Suns Rookies Film Watch – Khaman Maluach, Rasheer Fleming, and Koby Brea
if you go back again this is Amari on Anthony Toiver tell me that’s not what this is right here [Music] what’s up everyone are we ready to watch some film some highlights really let’s be honest we’re gonna focus on highlights we got some Bradley Beal talk already in the chat what’s up Sam
hey how’s it going
good can you hear me um sorry
there you are going i uh I’m ready all right let’s do it
well who do you want to start with
let’s start with Malawatch i have him up so let me Makes the most sense how you feeling now we got a a few days to really think about I mean a day and a half to think about the the whole draft as a whole but like since the first round it’s been a few days how you feeling
honestly I feel really good about the state of the team compared to say uh a week or two ago i mean the Bradley Beal thing is looming all o um over all of our heads right now and I’m not super optimistic there but just the power of having young players on the team again kind of makes up for a lot of that so uh I feel like summer league a couple weeks from now is going to be awesome yeah I agree i’m really excited okay so what we’re going to do we’re just looking at highlights right now i’m going to shout out No Ceilings right now actually because I’m going to use some of their videos just to watch some highlights uh I also recommend going to their channel first of all they have a Kaman Malawatch video specific for the Phoenix Suns that they just recently posted so go watch that one there’s some really good film work in that one they also have an hour-long interview with Kobe Brea breaking down his own film that Sam have you watched that yet
yes have you
yes it’s awesome uh
what are your Let’s start Let’s just start what are your takeaways from that before we get into Malawatch film what What interested you about that conversation cuz I agree i I encourage people to go back and watch that
uh he seems really uh thoughtful and smart it’s clear that he’s not a freshman you know what I mean like there’s like there’s like year-over-year development for him that he acknowledges when talking about some of his uh previous years and he transferred to Kentucky so there’s some uh talk about what he did previously and what he did at Kentucky and the differences in what he’s learned and that’s the part that I really uh really enjoyed because you know seeing a a player sort of acknowledge and think about their own personal development over time I think is really valuable
i agree i I think that’s you know a common denominator that we’re going to see in these prospects uh regarding the Sun’s evaluations of them of just being smart kids who have rapidly developed over time uh that you can project forward i mean with a guy like Malawatch obviously he’s only been playing basketball for four years uh and he’s improved so much in that time and then with a guy like Kobe Brea yeah he’s coming in much older but there there are certain things he added to his shooting profile year after year and I really like the fact just like you know a lot of guys who are just in it for a check aren’t necessarily watching NBA basketball you know in their own time or studying players or like they might say they like a guy but Kobe Brea in that video if you go back and watch it it was clear he really is watching these guys um you know he talked about like the classic like Duncan Robinson in terms of you know his ability to move off the ball
Kyle Corver Steph Curry yeah
he’s also a huge fan of Devin Booker he did mention that
um he also is a huge fan of Paul George it sounds like now look you know I I don’t know how people feel about Paul George but like Paul George has had an awesome career and is an awesome player and he talked about Paul George specifically related to his ability to jab step and kind of move defenders without even taking a dribble um and watch kind of where you know how the defense is reacting to you to the point where you can move the defense without even taking a dribble and then when you do take a dribble you’ve created space um so it’s just he it’s clear that he’s a smart kid who’s like studying the game at a high level and that right there makes me uh like him already i
think the interesting thing over time is Paul George is just one of those guys who kids really like i wonder if that’s going to continue now that his career is kind of on a downward trajectory but like it used to be Kobe Bryant was all the draft uh picks favorite players and they do these as polls and then it became KD KD and Paul George were kind of dominating that for like the last 10 years and we’ll see what it is now like Cooper Flag I don’t know if you saw this do you know who Cooper Flag said his favorite player is and who he grew up watching lebron no idea what did he say
jason Tatum jason Tatum that’s how old you are now Sam
we’re losing We’re losing recipes we really are
the leak is in trouble all right let’s get into some Let’s get into some Malawatch film
okay I want to say this about Come on Malawatch this uh no ceilings video starts with his scoring and we’ll go back and watch some of his scoring and we can watch some of the playmaking stuff too but in a conversation about Kaman Malawatch it should start with defense the the the no ceilings videos are all formatted to go offense playmaking defense but this is where you start with Malawatch we’re we’re just going to play it from here and Sam if you want me to pause go back or even slow it down just let me know we can we can do that for any of these uh these plays here so let’s see i think the interesting how little of the highlights have him playing in a drop
like he kind of plays up high he switches he plays at the level of the screen
he hedges
there’s a lot of help defense in here too yeah I I I think you know that was a a key aspect of Duke’s scheme and then obviously it’s easier to do when you have both Cooper Flag and Malawatch there in the front court together
um I mean this is this is just drop defense here but it’s a good example actually of what the NBA probably
because like yeah he’s got an ability to do both and they trusted him to do that because they had Cooper flag probably that’s like part of it and the other thing too if you think about his rebounding numbers because a lot of people are concerned with his rebounding numbers so far and I get it but if you factor in the fact that he’s playing uh at at the level of the screen quite a bit that factors in to the rebounding numbers as well it means he’s up at the top of the key we’ll find some clips where he’s doing that
just quickly on that does no ceilings because I I haven’t seen this video specifically yet do they have a rebounding section here or no like that no okay yeah uh the rebounding numbers I just want to point out his offensive rebounding numbers are really good it’s his defensive rebounding numbers that um just statistically are okay um and so that’s that’s interesting to think about as well
i still think rebounding could be a concern for him in the NBA but you know I I I’m not as concerned by the by the numbers i I think it’s more of a he needs to put some weight on and I know he’s listed he’s already going to be listed at like 250 something but he’s still pretty narrow and like you know taking up space is something that’s important for rebounds as well it’s not necessarily just your weight so the the reason I wanted to watch this one over again is because this is what I think he’s going to be doing in the NBA so while we are going to see clips of him switching and we’re going to see clips of him playing at the level of the screen this traditional style drop defense in a pick and roll this is what I anticipate the Suns are going to be asking him to do maybe the entirety of his rookie year maybe occasionally like uh putting in some different schemes and you know sometimes teams force you to switch when you’re not trying to switch anyway so there will be some switching uh regardless because teams are just good at forcing you to do that this style of I’m actually gonna slow it down here of dropped defense is is just what I expect him to be doing quite a bit
is that Canipple there that’s actually really good trailing defense from him caniple’s a good defender man
yeah yeah yeah
that’s another thing I noticed
this entire Duke scheme like Malawatch is going to anchor it but you know they had a lot of defensive talent around them and and you kind of get the sense that Phoenix is trying to build in the same way that is [ __ ] crazy
yeah i mean the main thing is he’s got what a 9 foot8 9 foot eight standing
i’m going to be honest you know because of my lack of like consistent NCAA watching like I don’t know who these guys are that he’s he’s playing in these clips he does look like a man amongst boys in a lot of these yeah and he he’s good at flipping his hips this is something we’ve talked about a lot with DeAndre and Right and we’ll see if we we get him stuck on a guard in any of these clips cuz I think that’s going to be something that if he has a really high ceiling as a defender he’s going to have to be someone who Here’s a drop defense yeah
yeah that and then goes back in a drop okay
yeah so that’s like Nerkage i’m sorry jokic style defense there you just can’t go into the paint when he’s standing there that’s for sure good post defense stronger than he looks I think
just because he weighs more than you would expect with his frame lots of left-handed blocks which is very I was about to say looks like both um ambidextrous blocking which is always a good sign for a guy
and players shoot with their right so going up with their left is smart right you’re matching their shooting hand
that’s great
in some cases yeah in some cases just spike it with both hands off the backboard that’s probably this one too oh that’s the left and the block numbers are are what they are like they’re pretty good but I I I also think him that’s really nice actually let’s watch that one
yeah go back go back maybe going to slow that one down because I think it’ll be a good example of Oh yeah so he’s guarding
him off balance great footwork with his hips he even flips it again at the end
he flips his hips twice there again so yeah he’s flipping it
once and then attacks the foot
still vertical
block with the right hand he’s going to need to be good at that like I I really think Yeah there’s him chasing so if you get beat and he will get beat occasionally
because he’s huge and you just you know when you’re that big you’re going to get beat by guards every once in
a while yeah that’s good recognition there let’s watch that one again [Applause] so he’s in the paint here plays up high must be a shooter not sure still recognizes getting to the rim great help defense i think the the sort of helper defense that comes from him if he’s not guarding the main screener getting back still that’s nice let’s watch that again i’m waiting to see if any of these clips will just have a straightup switch yeah that one kind of kind of was
