The majority of the Phoenix Suns roster is falling into place as preseason marches toward the NBA’s opening night. But who the starting center in The Valley will be with Mark Williams sidelined remains up to interpretation. “Jordan Ott is still holding off on naming the starting center,” Arizona Sports’ Kellan Olson said on Monday.
Olson added that Ott said he’s not the type of coach to swap around his starters based on game-to-game matchups, so whoever wins the job will likely keep it until further notice.
Suns position battle at center continues to be a focal point
Conventional wisdom tells us that Oso Ighodaro will be the Suns’ starting center when the regular season rolls around, if only due to his advantage in the experience department over former lottery pick Khaman Maluach.
With that being said, the upside of Maluach and what he’s already proven on the defensive side of the ball as a rookie makes this position battle very intriguing.
To be clear, there’s no winner or loser in what Coach Ott ultimately decides. With Williams sidelined for the foreseeable future as he rehabs from shoulder surgery, both Ighodaro and Maluach are going to get time to make an impact.
Maluach only turned 20 years of age in September and missed out on the bulk of the postseason minutes that Ighodaro learned a lot from earlier this year.
But the former No. 10 overall pick has the potential to be an elite rim protector at the NBA level and is proving himself serviceable in the pick-and-roll game on offense with a number of different options to orchestrate off his bruising screens.
Maluach's potential is off the charts
Face of the franchise Devin Booker had nothing but praise for the young man from South Sudan during the offseason. Book called Maluach “way ahead of his age,” praised his work ethic, and even went so far as to say, “he has all the intangibles of being a star.”
Given that Phoenix slow-played the Duke product’s development as a rookie, having him get run in the G League and limiting his NBA minutes to mostly garbage time, the Suns may continue to develop Maluach until they believe he’s truly ready for a bigger role.
There’s no reason to put the pressure of being the starter on his shoulders just yet, especially since Ighodaro is more than capable and has been working on his own game in his own right.
However, purely based on upside alone, it’s more than fair to assume Maluach will be the franchise’s starting center in the not-too-distant future.
If nothing else, fans should finally get to see more of the hulking 7-foot-1 youngster throughout his sophomore campaign. If Booker's assessment is even partly true, that will be fun to watch.
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