There was reportedly a minor bidding war for Rasheer Fleming ahead of day two of this year’s draft, with teams vying to move up to No. 31 to select the former Saint Joseph’s forward. The Suns won that bidding war by sending Minnesota the No. 36 pick and a pair of future second-rounders.
Fleming is coming off an impressive junior season in which he averaged 14.7 points, 8.5 rebounds, 1.4 steals and 1.5 blocks per game in 35 appearances (31.1 minutes), with a shooting line of .531/.390/.743. In July, Phoenix signed the 21-year-old to a four-year, $8.7MM contract using the second-round pick exception. He got three fully guaranteed years, with a fourth-year team option.
In a recent interview with Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic, Fleming discussed a handful of topics, including his approach to his rookie season.
“Honestly, my main goal is obviously be the best player I can be, but I think I can do that by starting off on the defensive end,” said Fleming, who emphasized that his offense would develop from there.
First-year head coach Jordan Ott has similar expectations for the young power forward.
“He’s really high on me on the defensive end and getting me on the floor doing that,” Fleming said of Ott. “He sees the potential offensively, too, but his main focus for me is, he was telling me the other day, to focus on getting us more possessions. Whether that’s defensively, like getting steals, guarding people, defensive rebounds or on the offensive end with offensive boards. Just getting us more possessions.”
Rankin notes that Fleming made three appearances during Las Vegas Summer League, averaging 7.3 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.7 steals while shooting 50.0% from the field and 36.4% from long distance in 16.8 minutes per game.
“It was a great experience overall,” Fleming told Rankin. “I know it’s not technically an NBA floor, but just to be in the NBA-type of game. It was a fun and good experience for me. Just getting the feel and the pace of the NBA game and getting ready for the season. It was really cool.”
As for what he’s currently focused on, the New Jersey native said he’s trying to improve his on-court decision-making by being a little more methodical.
“I’m trying to not slow down in the sense of running slow or anything like that, but just slowing my pace down a little bit,” Fleming said. “I feel like I’m rushing sometimes when I’m doing certain things like when I’m shooting sometimes or about to make a decision. Just slowing things down a little bit and I’ve been getting really good at that over time in practice. I’ve just been slowing my pace down a little bit.”