half switch just great
yeah gives gives up position to the strength of of that player but was still able to recover and get a block
well that’s the advantage of length right because if you get beat a good one again so that’s a drop defense with a fast defender just chasing him all the way to the rim
there’s an good example of sort of flipping his hips again as he gets by him pretty mobile for a guy this big like you know how it works against NBA competition remains to be seen uh because they’re just a lot faster a lot quicker in the NBA any room at all but in college he showed a lot that’s just length right there cuz Kobe Bray was in that clip too cuz that was against Kentucky
withers and Yeah that’s a trap damn i thought it was just going to be a hedge or ice and then he goes all the way up into a trap i mean if you’re
long arms man
how tall was that ball handler what What is that guy 5’11 or
Yeah probably just getting engulfed by this massive dude
that’s not a bad idea hotel there here we go the long arm so he has good uh steel numbers for his size as well and that’s an advantage of
just kind of poking at the ball a little so that’s at the level right that’s Jokic style at the level defense just poking it in there
you know we talk about the defensive rebound numbers playing this high it’s just going to happen he might be able to perfect the Jokic style kicked ball violation where you just get you just get up there and kick it and force them to take it out of do an inbound again let’s watch okay so about four minutes oh well this is Fleming
oh it’s already switched let me go back here
go back [Music] yeah we should talk about his scoring and there’s a lot of scoring highlights here just a just a little bit about him as uh an offensive player i mean actually quickly let’s just talk about his uh defense though so his rim deterring like his his actual rim defense he’s rated at 54% this is according to Synergy this is what I found online at the rim so opponents shoot 54% at the rim when Malawich is the the nearest defender but overall the team defense was like eight points per 100 possessions better I believe when he was on the floor than when he was off the floor so obviously and the Duke is a good defensive team so all of that really matters uh you know I what is what is his block numbers 2.5 blocks per 40 or something like that there i think they will be
40 i don’t know let me give you the I don’t have those sorry
yeah no the the block numbers are good but they’re not as good I think as they could be in the NBA
2.1 per 36 is what I see here
yeah so about 2.4 per 40
so about 2.4 per 40 yeah i mean if you compare it to some other like elite shot blockers who have been taken top 10 in the past I don’t know think like Mo Bomba or something like he doesn’t have the same level of uh raw volume shot blocking that’s true
right yeah and
he does have really good uh defensive field goal percentage like you know within six feet like those numbers it all checks out but like schematically for the way that Duke plays defense I it helps boost up block numbers for other guys in a way that he sort of corrals guys the way a guard would in a lot of defense uh defensive schemes because of his long arms and playing up high like that they’re kind of driving him into other guys but I think he’s going to get quite a bit of blocks in the NBA i really think the drop defense when he starts just before we get on to scoring here when he starts in the NBA as a rookie I think the the drop defense will look good most of the time but because he’s a rookie who’s only played basketball for like four and a half years he’s going to get lost every once in a while against these really really fast ball handlers that exist in the NBA so there will be times where he’s kind of looking around left and right cuz you guard two guys when you’re playing a drop defense and it’s going to get lost occasionally that’s just something that’s going to happen
well and also Yeah yeah keep going
the tools he has the tools so right if you can flip your hips if you got the long arms if you got the length and you’re capable of moving relatively quickly that stuff is going to get dramatically better over time if he puts the work into it which everything we’ve heard is that he’s willing to put work into it
yeah um the thing I was just going to say you know you get to a point in your career where if you’re a center you’re kind of expected to be the vocal leader of the defense um Malawatch like I I think has a great work ethic according to the scouting report but he’s just not going to be able to do that from a rookie so it’s going to be up to other guys Dylan Brooks for instance if he’s going to play a big part with the Suns devin Booker needs to take more of a vocal role defensively because what other teams are going to do specifically is they’re going to try and run him through multiple actions um and really make him look out of place through their movement uh and so yeah we might just see him struggle uh at the beginning but that’s normal for a 19-year-old big
yeah uh that’s kind of wild in the chat said “Quick Milo watch stat his defense obviously projects to be awesome but he had a 147 offensive rating over his 39 games 20 minutes per game last season and that was on his limited role at Duke all rim efficiency and vertical spacing pretty cool.” And I agree 147 think of it more as a team stat than a than an individual stat so essentially while he was on the floor Duke had a 147 offensive rating with Malawatch on the floor and that kind of stat I think stands out in college just because there’s just so few guys at his size in college truthfully because of how massive and how long he is there’s few guys at his size in the NBA too it’s just that’s how big he is uh but he’s going to get up above the rim he’s going to throw it down we’ll watch it and we could talk about shooting i’m not sure if this video has actually shooting uh shooting stats
i want to say he made like highlights
threes i want to say he made like four threes on the season and I don’t know if any of those clips are going to be in this video but uh yeah the the bottom line number 77% at the rim that’s what he was at uh in college and just yeah the level of uh alleyoop threat that the Suns have on the roster overall now not just Malawatch but also Mark Williams compared to what they had last year is going to be night and day it’s going to be insane
and uh you’ll see in these scoring highlights just how desperate the Suns are going to be for a point guard that can create for bigs because uh you’re not going to see a ton of self-created shots here in these highlights
chris Paul’s coming back he’s going to co he’s going to coach the summer league team too can be a player coach classic pick and roll stuff right not afraid of contact especially on pick and rolls
rebound again the offensive rebounding numbers are much better than the defensive rebounding numbers for whatever reason here’s one
i mean look it looks awkward but when you have a 9 foot6 standing reach I don’t think there’s a way to shoot a three that isn’t going to kind of be like a slingshot you know truthfully it’s not bad
it’s not bad it’s not bad
i’ve seen much much worse
like can he do it in the NBA i don’t know but I I I don’t
I don’t hate it handoffs he’s going to do a ton of this but that’s just a great example
he rolls hard he knows his role like really that’s what it is right he’s not trying to do stuff outside of what he’s capable of doing
and uh he’s a great dunker his efficiency stats we talked about him on the podcast are insane because this is what he does right he just gets to the rim and puts it up over the rim
yeah so he’s 250 pounds again so he’s already got like real big man like real NBA center size i think you know his lower body is still going to be a little bit slimmer compared to basically everyone he’s going up against and so making contact on these screens that’s going to be a point of improvement for him uh something the coaching staff will identify immediately I’m sure offensive rebound that’s a rebound spin it really is one of his best offensive skills what was it five offensive rebounds per 36 I believe is something close to that which is crazy
not sure just an excellent excellent offensive rebound
not even this dunker stuff which is this could do 12 rebounds per 36 i don’t have offensive here i can I can look it up in a bit that’s nice in traffic that’s a slipped screen it’s just a great
This is an example of how being capable of flipping your hips matters
on offense too
and then go yeah no real contact and they have no chance
it’s You do this against teams that want to switch
to try to see he’s playing up to switch and then it’s over right cuz the screen happened so fast
that he’s already at the rim before they know it not sure the Suns have a lot of guys who can make that pass and by the way if they get Chris Paul back are you prepared to pay pay Malawatcha max contracts Sam well we’ll see how good he is three years now in the last seven minutes
oh interesting setting a screen for him there to to get a little duck in okay
yeah I like that
a little fake pin down i’ve never seen that that’s not going to work in the NBA in the same way
that is 100% a college play you’re right that’s not working in the NBA but I do like that
yeah that’s a Yeah I mean play
keep in mind he’s not a playmaker right so he’s not going to be comfortable uh catching in the middle and and making plays off the short roll so a lot of where he’s going to be working out of in the NBA too is these dunker spot plays where someone else is going to be have to have to be facilitating in the middle
yeah it’ll be He can shoot free throws too by the way there’s not going to be highlights of free throws but we we’ve talked about it before he shoots over 70% of his free throws
yeah it’s not a video so whether like his ability to be I’m not sure how much he’s going to just dive into the contact and try to get fouled but if
that was that was good contact on the screen right there watch that one again
and you know Booker’s very good at using screens learned a lot from Chris Paul just gets above the rim and throws it down there was a story that was told
about Malawatch where they said they were worried about his handle
keeps his hands high you know staying in position there once the defense breaks down so it’s a threeon two now keeps his hands high ready for the pass and then he just has to turn around
there’s a story where the Duke coaches were afraid about his hands and somebody said “Why i thought he has good hands.” And they said “No we’re worried about him hurting it because of how hard he throws it down on the rim.” to like literally
throwing it down so hard at the rim that the coaches were afraid that he was going to hurt his hands
