Brendan Mau of Yahoo Sports recently singled out Rasheer Fleming as his biggest Phoenix Suns sleeper ahead of the 2026-27 season, and there’s a real case to be made for that call.
Fleming is heading into his sophomore season after a modest but encouraging playoff look against the Oklahoma City Thunder, and the setup in Phoenix gives him a clean runway to show what he can do night after night. At 22, he looks positioned for a bigger role than the one he had in that brief postseason sample.
Part of what makes him stand out is how he fits around the rest of the roster. He already looks like a more steady offensive option than Ryan Dunn, who may be shown the exit door before the trade deadline. He also brings a different skill set than rookie Koa Peat, and both players should have chances to carve out minutes under Coach Jordan Ott, just in different ways.
Miles Bridges changes the picture too. The new addition is expected to start and can give this team 20 points a night. The hope is that the off the court issues are behind him, but if there are any lapses there, Fleming would only become more attractive as an option.
Fleming isn’t a bruiser, but he can his own in the paint, and there’s a belief that he can lean into those strengths inside Ott’s top-10 defense from last season. On the other end, there still seems to be room for his game to grow, which is why Mau’s read on him makes so much sense.
What separates Fleming is that the Suns don’t really have another player who does exactly what he does. He could fit next to Devin Booker, and the idea of him pairing with Oso Ighodaro in an undersized but explosive frontcourt is intriguing.
Phoenix has already tried this kind of bet before, bringing Nigel Hayes-Davis over from Europe last time out to provide a spark off the bench across the forward line for 15 minutes a night. That didn’t last, as he was gone by the deadline. Fleming looks better equipped to handle that type of job.
He also avoids the nightly physical toll that comes with battling true centers, unlike youngster Khaman Maluach, who also made Mau’s list but remains a much rawer prospect. Maybe the South Sudanese big man surprises everyone and jumps Mark Williams in the starting group. Even so, the safer bet is Fleming quietly becoming the eighth man on a roster that gets small once you move beyond the starters.
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The catch is that this kind of move usually comes with a second decision not far behind the first. The Suns already showed with Mark Williams that they are willing to extend a player after trading for him, and Bridges could push them into a similar conversation if he settles in as one of the teams core pieces. The question now is whether Phoenix sees him as a short-term fit or as someone worth paying to keep around if his impact grows quickly. [Read more 🡒]
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The longer that logjam lasts, the more his situation starts to look like a make-or-break stretch with the team. If Phoenix decides to move in another direction, Dunn would still have avenues to keep his career moving, whether that means finding work overseas or trying to reopen an NBA door later on. [Read more 🡒]
Kevin Durant Just Reopened A Brutal Debate About His Suns Run
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The most difficult part for Suns fans is how quickly the window closed on the Durant-Booker-Beal era, with the partnership never delivering the breakthrough the franchise was chasing. Phoenix did at least recoup real value in the deal, landing a top ten draft pick along with Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks, but the lingering question around Durants Suns tenure remains the same one that followed him out the door. [Read more 🡒]