Although the Phoenix Suns leaned heavily on trade acquisition Mark Williams throughout his first season in Phoenix, Valley native and Williams’ backup Oso Ighodaro is pushing himself to be even better than he was as an NBA sophomore. The Chandler-born big man said he's been "spending a lot of time" improving his offensive repertoire this offseason while also aiming to stay healthy and step up as a leader, according to the Arizona Republic's Duane Rankin (subscription required).
If Oso meets or exceeds those goals, Williams’ role on the team could see diminishing returns in the minutes department.
Mark Williams’ health remains a key question mark
The Los Angeles Lakers made headlines for pulling out of a trade for Williams citing a failed physical exam. Phoenix stepped up from there to add him via trade, and then re-signed the restricted free agent this summer to keep him in the mix.
In his debut season in The Valley, Williams missed 22 games due to a combination of planned rest on back-to-backs and a stress reaction in his foot. Despite that, the 60 games played by Williams were still a career high for a season.
The Suns were extremely cautious with the young center, playing him 23.6 minutes per game on average, roughly three minutes fewer than he played per game during the prior two seasons in Charlotte with the Hornets.
His struggles to stay healthy throughout a season persisted despite setting career highs in games and minutes played. Fortunately for head coach Jordan Ott, the team's backup big man was extremely reliable and is now challenging himself to be even better.
Oso Ighodaro’s reliability makes him a key asset for Suns
Unlike Williams, Ighodaro was the poster boy for durability in Phoenix. He was the only player on the Suns’ roster to play all 82 regular season games a season ago (24 starts), becoming the first Suns player to do so since NBA Ironman Mikal Bridges. Expanding on that, he was one of just 18 players in the entire league to suit up for every game.
That durability led to reliability for Ott, as Ighodaro became a steady contributor in his second season as a pro. He averaged career highs nearly across the board in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks while making a career-best 65.3 percent of his field goal attempts.
The one true wart on his game remains free -throw shooting, where Oso regressed to a paltry 45.3 percent of his attempts at the charity stripe. That’s an area he’ll really need to improve, especially if he wants to be on the court in crunch time to close out games.
Oso Ighodaro wants to be a ‘quarterback on the floor’
While working on his free throws and practicing a 3-point shot is what will show up in the box score, Ighodaro’s lasting impact remains the intangibles that don’t always show in the stat sheet. As he said in the interview, he wants to be a connector on both ends and step up as a leader, comparing the role to being a quarterback for the Suns.
Ighodaro’s ability to orchestrate offense with hand-offs and screens in the half-court while defending the rim on defense will remain his true calling card. The latter area already gives him a leg up over Williams.
Ighodaro’s defended field goal percentage against shots within six feet of the basket last year was 57.8 percent, according to NBA.com data. Williams, meanwhile, allowed a 64.4 percent shooting clip in those situations last season.
Khaman Maluach, the former No. 10 overall draft pick, was better than both of those guys by holding opponents to a sterling 44.3 percent — which led all of basketball among players with at least 30 games played and at least two such field goals defended per game.
Ighodaro also boasted the best defensive box plus/minus on the team last year, preventing 2.3 points per 100 possessions. Nobody else on the team had a mark higher than 1.5 by comparison.
If Ighodaro steps up into a larger leadership role next season, shores up his poor free-throw shooting, and becomes even slightly more of an offensive threat, it’ll be tough for Ott to justify sitting his defensive acumen more often than Williams this coming season.
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