it’s terrible defense another good screen so you can see why they were considering Proctor by the way right supposed interested in Proctor you can see that they have really good chemistry here
how many do uh
Here we go that looks good how many Duke guys were drafted four five even slower here does not look bad and they believe in it you know they already said it brian Gregory they they believe in his shooting they want to see him do it more that’s nice finishing through contact there
i think it was five i think their entire starting five got drafted in the same year which is crazy
cooper Cooper Flag Tyrese Proctor Malawatch James
what do you notice about this one Sam you’re going to like it i mean where he catches it he catches a pocket pass lower than his hips
oh oh oh I didn’t know that’s what you were going for yeah was that the first bounce pass we’ve really seen in this video
let’s just watch it again
let me just watch that was some touch there run that
yeah we’ll watch that one too but like being able to catch the ball low it’s something DeAndre and struggled at so there’s trauma there for us [Applause] a little fake left-handed hook shot let’s see
those are small defenders now that I see it again those are small defenders but it is
but that’s what he’ll have sometimes in the NBA too if they switch [Applause] yeah lefty hook
not bad offensive rebound coming
right over his head right over his head
good point from Joel catches it at the rim and doesn’t stop to shoot a floater like you know very OSO coded
yeah be under yeah whoa whoa whoa okay okay let’s watch it again anyway all right yeah so this is going to be the the work
the gather the gather was a bit of a struggle yeah no he doesn’t need to dribble
he’s going to know that you know occasionally if he’s got the line drive now that was good
you know that was good body control he’s using his strength slow it down a little bit they called for it
nice pass by the way harder pass in the NBA that’s nice well time cut
it’s going to be a lot of offensive the Suns are going to be a good offensive rebounder
that is a good point can you go back to that offensive rebound there just
it it’s good positioning great length but then bringing it back down unnecessarily when he’s got a small on him he needs to just go back up immediately
which most of them he has oh that’s nice it’s smart screening though like he knows when to slip and he knows when to make contact it seems
nice little handoff that’s a nice play man through contact yeah easy easy
we should all be praying that Deon Booker just has the best chemistry with him that he’s ever had with the big because that would be ideal considering he’s going to be by far the best passer on the Suns i would enjoy all these lobs they don’t look all look that different that’s a good offball screen though which you know Kobe Brea highlights we’re going to watch later
those offball screens are going to matter let’s get to some playmaking now
there’s a lot of the same in his scoring
does that exist in this video
i believe it does and well you know it’s more of an example of the the 30 second section of playmaking yeah more of an example of it’s a it’s a big right we’re factoring that in he’s a center
so we can still watch some of it though
they’re going to be the type of assists that you would expect from a A traditional style center right hand offs basic cut yeah okay uses his body to create some extra space [Applause] kick out
nice though cuz he was getting smothered but like there’s not going to be much let’s be honest and you know to to be frank the way they play and the way defenses tended to play them there’s probably not a lot of film of the short roll type of playmaking as well there you know they didn’t seem to be trapping much
uh on them that’s a nice pass
yeah hit a cutter
that’s an obvious one but the obvious ones are really That’s the whole playmaking section there the obvious ones are what we need him to do more than anything else that’s kind of what he needs to do as long as he can make the obvious passes the one pass away type passes not the advanced skip passes then he’ll be fine that’s really all he needs to do right away i do think the NBA in particular uses so much more handoffs than college so his synergy with guards in handoffs and how he plays in the handoff and reads the defense in the handoffs that that’s going to be an interesting test for him once he gets to the NBA we can uh we can go to Rashir Fleming do you have any other thoughts on uh on Malawatch before we before we move on i think the biggest I think the biggest concerns maybe would be something we could talk about too
yeah I I but I think he has the basics down just from what we saw in the video right good hands um you know in good spots all over the floor uh so yeah I I talked about him uh on the initial round one like live reaction just that I feel like you know he is a raw prospect sure but the floor feels very high uh for Kaman watch as well
and I think it just stems from him being able to handle his role as as a basic big
I think he is
I have to get off for 30 seconds but I will be back okay no problem i think that uh Kaman Malawatch is going to be pretty good right away like I think there’s a there’s a world where his defense translates pretty quickly especially against bad teams which is just one of those things where the better the guard play is the worse a gigantic human being looks trying to guard those players you know if you’re 7 foot2 and and you’re a little bit lumbering which he’s not really for how big he is he really gets down in a good defensive stance malawatch does uh but athletes are different in the NBA you know sometimes it’s Steph Curry coming around those screens sometimes it’s John Morant or somebody like that coming around those screens and occasionally you’re going to get burned by those guys it’s up to him to find ways to get back fast enough to use his length to still contest because the rear contests are important for anyone in the NBA especially to be honest the guys who are chasing more like guards but big men if they can get there to block guys at the rim that’s going to be important too so you know he’ll he’ll struggle against the best and fastest guards and you know we’ll see how he does against bigs in the NBA too there’s not many that post up so we don’t have to do a ton of like postwatching defense but if he struggles there you know occasionally Zubots killed the Suns with post-ups jokic can do it there are bigs who can still post up we’ll see if Joel Joel Embiid actually plays uh this year but yeah there’s not and to three buckets points the the West does not have a ton of bad teams so you know it’s a separate conversation for how good the Suns are going to be next year i think if you’re a little less optimistic about them as a team it’s fair but I think there’s a difference between thinking that they’re not going to be great when they have no young players that will improve over time and thinking they’re not going to be great when they’re the oldest team in the NBA which they’re not going to be this year they’re going to be pretty young in fact
I’m back you ready for Rashier Fleming
yeah do you actually want to start with his defense too since we did the same for Malawatch i kind of feel like that’s you know his calling card as well
the the offense is so fun though for him it is but as we talk about like you know embracing a gritty identity and whatever I think you can’t talk about Malawatch’s rim deterrence without envisioning pairing it with Fleming’s size that’s what’s going to be cool about summer league and and the NBA season 2
yeah they’re both coming off the bench to start and I think Fleming’s going to get minutes like I I don’t think this is uh picking a guy in the second round who’s not going to play much i think he’s going to play quite a bit so let’s take it out uh easiest way to identify him if you’re trying to quickly find him longer hair you know sometimes it’s hard to find the guys when you’re watching defensive highlights but yeah
longer
longer longer everything exactly he is i think it’s if actually here’s a good point to actually talk about this now that it’s a Lasal clip some people might be asking why was he picked in the second round not barely in the second round but in the second round and this is why the highlights of him playing defense it’s against Lasal it’s against smaller guys he’s not in a massive The Atlantic 10 I believe is a conference that he plays does anyone know where Lasal is i have no idea personally
somebody probably does but like a lot of these defensive plays you’re going to see him smothering guys who will never even sniff the NBA might not even sniff the G-League right and that that’s part of the problem with uh with his film that’s part of the reason he dropped but like if you watch it and you still believe in him which the Suns clearly did there was the body is there to be an NBA player it’s not an issue of you know he’s just bigger compared to these guys no he’s big compared to NBA players too he’s got the length he’s got the size he’s got the strength but yes part of what makes these highlights fun though is that he’s just like smothering tiny little guys though is apparently a private Catholic school in Philly oh my goodness i love this one jumped prematurely and did he jump prematurely on that one and blocked it on the way down
no he jumped a second jump so it was one jump two jump
oh yeah that is a second jump wow okay you know like Suns Suns fans always think of Shawn Marion whenever we see a guy that gets up off his feet fast but like to not have to load up on a second jump that that’s like a that’s a body thing like not everyone can just do that that’s something that your body has to allow you to do and his does that’s so nice let me see if this is on the highest quality here just want to double check yes it is make sure it is and let’s keep it going good help defense there that’s just length doing a good job solo tonight you’ll see more than one uh highlight of him blocking lobs to to other players too before they even get to them yeah that’s good defense there too
he had to use he had to use like a swim move to get out yeah had to spin around let’s slow that one down yeah so he’s under the rim he’s pushing him around spins around him gets to where he knows the guard is going and then gets up and blocks him [Applause] so this is Okay so this is actually a good example he’s in a drop right now so he is a a power forward right we we project him to be a power forward in the NBA but he’s not a three four he’s more of a four five in that right here he’s at center on the court right now clearly they have a nonshooter on the ball in this play because look how far of a drop that he’s in he’s in the paint when he’s at the three-point line they’re not worried about the pull-up shot on this defender but the reason I wanted to pause here is just to mention that if there is a world where he does play center small ball center for the Suns this is kind of what it will look like but it does mean that in his time in college he had some experience as the sole big essentially on the floor playing defense playing in a drop
