LAS VEGAS — After quite the two years, I’m sure it was lovely for Phoenix Suns fans to just have some fun watching their basketball team.
While this was just in summer league, it featured a lot of the pieces that are the key to a new era, and an opening 103-84 win over the Washington Wizards on Friday that was a whole lot of huffs for that fresh air.
Second-round pick Rasheer Fleming (right knee soreness) was unable to play, but his fellow draftees from the past year all contributed in major ways.
No. 41 overall selection Koby Brea led the way with 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting, while fellow rookie and No. 10 pick Khaman Maluach added 14 points, five rebounds, an assist, a steal and two blocks.
But the stars of the show were the returnees.
Ryan Dunn provided 14 points (7-for-12), five rebounds, four assists and two steals, channeling the aggression and physicality Phoenix’s front office has been imploring in the offseason will be greatly improved. He dove for a loose ball in the first few minutes that did not look necessary to go to the ground for, and so it served as a statement of sorts.
Oso Ighodaro only took five shots and was still tremendous, putting up 11 points, 14 rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Summer league gets a bad rap because of how sloppy and unorganized the brand of basketball gets, unfairly being labeled as a futile and borderline useless evaluation tool. That is incorrect. Summer league can show a lot, at least for individuals.
Dunn was barreling to the basket whenever he could, looking to finish at the rim all night. Even though his season ended less than three months ago, he clearly has been working on his handle, along with a new-look jump shot. The most important part of that skill work for a young player is not the growth but the confidence that it builds.
“Ryan’s been great,” summer league head coach DeMarre Carroll said. “Like I told Ryan in the game, ‘It’s going to come to you. You don’t have to go force it.’ … He’s figuring it out. He’s young.”
Dunn was the best player on the floor. Oftentimes, second- or third-year players can shine in the first weekend of games to a degree where they are clearly “Too Good To Be Here.” Dunn was.
Ighodaro clearly shared the same goals as Dunn. For a guy that hardly took free throws in his first season and relied on floaters more than finishing at the rim, he only wanted to score directly inside. And even though he doesn’t have a functionable jumper yet in a way that hurts his ability to play the 4 opposite Maluach, his off-the-bounce game was noticeably improved as well.
OSO WITH AUTHORITY 🔥 pic.twitter.com/z32f86pRh8
— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) July 12, 2025
He has always been able to handle the ball but there’s a difference between bringing it up and actually attacking defenses with it. To take it a point further, ditto for a guy that is a great passer. Being a playmaker off the bounce is a whole other level. Ighodaro showed it.
This Khaman Maluach sequence 🔥
The poster followed by a swish from downtown 📸 pic.twitter.com/ksZxvHnZQk
— NBA TV (@NBATV) July 12, 2025
“Very impressive,” Carroll said of the slashing drives. “Oso, he’s going to be key for us. Even him switching, switching out there onto small guards I think is key. Oso, we need that every night. Challenged him and Ryan to lead this young group and do it every night.”
Brea gained a lot of fans on Friday after being easily the least discussed draft pick out of the Suns’ three a few weeks ago. He truly was college basketball’s best shooter the last two years and he knocked down four triples while also scoring off the dribble as well, with finishes at the rim and some midrange work.
“He’s been shooting it lights out. … Right now, just keep shooting it. Anytime you get a little space, keep shooting it,” Carroll said. “And then once they start running you off (the line), we’ll add some more to it then.”
You even want Brea to shoot more. An element of his game in college was perhaps not being aggressive enough, turning down half-decent opportunities that are more than half-decent for someone of his ability.
Carroll was asked if that reminds him of any shooter he’s played with in the past and he mentioned his Atlanta teammate Kyle Korver, one of the NBA’s premier shooters across the last 20 years.
Brea has studied him in the past.
“That means a lot to me,” he said of the comparison. “Like you said, he really was somebody that I watched a lot. Him and JJ Redick. Obviously, somebody that he got to play with, so to hear that, that’s amazing.”
Maluach had a real tough matchup in Alex Sarr, last year’s No. 2 overall pick and a First Team All-Rookie. His required progress to make with strength and mobility up the floor were showing. Maluach still competed his ass off, though, and displayed the motor that has the Suns giddy at his potential, which included the 7-foot-2 center taking six 3s and making one.
