Khaman Maluach has quickly climbed into a spot the Phoenix Suns probably didn’t expect to be talking about this soon: he’s now their third most valuable trade asset.
That says plenty about where the Suns stand, because the gap between the top of the list and everything else is huge. Devin Booker sits alone at the top, and the team is never going to move him.
Dillon Brooks comes next and, as the source puts it, is still somehow undervalued. After that, Maluach is the name rival teams would be most eager to get their hands on if Phoenix ever put him on the market.
For the Suns, that’s both encouraging and alarming.
On the encouraging side, the 19-year-old center has already boosted his stock by showing real progress on the floor. He’s become a player who could push starter Mark Williams for his spot, and that kind of rise only makes his value look stronger. His inclusion in the Kevin Durant trade from the Houston Rockets is also looking better by the day.
But the bigger picture is harder to ignore. If Maluach is already this high on the asset ladder, it tells you how thin Phoenix is on trade chips. The former 10th overall pick is still considered raw, but even with that label, his value is now ahead of Jalen Green’s.
The same goes for Miles Bridges, whom the Charlotte Hornets somehow got a 2032 first rounder from the Suns for earlier this offseason. Oso Ighodaro and Collin Gillespie are useful rotation pieces, but they wouldn’t bring back what Maluach could on the open market. The same is true for veterans Jordan Goodwin and Luke Kennard, which means Maluach is worth more to other teams than 85 percent of the Suns’ roster, even though he still isn’t a regular contributor.
That’s the kind of reality that leaves fans wondering whether Booker could eventually want out.
What Maluach really offers Phoenix right now is hope. With limited draft capital and a messy cap situation, the Suns need something young and promising to cling to, and he fits that bill. Other teams would be buying into that upside too, but Phoenix should not be in a hurry to sell it.
The only exception would be if the right deal came along and seriously improved Booker’s chances of winning a championship in Phoenix. In that case, the front office could at least listen.
For now, though, Maluach stands as the third-best asset on the roster and a reminder that the Suns have shown a knack for squeezing value out of trades, especially after being on the wrong end of some brutal ones in recent years.
In Other News...
Dillon Brooks Added An Unexpected Twist To His Suns Offseason Work
Dillon Brooks offseason routine took an unexpected turn before he even got back into NBA work, with the Suns sharing that he spent part of the summer training in Kung Fu. The setting alone stood out, and so did the fit: the Wudang Mountains in China are tied to a style built around discipline and body control, two traits that can only add another layer to a player whose game has long been defined by edge, strength and relentless physicality.
Brooks is coming off a career-best NBA season, which already gave Phoenix reason to believe it had added a veteran wing with plenty left in the tank. Now hes folding martial arts into the mix as part of his offseason routine, an unusual wrinkle that makes sense for a player looking to sharpen his body control while keeping the competitive fire that makes him who he is. [Read more 🡒]
Suns Face A High-Stakes Booker Decision In Potential Guard Upgrade
Phoenix has spent plenty of time looking for a cleaner answer at point guard, and any move that upgrades the backcourt next to Devin Booker would naturally get attention. In that kind of search, the Suns would be weighing not just fit but future flexibility, especially if the trade market is built around a team with limited draft capital and a need to think carefully about roster balance.
One speculative scenario floating around would send the Suns a proven guard option while asking them to part with a pair of young players from the edge of the rotation. For Phoenix, the appeal is obvious: a steadier table-setter to ease the burden on Booker. The question is whether the cost is too steep for a team still trying to thread the needle between win-now pressure and long-term depth. [Read more 🡒]
Suns Suddenly Have A New Center Question Fans Will Love
The Suns center room looks a lot more stable after bringing Mark Williams back into the fold, and that alone changes the conversation around the roster. Williams gives Phoenix a true interior presence with rim protection, rebounding and easy finishing around the basket, the kind of profile that can quietly reshape how a team defends and how it plays around its guards.
But the intrigue does not stop with one familiar name. Phoenix also has Khaman Maluach and Oso Ighodaro in the mix, which gives the frontcourt a different kind of depth than most teams carry, and Maluach in particular has already flashed the sort of athletic upside that makes the Suns long-term picture harder to pin down. The real question now is less about whether Phoenix has enough size and more about how the rotation sorts itself out once the competition at center starts for real. [Read more 🡒]