i don’t know how much experience he had like playing like point of attack defense i don’t think there’s much and I don’t know that
I don’t think there’s much either but
I don’t think it matters against St bonaventure anyway you know what I mean
another encouraging thing uh to the point that you know he could play as a big is again the rebounding numbers like the offensive rebounding numbers were really good for Malawatch the overall rebounding numbers offensive and defensive are really good for Fleming um and yeah that’s compared to other 69 power forwards but like it is enough that you could play him at center without losing all that much in a way where you know I I’ve compared his body to guys like Jay Crowder Robert Coington uh in the past you know prior NBA players but guys who are worse rebounders like he is more of a big when it comes to rebounding than guys like that which I think makes him more viable like Jared Jackson Jr
sized uh you know body [Applause] but you you can see in the similar way we were talking about with Malawatch flipping his hips on a guard and still getting there that dude was full speed and he got there to block him at the rim once again St bonavvenure but hey Wo is their GM so that’s a good one too
fighting through the screen got up blocked him with his left hand post defense here nope weak side he’s going to be That’s with the big right so he’s a power forward here he’s going to be
Oh there no he was with the big um he’s going to be playing help defense quite a bit on the Suns so that hopefully we get some good clips of him doing that locking a three-point shooter there is nice that’s length right there that’s length
that’s That clip is literally just what if he had a 7 foot wingspan he wouldn’t have gotten that he has a 75 wingspan so he got it
look where he jump it’s just so long so long quinn
that’s the kind of help defense I anticipate he’s going to be doing a lot of just this kind of thing right here len you know the freedom to be this is something that maybe is going to come in in training camp and try and rein him in a little bit but he did also say I want them to play an aggressive style of defense and when you draft guys with these crazy physical profiles they have the confidence to play out of themselves a little bit more and be overzealous on the first look and then still get back and recover
well and to be fair too just to like fully talk about some of his issues that’s one of them right there he jumped at an obvious bump fake and he wants to block everything like that’s part of what comes with you know that those types of highlights so you know catching it here and immediately going up as if the shot was going up immediately he doesn’t need to do that he’s got the length to be able to stay down and he’s got the speed to stay in front of guys he doesn’t need to do that but the advantage of having a 75 wingspan rear contests are possible we saw it so much with Muel Bridges for years if you still get beat and you got the length to continue to get back
you can still block guys even when they beat you just a straight up block at the rim is nice
this looks like firemen and plumbers right here huh what’s the modern version of plumbers this is This is him just playing uh drop as a as a center the What did you say what’s the modern
What’s the modern plumbers and fireman is it like crypto traders and No I don’t think so crypto is not that’s not like a common enough profession i I don’t think
these are finance bros
he’s playing against finance bros that’s what I’m going to say
their their future united wholesale mortgage salesman oh that’s nice too i want to see that again just the arms are so long that he just gets to guys
so far from from where he’s standing can you go back I mean his teammate is just completely out of position at this point and he erases the mistake of his teammate
watch again I’ll slow it down a little too so we can really process what’s happening Yeah so he’s not supposed to switch here this guy this little handoff is all it took this Chicago action that’s so nice man to me Matt the Hooks are playing with great energy at both ends of the court it’s another example of
Matt the Hooks are playing
some level of confusion on what they’re supposed to do there he goes uh he goes to switch his teammate is like “No we’re not switching.”
To me the
So maybe that’s the plan maybe it was supposed to hedge and get back so nice man i’d be really shocked if his defense doesn’t translate to and it’s I know it’s tough because like I said you know finance bros he’s playing against finance bros i don’t know american he was playing American there that’s that’s a decent program copen State i don’t know who the hell that is they’re 0 and seven it says co
and you got the copper miners over here
look at the stands there’s like 12 people in them
that’s just the fifth turnover done a nice job taking care of the basketball that’s just the fifth turnover
didn’t someone Didn’t someone tell us the other night he had a he had a 20 rebound game against someone florida I believe right
florida i don’t I don’t remember it being Florida i remember it being someone
no
oh Texas texas yeah big program
just uh pointing this one out there’s a there’s a dribble handoff to to this shooter just look where the shooter’s got his feet set to take the shot just look where his feet are currently
flemings and
he still gets out there and gets fingertip on the ball it’s just crazy there’s more space in the NBA though so he’s got to make up even more space to do that
there’s a This is Texas okay so we got some Texas highlights here let me go back what’s his vert again i mean it’s pretty good 33 inch max vert
for a guy with a 75
yeah 30 a 33 inch maxvert for a guy who basically kind of projects as a big and is you know 230 lb so he’s got just more gravity weighing him down like that’s good that’s that’s not a guy who can’t jump he’s not Derek Queen even though he’s basically Derek Queen’s weight he’s like 10 pounds off from being Dererick Queen’s weight
derek Queen’s just going to be one of those guys that’s like a he’s not this guy kind of guy just some quick quick stats on Rasher Fleming just defensively since I paused it here anyway 1.5 blocks 1.4 steals per game that’s 2.9 uh combined stocks if you will that’s 31 minutes per game last year um he they ranked in the 98th percentile in defensive rating while he was on the floor once again against Finance Bros still extremely capable when it comes to defense in the competition that was in front of him um on this uh in college also 2.3 offensive rebounds now that’s more of an offensive thing but like he’s a good rebounder too we talked about how you know Malawatch is going to be a good offensive rebounder the team the whole Suns team could be a lot better at offensive rebounding with the combination of Mark Williams one of the best offensive rebounders in the NBA malawatch one of the best in college and then Fleming who also was an excellent offensive rebounder
he will be better than KD Chris also I want to address I’m joking i want to address schoolfish there um bringing up the Coington comparison again he said Robert Coington except bigger and longer i just want to remind people like in case you’re not excited by that comp Robert Coington was an alldefensive first team guy
people forget Robert Coington was a bucket no he was in a bucket but he was an alldefensive first team guy in like 2017 when the Sixers were good but not you know good enough to make pass the second round even so like if that’s the ceiling of Rasher Fleming you know even if he never develops an offense outside of that you’re talking about really really high level impact comparing him to So uh Schoolfish there said Tummani comparing him to Tumani is not a good comparison i agree with that because Tummani I don’t think Tummani you could put on guards right you could put him on a point guard you could put him on a shooting guard you’re not really going to do that with Fleming you’re going to use him more like the Suns use KD truthfully it’s it’s more in that sort of you will guard forwards if the forwards are the ball handlers that I think that is a case where they’re going to try that out at least and we’ll see how it goes i think there’s not a lot of that that we have from from college but he’s going to be more of a weak side rim protector helper defender who needs to be able to read the floor really well and needs to be able to find you know guys at the rim once they get beat on the perimeter and you know that help defense is really important though
is it kind of like Brandon Clarkish except he actually has good measurables you know like remember when
Brandon better off yeah
well exactly this is why he’s such a better prospect than Brandon Clark because a he has like six more inches of wingspan and b he shoots threes clark can do neither of those things but the weak side rim protection being kind of almost the best NBA skill that he that he possesses at this point um is similar between those two guys i think
he did talk and uh Vas Nivey in the chat mentioned Jaden McDaniels he talked about Jaden McDaniels in some of his pre-draft workouts too uh Fleming and you know they these guys I’m sure they have agents telling them the right thing to say but I’ll say this saying JD McDaniels that was the right thing to say you know that’s like a good thing for him to say and we’ll just see his mobility against NBA players that’s going to be the real test because if we’re watching him early or if we’re watching him in summer league and we’re seeing like his mobility against NBA level athletes in summer league the hype’s going to be all time for us we’re going to get very excited the way we were with Tumani But you know we just don’t have much of that to to build off of right now i’m going to slow this one down playing in a drop right it’s there’s a there’s sort of a a double drag thing happening there but they don’t necessarily use both screens he slips he’s beat
right and he still adjusts and able to get that block just methodical running their offense right here good hands it’s the long arms man you can get steals you know almost accidentally when you have that long of arms
final 115 of our opening no not exactly the
best that’s so nice stunt
that’s kind of a switch yeah
stunt to force the pickup right and then once you force the pickup He’s got he’s digging so these are the same same team right he’s digging there right away he’s there to exactly like you said forced the pickup again and he’s
now
kind of forced to switch there this next one he still digs right but he’s not the other guy’s got a free lane to the basket
and he’s going to block the lob and he blocks the lob
he’s got a few highlights of doing that which is not an easy
That’s just one he shouldn’t be able to get to but he does they could run a lot of
