With the NBA Summer League officially coming to a close yesterday, as the Golden State Warriors defeated the Memphis Grizzlies to capture the Summer League championship, it’s time to take one final look back at what unfolded in Las Vegas.
By this point, the league has typically announced its All-Summer League First and Second Teams, but we’re still waiting for the official selections. The last Suns player to earn that honor was Jalen Smith back in 2021. There’s little doubt Khaman Maluach will end that drought.
In four appearances, Maluach averaged 19.5 points and 12.8 rebounds, recording a double-double in every game he played before the Suns shut him down for the remainder of the event. His dominance has made him one of the clear favorites to earn All-Summer League recognition whenever the league announces the team.
While we’re still waiting on the official announcement, that hasn’t stopped national writers from putting together their own All-Summer League teams and standout lists. Across the board, the reviews of Maluach have been overwhelmingly positive, reinforcing what Suns fans watched over the past two weeks. The rest of the basketball world appears to have noticed, too.
From Cameron Salerno at CBS Sports:
Maluach was one of the best sophomores at the event. After playing only limited minutes as a rookie, Maluach showed why he’s ready for a massive Year 2 jump. He showcased an ability to stretch the floor on offense while also disrupting shots at the rim on defense.
From Zach Buckley at Bleacher Report:
With the celebrated and wildly anticipated 2026 draft class largely living up to the billing, rookies are unsurprisingly well represented on this first team.
But credit Suns sophomore Khaman Maluach, last summer’s 10th overall pick, for ensuring this wouldn’t be a freshman-only outfit.
Phoenix slowplayed the 7-footer as a rookie, which made sense given how raw he appeared coming out of college. That option might be off the table already, though, given the apparent magnitude of the growth in his game.
Besides pumping in 19.5 points on 53.2 percent shooting and grabbing a Vegas-best 12.8 boards per game, Maluach showcased his unicorn blend of shot-blocking and floor spacing. In four games (all double-doubles, by the way), he actually had an identical number of blocks and triples (eight apiece), plus a 40 percent splash rate from long distance.
What does it mean? On the surface, not much. Summer League is a proving ground, but at the end of the day, you’re still playing Summer League competition. It can serve as an important mile marker on the road to development, and that’s ultimately how this experience should be viewed for the Phoenix Suns.
We did our best throughout the event to remind everyone not to overreact. As the days fall off the calendar and Las Vegas fades into the rearview mirror, reality sets in. The roles these players were asked to fill in Summer League are not the roles they’ll occupy once they rejoin the Suns. The offense they ran in Las Vegas won’t be the offense they’re playing in when the regular season begins.
That said, I’d much rather be discussing the results we saw than the alternative. I’d much rather watch Khaman Maluach perform the way he did, both from a statistical standpoint and through the intangibles he displayed, than spend the summer wondering why he underperformed or looked disengaged. He embraced the moment. He played with confidence. He led with his energy.
The future is bright for the young center. Perhaps we’ll look back on the summer of 2026 as the launching point for everything that followed.
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