Report: Suns Turned Down This Offer for First-Round Pick

Remember the 2026 unprotected first-rounder the New Orleans Pelicans sent to the Atlanta Hawks to move up and draft and take Derik Queen 13th overall? Well, the Phoenix Suns were offered the same package and denied it.

John Hollinger for The Athletic revealed in a piece analyzing every NBA Summer League disappointment -- which included Phoenix's No. 10 pick Khaman Maluach -- revealed the Suns were offered the same package from New Orleans so they could trade up earlier in the 2025 NBA Draft.

"Could the Suns have done what Atlanta did and walked away from the draft with an unprotected future first from the Pelicans and the 23rd pick instead of staying at No. 10?" Hollinger wrote. "Discussion over whether Phoenix fumbled the bag by not taking the New Orleans offer will only heighten if Maluach can’t give the Suns a quality big.

"Phoenix opted to take the Duke project, and I’ll emphasize the word “project” here; his was a rough entry to professional basketball. The 7-1 Maluach only posted a 13.5 percent rebound rate, took nearly half his shots from 3 and had one assist in 70 minutes. Watching from courtside made me more concerned about his hands, as contested rebounds and alley-oop opportunities escaped him at times."

An enticing offer, for sure, but Maluach was on Phoenix's radar all along. And a few indecent moves in the past may have dissuaded the front office from making another seismic trade like this, despite that unprotected 2026 Pelicans pick having a great chance of becoming AJ Dybantsa.

Nonetheless, the Suns stuck to their guns and took Maluach as a potential cornerstone big man for the foreseeable future.

Khaman Maluach Evaluation

Maluach overcame a lot in his life to make it to the NBA growing up as a South Sudanese refugee. His journey started in the NBA Academy just over four years ago, which is when he first started playing organized basketball.

The 7-foot-1, 253-pound big man showed flashes of frontcourt dominance in his lone year at Duke. Maluach averaged 8.6 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game with the Blue Devils and, while admittedly being work in progress offensively, he has the defensive intangibles to be incredibly disruptive as a post defender.

He's drawn comparisons from the likes of Kristaps Porzingis and Rudy Gobert. An optimistic ceiling, of course, but as I said, he has a lot of room to grow as an 18-year-old who has only been playing basketball since he was 13 years old.

Maluach comes to The Valley as a likely backup center to Mark Williams and the big man of the future for new head coach Jordan Ott.

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