in the drop just picking his pocket oh is he gonna get this oh my god
oh they they probably fouled him another good free throw shooter by the way arms too long what’s up Dal happy to have you
i just just uh retweeted again Mike that we were still in here for any stragglers this will be posted somewhere later hopefully YouTube i’m going to show
I I want to say by the way if if you do end up posting this to our YouTube channel and anyone ends up watching this from YouTube uh there’s a chance that you haven’t seen any of our content in like 5 years because we basically abandoned our YouTube channel but we still exist and uh you know
we’re still posting podcast weekly yeah
we’re still posting podcast weekly it’s just really hard to maintain the YouTube channel when it’s just the two of us but hopefully we can do some stuff like this and post to YouTube for sure for Philly kid good tough defense just the arms are so long it’s really like you can’t teach that
can’t teach long arms very very strong getting on the floor that’s high effort in the Atlantic 10 future Dan Marley Hustle player of the year yeah it’s going to be an interesting race this year we’re actually Yeah we’re gonna have We’re gonna finally [ __ ] have some finally some real [ __ ] food you know for the for the Dan Marley Award let’s watch some offense
yeah we should we need these
so fun we’re going to need man let’s see that from the beginning flips it that’s with the guy underneath the rim not afraid to attack the rim like with this is the first time the Suns will have a a power forward like attacking the rim off the ball like this in a long time
simpson and he can still do that like that’s a bit of a relocation three too it is that that is definitely a relocation three
cuz he’s under the basket here he passes it out and gets his feet behind the line and shoots as soon as he catches it he’ll take the three got it
and the Okay so the thing I will say about his shooting is the high percentage shooting which I believe he finished the season at 39% it is just one season so there’s only really one season of him making threes at this high of a level
he significantly improved his three-point shooting from sophomore to junior year
yeah so if you’re wondering if that’s definitely going to be the case for the rest of his career not entirely sure but like that’s going to have a large impact of how much money he makes in the NBA if he can continue to shoot threes you know at the same level or close to the same level eventually that he did in this year in college it’s it’s massive i mean he’s just going to be an effective player in the NBA pretty quick
new coach in the new system wants you to do and coach Lang says an offer that’s heavily contested
and once again the shots a little weird [Applause] the shots a little weird it’s not the the prettiest form oh my god
that’s that’s insane i mean if he pulls off one of those at summer league dude
that’s an Amari that actually is look the Amari comp when we just say we drafted a power forward and I saw a few people being like next Amari he is not Amari at all in the way he plays but that dunk right there if you go back again this is Amari on Anthony Toiver tell me that’s not what this is right here that’s an insane dunk that’s so nice
they ran the Oh you know this is kind of the value play
valute play yeah
what i got to watch that again it’s the same play
i’m pretty sure it’s the same play i think there was one extra screen as well
oh he actually just slipped it yeah
yeah cuz Book set the It’s basically the same play except Book set the screen in the Suns version that’s fun another slit oh
yeah he just moves really well without the ball yeah that’s just really really good reading of what the defense is doing cuz they want to switch let’s talk about it again they want to switch so he’s going up into this screen knowing that they’re going to switch but he’s set up sort of almost like a top block off the ball and so all you have to do is is is just run to the rim at this point and he did it
hey hey wait pause right there again you know who can make that play at the top of the key you know who can make that read
and play with Rashir maybe Rashir Oso and Rashir can play together
that’s true and they might have to
play together and Rashir shoots so it it makes it all work
you know this is why I say like
you know Oso is not doomed here in the overall scheme of what the Suns are doing for their future yes he has a long way to go there are things he has to improve at to stick around in the league but
they have combinations now that that they can play him with and still be big and have a lot of skill on the court
this Look at those little tiny guys next to him i just had to pause it that’s me that’s me on the court right there legitimately uh I hope they keep Oso you know there’s some you know like if it I just have trauma from having to include Tumani Kamar in a DeAndre in trades so that’s the thing is if you trade Oso
to get off field then he’s guaranteed to be Sabonis and so you can’t have that by the way another thing you’re going to notice here since we do got to talk about where these guys need to improve there’s a great look at his weird shot actually this one right here it’s kind of a weird Somebody compared it to TJ Warren on draft night i think that
that was me
was it you yeah i think it’s because of where he This is a good look of where he picks it up
he brings it down like below his waist before he cranks it up to shoot brown to Fleming [Music] but one thing you’ll notice in similar to Kaman Malawatch here is these are not self-created buckets he really doesn’t know why again why it’s imperative they still don’t have a point guard as far as we know for the summer league roster but why it will be imperative to get that guy unless they really just plan on running OSO point guard for all of summer league
right for the for the actual roster yeah cuz
Yeah they need someone to create some drives and some buckets for these guys to make them look good
yes you can’t look Deon Booker will create shots for him he definitely will create shots for him but you can’t have a back court of Jaylen Green and Deon Booker and expect them to create a lot of shots for these guys who can’t create for themselves jaylen Green once again of all the players who shot as much as him had the lowest assist ratio and to be fair played on a team that doesn’t make a a ton of shots but just a couple rashier Fleming stats since I got it paused here too uh 91st percentile in points per shot 1.28 points per possession in in college 99th percentile on cuts he basically scored and no it’s against Finance Bros he basically scored two points per cut when he got the ball on cuts because if he cut no one could stop him at the rim 1.8 eight points per
I feel like finance bro I’m just going to push back on the finance bro being the comparison I of of plumbers and firemen in 2025 I think it’s more like door dash delivery drivers okay would be the more pertinent comp
door dash uh delivery drivers and finance bros we’re going to put them both in there 93rd percentile as a role man and then the 92nd percentile on all jumpers so every way that he likes to play offense he’s efficient you just you know projecting his ceiling his ceiling is a role player but his ceiling is a good role player stephen said YouTubers and podcasters that’s a good one too he’s playing against podcasters although there’s one coaching the Lakers now so I don’t know if that
helps or hurts that argument [Music] i’m going to watch that one again because that’s slightly contested against a little guy
like this the way he brings the shot down so low it’s going to be interesting to see how that impacts rosterility like actual NBA defenders
wait did Kate did Katie Prime just tweet that at me i didn’t notice that yeah needs a job
i haven’t checked my It’s Saturday to be fair but I uh haven’t checked my notifications trying to change there’s a cut there’s a good example of the Suns by the way are going to cut a lot
if if Jordan is to be believed well I like that one kd Prime’s new thing is calling me a twink a lot
which I think might be him saying that he’s up to me
i’m not actually I’m not actually sure right to the basket that’s a great great catch and shoot there in the corner because he’s moving into the open area of the shot so kind of hops into the shot to make a little bit of extra space on that defender if he adds some level of movement to his shooting which I think he can do pick and pops right away it’s pretty huge there’s a movement shot i mean that’s ridiculous for a guy his size
they’re setting the screen for him he’s moving he’s flipping the angle
the last three games excited let’s watch uh
I think we got a good look at it there’s more scoring highlights here and I and if you have time I recommend still going through
and uh and watching because I think there’s a lot of interesting stuff
or just it’s fun truthfully that’s what it is his highlights are fun uh so go and watch them
yeah this is going to be a smaller playmaking session
exactly exactly but we should still watch it I think just to get a good idea of what what we’re looking at with him fleming
so that’s a drive
whoa that’s against a good team wants to take
that’s a spin move
they There’s a reason they started with this play I think
cuz this is the best one
right
spin the double and it’s against good competition too def
it is good competition the defense is way out of position there
and way latex out in the corner
and these occasional like passes on his drives they do happen you can’t rely on it
that it’s more more stuff like this this one you know just like the classic dribble handoff to a shooter Kobe Brea type they’re less efficient than threes and layers
that’s a good pass i like that there was a little pass fake built into that one let’s watch that one again they’re less efficient than threes and
I think he was looking away on that one too pretty nice finds the cutter that’s a good pass
he definitely has some level of feel that’s going to be them running a triangle offense of bigs in the paint of just Fleming Oso and Malawatch playing together where none of them shoot really and
one of them flipping passes the way one scout described it to me is the passing to feel comes and goes so you’ll see it sometimes and sometimes it’ll just look really bad
and you know I think that’s fair really nice out of the post still pretty young too did play multiple years of college but still pretty young not a bad pass that’s a bit of a skip pass on that one too nba athletes are different though
you can barely pass against OKC i know that’s like an outlier but good cutting team so it’s nice to see some level of passing to cutters there’s some of the loose handle on that one he’ll take he’ll take a couple dribbles lose the handle and then
and then need someone to bail him out yeah like he has confidence for about 3 seconds and then he’s like “Ah [ __ ] i shouldn’t have done this.”
