I've considered the Pathjfinder Summoner, it's a good match, but since I'm not actually the DM for this I'm unsure if it will be open (though the DM is a pretty bro dude). Conjurers work well, though druid seems more fitting (free all the pokemon/animals, being able to talk to them, and supposedly some gnarly handle animal checks). Astral Construct pokemon would be fitting, though since I'm currently playing an Astral Construct build, I'll avoid that.
I see him either Wis or Cha based, so the options from what I can see are druid, spirit shaman, and sorcerer with a summoning focus. The thematics of throwing spheres isn't too important, we pretty much get spell thematics for free.
I noticed a ACF which drops wild shape for monk AC and tracking. While probably not optimized, it seemed fitting. He's a caster before a wildshaper.
I'm not familiar with optimizing summoning druids (if I went that way), though I know the Summon Monster series tends to be stronger than the Summon Nature's Ally series overall. I'm reviewing the handbook, but if anyone knows any tricks not covered or specific to my build, by all means I appreciate it.