The Phoenix Suns assigned rookies Khaman Maluach and Rasheer Fleming to the Valley Suns ahead of a Friday game for the G League team.
The Valley Suns play at 7 p.m. in Mullett Arena against the Rip City Remix. It will air on Suns + and on Arizona’s Family Sports on a tape delay.
Maluach and Fleming, who were respectively the No. 10 and 31 overall picks in the 2025 NBA Draft, earned brief minutes Thursday in Phoenix’s blowout of the Indiana Pacers. Fleming scored two points and grabbed a rebound in seven minutes, while Maluach scored two points and added two rebounds to go with two fouls in six minutes.
They could benefit from earning more game action in a light back-to-back scenario.
While it was once considered a poor sign for a lottery pick to earn a G League assignment — the Suns sent 2020 No. 10 overall pick Jalen Smith to the Disney bubble during his rookie season — teams are more often utilizing their affiliates to give players in unique circumstances some run.
The Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday moved 40-year-old LeBron James to their G League team for practice as he ramps up, having missed the season so far due to sciatica.
The Brooklyn Nets earlier this month assigned first-round choices Nolan Traore, Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf to their Long Island-based G League squad for two games each.
For Phoenix (8-5), Maluach and Fleming have appeared in seven games each. Neither has played more than 36 total minutes this season.
Maluach notably has not cracked the rotation with first-year coach Jordan Ott doing well juggling minutes for centers Mark Williams, Nick Richards and Oso Ighodaro.
Even against the Pacers on Thursday, with Williams held out for injury management, Ighodaro played his best game as a Sun with an obscene plus-minus of +52 in 26 minutes, while Richards started and ate up 15 minutes.
Phoenix is off until Sunday. Unlike Smith’s case during the pandemic and many other teams’ situations in 2025, the Suns are taking advantage of their own G League organization, conveniently located a short drive away in Tempe.