Yeah if you find a way to develop some extra play that’s backto back banked threes on his assists by the way those are technically assists uh if you find a way to get some actual playmaking out of him in the NBA like you have
a seal because like really like I said he really projects to be a 3 and D role player who also gets rebounds and also can dunk
and that’s you know that’s like a supercharged role player if it all works out at a high level but even if it doesn’t like if it’s sort of medium level is still pretty valuable cuz he’s got a 75 wingspan if you’re 75 and can make threes 75 wingspan and can make threes that’s pretty valuable right away anything else is the cherry on top any of these types of passes happening in the NBA wouldn’t count on i mean occasionally
catching traffic relocating [Music] yeah i mean had needed a
That was a jump pass
you’re going to need to bail him out
time to bail him out yeah chris you know
concerns
swing yep that’s a good swing you know that just the most basic types of assists there but that’s okay you know it’s like with Malawatch you know we’re talking about making basic reads mostly but they need to play within the right role
i think he’ll be uh pretty effective pretty quickly in in a smaller role and I think he’s the type of player that like two years from now you know like in his third season you’re like “Wow he’s really improved he’s really gotten a lot better.” That’s the kind of thing that I would anticipate uh for him because it’s a you know when you’re playing the role that you’re playing which he he’s going to be asked to do a lot defensively a lot of what makes you better over time is playing against these guys and understanding their tendencies now you can watch all the film you want but you have to understand what they’re going to do against you as a as a defender and and I think that’s something Muel Bridges has talked about Tumani Camaro has talked about you know these are guys that you kind of they’re they’re so good in the uh getting Emma Stone pictures she’s a Sunspan it’s relevant uh but yeah we’ll see him improve over time anything else on uh Rashe Fleming shout out Emma Stone um on Rasher Fleming no I I’m actually really excited to get to Kobe Brea and uh I I want to ask you cuz someone mentioned it earlier but if we have time at the end here we should do Kobe Brea this is the guy easily I’ve watched the least amount of film on but what I’ve seen I’ve been really impressed we should also if you can find a video of CJ Huntley who they signed like 15 minutes after the draft ended to a two-way that would be cool too
it’s a good idea because I haven’t really watched any of that so that
I haven’t watched any of CJ Huntley really at all so that would be nice
i before the draft I knew come on Malawatch i watched highlights i watched Rashir Fleming rashir Fleming we we scouted him for the 29th pick so I think we even talked to Tyler Rucker about Rashir Fleming in our podcast about him
we did
but since the draft I’ve about overdosed on Kobe Bray highlights man his highlights are crazy i’m really excited to watch these this is a different uh you know type of video uh it’s not a there was a no there wasn’t a no ceilings video for him so it’s not separated into playmaking defense and uh and and scoring but I’m going to be honest with you if it’s 100% shooting this video I’m still happy because you’re going to see what he’s up here and it’s kind of crazy i imagine it’s going to be 90% shooting but I am hoping that there are a couple of clips of the playmaking and and maybe some mid-range there because some of the stuff I’ve seen particularly in that video where he breaks down his own film with I apologize I forget his name but it was another member of No Ceilings um there is some good stuff there and so I’m going to ask us to pause and and break that down if we see it he’s not like Rasheed Fleming in that he just like never showcased an an in between game right like I think Kobe Brea shot 45% uh from mid-range uh this past year at Kentucky and you know on like an attempt or two per game like he’s definitely taking threes a lot more often but there is something in between to his game and I I think maybe that’s something you can continue to bring out of him uh of becoming a connector on offense the stats for him in college he basically shot 50 50% in the season before he was at Kentucky dayton I believe is where he played and then transferred to Kentucky against much better competition and shot 43.5% in in Kentucky these are like generational level college style shooting in the way he’s shooting so it’s important to know 43.5% is what he shot in Kentucky i imagine these are all going to be Kentucky highlights not all three-point attempts are created the same there are guys who stand in the corner catch and shoot only PJ Tucker types you know that’s how we always uh talk about in uh in in in the Suns because that’s what PJ Tucker did for the Suns the shots that Kobe Bray is taking that we’re about to watch are so so so much more difficult so factor that in when thinking about the 43.5% when we watch these highlights easy you can’t do that with him right and and that’s a good example right away we’re starting off this is after a few dribbles he does have a pull up three-point shot as well as
that’s that patented right state defense right there this is I mean this is going to be an easier you know level of competition for him team like this 63-30 at the beginning of the second half easy side step
i know it’s right State you’re right but like here’s a staggered screen for him running off the ball he sprints into it and the thing that I love about so many of these highlights
is on the catch the the defense is there now he can still shoot on this catch right here and probably get his shot off quick enough that this defender is not going to block him but he has so much of that in his game right there well honestly that’s already him it feels like like kind of consciously preparing for the next level where defenders are going to be two three four five inches longer and a lot of times if he just tries to you know he he may have awesome footwork and plant his feet amazing on the pass but the defender is still going to get it if you go right up for the shot so he needs the side step in order to survive in the NBA the fact that he already has it in his college tape uh as as a guy who’s going to be 66 but often playing longer wings is really good to see
the amount of extra fakes on the catch that you’re going to see in this video hopefully I haven’t watched it yet um is is going to impress you because just that little bit extra to make sure the three is going to be wide open
it’s Curry you know like you learn it from Curry he talked about it it’s his favorite shooter he said Steph Curry made him want to be a shooter oh and by the way had a wide openlay
look where he’s looking before that shot goes in yeah and dude it’s like a clean make
and he knows it
clearly knows it he’s already looking at the crowd does he doesn’t even does not touch the rim
so many of these don’t touch the rim there it is
this Okay that’s the Paul George jab step that he was talking about in the video of I’m going to go left i’m going to go right i’m gonna watch how the defense reacts to me and then on the second jab step he gets the defender then he can side step pull up into a three
there’s so much
it’s understanding the triple threat and not uh what was it I said the other day that people were making fun of guys are going to bust you know when you’re in the triple threat you don’t need to take the dribble immediately you don’t need to blow that load instantly you can size up the defense video is going to get taken off at YouTube without dribbling and put yourself in a better position if you have a quick release like him once you get the couple extra inches of space then you’re golden you can see why I’ve been watching so much uh Kobe Brea film in that we’ve seen three shots already and it’s taken us 10 minutes just to talk about these three shots
but there’s so much boom boom boom reading it
he wasn’t open and then he was because of what he did with the ball and it was almost nothing looking for someone to feed it to
yeah and that’s Rashir Fleming can’t do that either right like when we talk about the difference yeah one of these guys might have shot 39% from three and the other shot 43 it may not feel like that much but the level of gravity and the amount that Kobe Brea terrifies the defense as he’s running around you can just feel the difference double backs out of it you know like he’s not Steph but like he clearly learned the exact exact footwork and exact ball moves that Steph does to create space
i mean like nobody does it like that but Steph
now other players in the NBA have gotten good at it tyler Herro is one of them i’ve seen Booker do that
booker can do it other players can do it but like it’s clear who he’s watching I think when he does it my goodness Kobe
and the thing I think that impresses me the most about him is the footwork and and it’s actually really similar to what we experienced when Devin Booker was drafted by the Suns too
was that on the wing
yes sir
you watched so much of it it’s a few feet behind the line
where’s he catching yeah that’s like 3 ft behind the line i mean again just you know
if he can make those shots without having to put on 50 lbs like Grayson Allen did this past year
then that’s an advantage okay so here he’s running a pick and roll
yes and it’s a step back three and he can do this like this is not
great it’s not something that just happened to happen on this play he has a lot of this in his game where he can create against NBA players probably not right away and and we should mention by the way it’s it’s been reported that he’s likely going to be on a two-way for the Suns he’s not even going to have a full roster spot right away so he’s probably going to be playing on the Valley Suns for most of the season maybe he’ll get time in the NBA based on injuries uh so we might not see him against a lot of NBA players right away but you know I hope we do i just want to see
i don’t know i mean if look if they can’t get rid of Beal but they just send Beal home for the season then Kobe Brea might he might start playing a factor into the depth chart sooner than we think yeah there’s a real chance that we just have a $50 million dead cap hit on our roster this year good pass there so he does have the occasional playmaking too he can make passes there’s more to his game than just shooting I should say offensively he likes to do out of the post
there’s another fake sideep sinks it not all threes are created the same i’m going to mention it again so they’re they’re in a zone and they’re just giving him the corner there that’s wild that defense kentucky was good though so
Williams off the leg gets it right back now that’s the James Harden
