Khaman Maluach fares well with Wembanyama matchup in Suns preseason

PHOENIX — Khaman Maluach is going to improve with every opportunity he gets, and even the preseason on Saturday presented one that he ended up taking advantage of.

In the Phoenix Suns’ 102-98 preseason win over the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday, Maluach started and provided 10 points, 15 rebounds and three assists in 21 minutes, some of which came against Spurs superstar Victor Wembanyama.

“Tonight I thought overall was his best performance,” head coach Jordan Ott said of Maluach.

As Ott promised, he is indeed mixing and matching with his starting center, giving Maluach the nod after Oso Ighodaro opened the first two exhibition fixtures. It is a slight tell that Ighodaro was the one to play with all of the starters, as we probably won’t see a full starting five again until the season opener on Oct. 21. Regardless, it’s a no-brainer to give Maluach some of these reps, and maybe he is the guy after all.

With some wonder pregame on who would defend Wembanyama after Phoenix used other players last year, Maluach was really going to get value on his reps because he was the guy to pick it up.

Wemby did the classic star thing, challenging Maluach in isolations early, the ol’ “he’s guarding me?” challenge to test a youngin.

The Frenchman tried to get Maluach’s hip a few times and was unsuccessful, something Wembanyama can do on drives with blow-bys on less agile centers. While Maluach isn’t fully switchable, he can move a bit.

Obviously a very unique challenge for Khaman Maluach tonight.

He’s just *at* the POA with Victor Wembanyama. Good job vs the reject in chest & contest.

Challenges 1v1 & in coverage tonight, great reps in opportunity. https://t.co/ZB7REor4hY

— Stephen PridGeon-Garner 🏁 (@StephenPG3) October 11, 2026

Wemby got him on a bump for a foul call slightly later, but Maluach had a nice verticality recovery to answer back.

“It’s just being able to make him take tough shots, because he’s more dangerous going to the rim than him shooting, so just being able to stay solid and no more fouls,” Maluach said.

He then found Kennard on a backdoor bounce pass, the type of delivery you have to be capable of as a Suns center with how Ott wants the ball moving.

Kennard ➡️ Maluach ➡️ Kennard

Luke Kennard’s got 10 PTS in Q1 of preseason play on ESPN2! https://t.co/qUGbNGn2x4

— NBA (@NBA) October 11, 2026

Later on, Maluach had a great secondary jump on Luke Kornet to deny him at the rim after finishing strong through him on the other end.

KHAMAN MALUACH WITH THE GROWN MAN MOVE https://t.co/mmpuDD50rY

— Erik Ruby (@ErikRuby) October 11, 2026

“I think he played well,” Dillon Brooks said of Maluach. “I think he manned the paint, grabbed some ‘boards, caught some hard passes and finished with both of his hands, so I feel like he played well and protected our rim really well.”

The lows were still there, of course.

Stephon Castle is a premium pick-and-roll playmaker, and sleepwalked into a lob for Wemby to pick on Maluach’s positioning in the way one of his mentors, Chris Paul, always did to young bigs. Maluach also fumbled a bounce pass, and his timing was off in some other ball-screen scenarios, and he especially has to be better about where he is as a rebounder. As an example, out of a timeout after the designed play was ran, Ott called Maluach over to sort out a mixup the second-year big had.

All told, this is what Phoenix will hope for out of Maluach when he plays. A bag full of impact plays, enough to where his mistakes didn’t cancel out the positivity of his contributions. By the end of the season, the Suns will hope those mistakes shrink, and the impact expands further. That is likely best utilized off the bench with the variation on his effectiveness in mind.

Elsewhere, Phoenix sat Devin Booker and Miles Bridges. Booker was out for rest, part of a plan for the Suns to try to give everyone at least one game off in the preseason. Bridges tweaked his right ankle in Wednesday’s loss, but all indications are he’s fine, and it is nothing of concern. Ryan Dunn and Luke Kennard took their spots, which allowed Collin Gillespie and Jordan Goodwin to keep coming off the bench. For what it’s worth, it was also another slight lean that Dunn is ahead of Rasheer Fleming in the pecking order.

Even with two starters out and an unconventional starting lineup in, this was not just some dress rehearsal. Green played 29 minutes in three quarters, and the Suns used a nine-man rotation for three full periods. Fleming served as the extra player to essentially create an 11-man list of who we expect to be the guys prominently involved in the rotation this season. For example, there wasn’t any interest from Ott in seeing someone like Haywood Highsmith or Koa Peat mixed in with the usual suspects.

Without Booker, this was a deep look at Green leading the offense. It was a good night for him with the scoring and efficiency: 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting with five assists. He also had lots of questionable decisions with the ball that derailed possessions.

Kennard’s volume was good to see: 8-of-15 for 20 points in 25 minutes. That is the primary ask of the Suns when he is on the floor. Ott ran some great stuff to get Kennard in the spots he likes. He is good at his job.

Fleming looked rough in 19 minutes. Outside of a tip-out on an offensive rebound early in the night, it was otherwise a big struggle. The concept presented in this space last year was to treat the then-rookie more like a one-and-done five-star freshman with lots of raw elements of his game instead of the three-year collegiate player he was. This really showed itself on Saturday. He’s got to get his confidence back with his feel for where to be and what to do on the floor, or else he’s going to fall behind quickly.

The Suns have two more preseason games left, one on Wednesday in San Antonio and the finale on Friday back at home against the Utah Jazz. Ott said one of those two games will feature most of the key players resting.

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