The Phoenix Suns have played three enjoyable games out at Summer League in Las Vegas so far, and while the results don't matter the play of their key young players certainly does.
Koa Peat and Rasheer Fleming have gotten off on the right foot, while the confidence of Khaman Maluach in attacking smaller players has been encouraging to see.
Koby Brea has more riding on Vegas trip than any Suns player
The same can't quite be said for sophomore Koby Brea, although he did have a nice 19 point outing in which he hit an impressive 6-of-11 shots from deep in the recent win over the Milwaukee Bucks (we know we said the result doesn't matter, but posting a +18 in a victory helps tell the story for Brea).
Prior to that his play had been up-and-down, which is a shame for him personally because he stands to win (or lose) the most from appearing in these games.
Already Fleming has jumped him in the queue for minutes, and although Peat won't be in direct competition with him for minutes he too is doing all of the right things to get more run.
Ryan Dunn is the other youngster firmly on the outside right now, and an inability to take advantage of these opportunities could see Brea join him there. A surprise given how quickly fans fell in love with his Devin Booker-lite shooting and touch this time last year.
Really though it is the re-signing of Collin Gillespie and Jordan Goodwin that spells trouble for Brea. If he can somehow become a 40 percent shooter from deep then his spot in the rotation would be more secure, and in fact he did that last season. Knocking down 43.3 percent on 2.5 attempts each night is encouraging, the problem is the sample size of 12 games is small.
If he can take some hot shooting from the desert back with him to The Valley, then the payoff could be massive for the 23-year-old. Already nearly four years older than Maluach and Peat, Brea is in the unfortunate position of having to prove he can contribute as soon as this season.
He's of a similar age to Jalen Green for example, yet is still fighting for a spot in the wider rotation in Phoenix by appearing in Summer League.
This situation could all go so right for Brea in the coming months and he makes head coach Jordan Ott's 10 man rotation during the regular season. Just as likely is that he's not on the team 12 months from now, which makes these games so important.
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