that’s Yeah that’s a lot of space the James Harden double step back right one two and that’s just you can’t it is you don’t do that by accident you do that cuz you worked on the footwork over and over and over and over
he really he feels like a guy who’s just taken a lot like this is the type of guy where you I mean he’s going to have Deon Booker to learn from you want veterans around a guy like this because he’s going to make the extra effort to take something from everyone he talks to
don’t get me wrong it’s good for him to learn from Deon Booker but like he needs to learn from like Norm Powell
and you know like guys more like that if they is not a bad is not a bad starting point grayson Allen didn’t shoot like this in college though
no he didn’t he sets himself he squares himself here at Rupas that one poked away by Garrison he’s got some he has a couple He even has a couple dunks in in the half court too so he can’t off cuts
they are just blowing so many of these teams out in these clips they’re already up 30 40 this is a good one to talk about what he talked about in that video with no ceilings by the way and this I think is the type of thing that he improved at from Dayton to Kentucky and this is the little fakes that he does to lull defenders to sleep off off the ball it’s just so nice right jab step to one end act like he’s cutting and then step back behind the three-point line once the defender makes contact with the screener
all net and there’s so much more of it in the no ceilings video with him talking still watch that one because it’s not going to have all of his offball movement in these because it’s highlights so it just shows the end of the play but what he does at the beginning of these plays to get open
that’s I think what matters they’re Odd’s going to run a million of those pin downs like in that play right there just simple pin downs for him
and he can turn them into pick and rolls like that and he’s not afraid to shoot the pull-ups he also talked I don’t know if we’re going to get a lot of cut off here’s a handoff okay this is that’s what I wanted to see so you know look there’s not a ton of clips like this but a guy like this you know think Duncan Robinson and Bamabio you get used to working off the handoffs you play five basketball push the pace turn it into a twoon-one and here he actually has the height to finish over the top and turn it into a dunk but a lot of times if the defender is coming towards him That’s going to be a lob that he has over the top there if he’s playing that with Mark Williams or Kaman Malawatch he can push that into into a lob easily it’s a deep and he also does have a floater in his game too by the way i have seen it
actually that’s one of the things that he grades out really well in is the floater
and also maybe one of the concerns when you talk about his ceiling is the kind of he relies on the floater he doesn’t quite get to the rim in ways that you could project a high ceiling for him but you know there are guys like that all over the NBA he’ll be fine if that’s if if he just relies on his shooting alone there’s the floater
not the prettiest one but came off the back rim but another pick and roll the footwork [Music] the footwork is just flawless i mean it really is [Applause] by Right he’s making room for the screen screen’s there hops into the shot and he’s so quick off his feet to shoot that shot and then it doesn’t hit anything but the net big shot by [Applause] contested the defender yeah the defender followed him the entire way cuz he he saw the pass coming and it didn’t matter just wasn’t close enough back to so good on his feet off the ball
you know players who understand the value of what you do off the ball
another handoff that goes so nasty
he talked about this one in that video by the way
catches he catches off of the handoff can you go back is this the play
this one’s it yeah so he’s taking the hand off and again like a few plays ago he could just push that forward and could have created twoon-one but he also has it in his bag to go to the step back create the space
also there’s this is what he talks about here when you start this play he looks not engaged right here you know he’s purposely trying to lull his defender in to sleep a little bit so he’s acting like he’s not going to run here you might even put the hands immediately takes off
sometimes and say “Oh I’m I’m out of the play.”
Yeah and then the the the tweener step back
is ridiculous of course and that’s not something you’ll probably be allowed to do in the NBA but you know maybe occasionally he’ll definitely do it in the in the G-League
noah terrible pass
how do you get that terrible pass it’s just terrible defense easy corner three nothing too too impressive about that but handoffs he’s going to shoot it every handoff that he’s open he’s going to launch shoots behind the line too he’s not towing the line on any of these really when they’re at the top
another sideep fake
really like this one too yeah
cuz they’re going to overplay him right now
they’re going to overplay him so there’s the fake right and he’s got that negative foot thing where he’s ready to take off got to be careful to not step out of bounds ej will
get hit on some of those but knowing how they’re going to play him and reading the defense based on that is going to really really impact his game so hopefully he can do that a lot in the NBA you just never know when he’s going to stop and when he’s going to keep going kobe
why didn’t Brea go higher in the draft this is an excellent question you know cuz he’s 6’5 and a half he’s 6’6 with shoes on there’s some some wiggle in Booker was 66 and he shot the hell out of the ball and he went 13th but
Booker was 18 and Bray is 22
age matters
that’s the real reason right there
age matters in the in the draft cuz he’s 22 and a half
so he’s going to be one of the older players drafted period such a ridiculous shot uh and also like he doesn’t really project to be an excellent defender just as Ruler’s pointing out a negative wingspan the numbers specifically for like vertical and stuff like that are not going to be great the other thing difference if you’re if you’re talking about Deon Booker since it’s impossible for Suns fans not to make this comparison right away but Devin Booker all of his agility numbers at the combine were kind of off the charts they were actually really really impressive which is not what a lot of people expected out of Deon Booker so there was that and I think Devin Booker in general coming out at 18 and having high level potential pushed him up to the top so age defense and not a super high ceiling when it comes to a creator but I think a little bit undersold when you watch the footage that I think he can create more than people expect yeah I agree also just on the negative wingspan bit look wingspan is very important we just talked about Rasher Fleming um but if you have height and a decent standing reach and you’ve shown that you have certain anticipatory skills and you compete that is often that is often enough if you have the requisite offensive skill case in point who’s a guy with a negative defender who just got traded for like five first round picks desmond Bane right and Desmond Bane went late in the draft for similar reasons he’s like 6’4 6’5 with a 6’4 wingspan or something
yeah 30 32nd or something like that wasn’t he
exactly and now he’s going to be one of the central pieces of of Orlando’s offense now I’m not saying Brea is is specifically similar to Desmond Bane in the way he plays but like you can get by with a negative wingspan uh if you’re smart and you know
I mean if he reaches like a ceiling ceiling it’s more of a JJ one obviously like that’s kind of what you need him to be [Applause] but I do think there’s something there you know
also really good point from that’s kind of wild his turnover percentage was was really good in college i think he had like God I got to look it up i want to say he had like a 3 to1 assist turnover ratio this year or something really good
okay finally we get a cut play so just talking about his cutting he was asked in the no ceilings video keep plugging that video when he talks about his own film what did he improve at the most between Dayton and Kentucky he said when he got to Kentucky he was told he needs to cut more basically he’s got to be an excellent cutter and there’s so much you can do when you have gravity as a shooter because they’re going over the screen on him here
he’s off the ball in the top corner right they’re going over the screen because he’s a shooter now he has space to get to the rim he knows that there’s there’s whoever number five is here for him that that defender needs to stay on
so he’s going to have a clear line all the way to the rim they’re just too afraid of his shooting and so he’s starting to understand when he has the space to cut and uh that’s going to be important for him to just find extra ways to get easy shots and by the way I think when he gets to the rim too he can make the right read we talked about his turnover percentage i don’t think he’s a guy who’s not good at passing he’s he’s a pretty good passer there’s a reason all his highlights are offensive though it’s
just how he’s going to be there’s a little bit of the juice that’s the kind of finishes you’re going to get from him
not exactly getting off of the off of the ground very high
but uh you know not everyone needs to that was the same play they just ran that
damn
that’s Yeah that’s just
Curry footwork right there
it’s just so nice just to read the defender so cleanly and we could do this forever like there’s not going to be much other highlights in this video other than shooting
and that’s you know that’s why he was drafted though that does that not look like Steph against Chris Paul i know it’s like college so it’s not as impressive but one fake two fake three fake you know again just to the point of him being 67 in shoes I just had to go and look it up the combine numbers the negative wingspan is what it is but when you talk about a guy being able to like contest shots you really want to look at the standing reach and his standing reach
is 8’6 which is not bad that’s the thing it’s the same as BJ Edgecomb it’s the same as Dylan Harper it’s the same as Khan Kipple you could do way way way worse uh than a guy with an 8 foot six standing
is the Illinois Bruce in the chat is the Illinois game where he went seven for seven from three [Music] i believe it is i’m sure he’ll respond in the chat here
um
no you’re you’re right
you’re right Sam like there’s there’s just I don’t know i really don’t understand why he was drafted so low when I watched the film but you know I’m kind of like seduced by players like this all the time it you know the way the NBA is played too it leans more Rashier Fleming than it does
Kobe Brea right now you know in that you have to be capable defensively to stay seven for eight stephen thank you yeah I believe if I’m not mistaken he started that game seven for seven and then missed his last three
