\nPeat is also looking forward to playing with star guard Devin Booker<\/a>, Rankin adds in a full story<\/a>. \u201cJust playing off him,\u201d Peat said Saturday. \u201cTrying to make him better as a player. Doing the little things. Creating for him and just learning from him. He\u2019s one of the best players in the league. He\u2019s a legend. I think that\u2019s going to help my game for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Duke center Khaman Maluach didn\u2019t play much for the Suns as a rookie after being drafted 10th…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":790743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3791],"tags":[7,2292,958,27218,6,2065,472,4045,604],"class_list":["post-790742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix-suns","tag-basketball","tag-devin-booker","tag-khaman-maluach","tag-koa-peat","tag-nba","tag-phoenix","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-phoenixsuns","tag-suns"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116948045836110990","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790742","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=790742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}