which is nuts
we have to see how the summer league roster is going to come around exactly but
as a defensive highlight we finally got one we’re going to be focusing so much on Malawatch and Fleming obviously because those are the guys we project to be playing right away and I’m sure they’ll be great but is there a chance that Kobe Bray is just the leading scoreer abs well first of all he’s 22
yeah and he’s just going to come out guns ablazing great cut play so let’s watch this one so he passes it off to the big and then immediately stands straight up like he’s not going to do anything and then boom just one little fake towards the ball and he leaves the guy in his desk just really really really smart with his fakes off the ball
and once again like you guys who don’t want to do stuff off the ball don’t want to do stuff off the ball it’s really difficult to convince them to do it like the ones who are capable and willing to do it constantly it’s valuable to have those kinds of players to that point also um you’re not going to see any clips of it here in the highlights because it’s just not the type of thing that makes highlight reels but he will screen for other players off the ball
right and his willingness to screen for other players off the off the ball and involve himself in actions where he can be a decoy and end up not even getting the ball sometimes he will but not always
and what he talked about another thing that helps him stick around
what he talked about what allows him to do it is conditioning he said “No one’s going to be able to outrun him out there because he’s going to be in the best condition to be able to do that.” Yeah and and also
you know you watch Indiana play and it’s what they did conditioning really matters right now and he’s also 6’7 in shoes and and and 200 lb which is enough to do it right like some of these really tiny point guards where you have to think to yourself like if they’re even if they’re a great shooter you have to think how am I going to involve this guy exactly he’s 170 lb he’s just so small brea isn’t he has legitimate wing size that means that you can involve him in a more complex offense um
I have to hit the bathroom for one minute
but then I do want us if you can see if you can find a video of CJ Huntley that would be a good place yeah I’ll look right now and one thing I’ll say somebody asked about comparing Kobe Brea to Caniple the thing I’ll say about Caniple is there’s not a ton of flaws in Canipple’s game the ceiling you know it can be argued
about how high the ceiling is going to be for somebody like Canipple but the defense is pretty good the offense is pretty good his shot creation for others his passing is pretty good there’s just a lot to Caniple’s game that that got him drafted where he was and I can see why he was drafted where he was so let’s see cj Huntley so for those who don’t know CJ Huntley was undrafted but the Suns did sign him to to a a deal an undrafted uh deal i believe it was a two-way deal yeah so he’s going to be probably playing a lot with um with these guys the guys that we just watched mostly Brea i think Brea is the guy that’s most likely to play brea is a reason in and of himself to go to the games in Tempe so if you’re local in Phoenix and you want to go see some Valley Suns games and Brea is going to be playing on those nights it’s a good reason to go watch them and I have yet to watch CJ Huntley so let me look up some of his stats real quick just to see how big he is because I think that’s the type of thing that’s going to matter he is massive by the way i think if you talk about adding more size to the Suns he’s 6’11 221 pounds last year uh he did average 15 points eight rebounds 49% from the field 1.1 assists looks like a guy who does shoot threes and can shoot threes but maybe that’s not a big part of his game and uh yeah he’s a huge huge dude let’s watch some some highlights and we’ll see what Sam thinks when he gets back last February 12 okay I’m back are we already in
yep we’re in CJ Huntley right here
um did you read the measurements i think 610 611 is what he’s listed on ESPN
611 with shoes probably yep 74 75 wingspan um big guy with length yeah yeah very similar measurements to Fleming you could see the long arms on his shot release 35% from
three% yeah so I think we’re not going to watch any video on the other guys who who are just in summer league but the reason we’ll do it with Huntley is because this is a confirmed two-way correct yeah so this is a guy you’re going to at the very least see on the Valley Suns look guys there’s
that’s a great dunk there’s a lot of room for additional power forwards on the roster right now so I’m not going to say he couldn’t end up playing pick and pop yeah know these guys when there’s injuries you know these guys will play at some point in the NBA we didn’t expect Colin Gillespie to be such a huge part of the Suns rotation at the beginning of last season kind of thought he would play thought he was an NBA player but he ended up playing a lot more than we expected so really it seems to How many three-point attempts per game did he shoot these highlights are all
3.8 uh only about a third of his attempts were threes but he shot 3.8 per game and 36% 118 total three-point attempts according to Stephen in the chat here i’m going to watch more of him
i can’t imagine he’s going to play a big role in the Suns but you know it’s just fun to learn about these guys [Applause] see if they can use that to their advantage and they immediately turn it over with that said three on
here you have him running the floor that’s a great job running the floor and [ __ ] it back with the right hand threw it down little playmaking chops
maybe into the pick and pop
i don’t know man seems seems pretty skilled on offense
and the shot release is clean there’s confidence and
he caught it and shot it right away it looked It looked nice okay there’s a little bit of a post moves there too
oh and then he taunted him i love it
a little a little too small that’s a tech in the NBA but okay i love it
don’t mind it
kd’s allowed to do it
oh that’s nice is he a good offensive rebounder is that That’s something they definitely targeted they’ve been getting offensive rebounders everywhere man he
says Ny in the chat that’s what That’s what people say about him four five 9.6 boards per 40 of which 2.7 were offensive rebounds i’d say yeah pretty good pretty good not Not like
amazing but pretty good nice pass good catch she just went right up with it too yeah this is definitely a four five that they’re thinking they could I mean if they had to right play next to Mark Williams or Malawatch and still have him space the floor and get offensive rebounds it’s like an energy big right like that’s what I’m getting from this well I know if you’re going to be watching some Valley Suns games seeing a guy with this level of length there is going to be pretty it’s going to stand out let’s just say 75 74 wingspan and the ability to shoot threes it’s not a combination that’s common and the Suns are clearly valuing that kind of thing and Bruce in the in the chat is exactly right they know what coach they got they got the coach of the Cleveland team that had a ton of length in their front court and they’re trying to do something like that here in Phoenix and see if they could find a way to replicate it i
you know I’ve made the joke before but if you get Jaylen Green on the team you might as well get a bunch of guys who are good at offensive rebounding
finish finish up top
don’t know how many lobs he had uh or or I mean it seems like he he caught a lot of loss i don’t know what the efficiency was though another post up well we’ll watch more of him later we’ll have more to talk about with CJ Huntley obviously we watched Malawatch here we watched some Fleming watch some Kobe Brea
we got a podcast we’re recording tomorrow which is Sunday
we’re going to be talking about free agency coming up the Suns are still projected to only have minimum contracts so it’s not going to be a huge free agency period for the Suns but they also made another pretty big addition in Mark Williams so we’re going to spend some more time doing more research about Mark Williams and the plan is to have a guest who covered the Charlotte Hornets to talk about Mark Williams with us on our podcast tomorrow so get ready for that one soon
we’ll be recording that one soon you got anything else Sam before we go here
i don’t think so we are going to post this to YouTube you said so if you watch this from YouTube uh welcome back welcome back to the family we’re so happy to have you check us out spotify Apple you know wherever you listen to podcasts except for YouTube that’s where we post them because we are still in 2025 audio only sorry guys
yeah that’s right all right thanks everyone thanks for hanging out three on the shot clock [Music] [Applause]
The Timeline boys watch film for Phoenix Suns rookies Khaman Maluach, Rasheer Fleming, and Koby Brea. Plus we talk about what to expect from the rookies on the Suns next year.
00:00 Intro
05:12 Khaman Maluach
29:30 Rasheer Fleming
1:03:17 Koby Brea
1:26:48 CJ Huntley
29 Comments
My favorite NBA YouTubers back at it again
Thanks for the upload!
🐦🔥
Hope is back!!
I was able to catch the playback live, but had to come and watch the YouTube version to support the return of the channel 🫡
IM POGGING
Thanks for posting, fellas!
I hope Khaman doesn't end up the same as Mo Bamba. That is my worst case scenario for him.
But looking at his size, length, offensive skillset, defense, and overall upside, yeah. Its not hard to be optimistic about his game.
Fingers crossed, Suns fans! 🤞
I've BEEN in the family. WELCOME YOU back to youtube!!!
Dari-Oso at point for summer league
Youtube Timeline is back 🔥🔥
Y'all need to upload to Youtube more.
Dont have time for youtube my ass. If sam spent 50% less time on Twitter i bet yall could get some stuff out 😂😂
Growing up watching Tatum is disturbing
Woahhhh
Did yall just remember the password or something???
Glad y'all are back. PHNX Sports is unbearable.
Some of your breakdowns have the worst pessimism ever lol.
Fleming had almost identical combine measurements as Jarrett Allen. The dude is massive …..and with that shot… boy the Suns got a good one.
the timeline pod posted on yt before the suns signed a pg 😭
😂 doordash delivery drivers was good but there's no reason it can't still be plumbers and fireman 🤣
SUNS FAN SINCE 86,LOVEM PUSH BEAL OFF A CLIFF AN A PG ,PERFECT OFFSEASON GO SUNS
Sit Beal until traded. Booker was was better being the number 1 option on a young team.
Hoping Maluach is the Embiid to Flagg’s Wiggins so to speak
He’s going to be so much better than Ayton
A great malu-watch.
The optimism is back! Fun video guys. Would watch more if y'all are ever able to find the time for it.
La Salle and St Joe's are both in Philly.
Thanks for the content