3 goals for Oso Ighodaro's rookie season with the Suns

2. Handle the ball some

It seems strange to have this as one of Ighodaro's goals, especially when running the court and being a regular season spark inside and around the paint would appear to be his path to carving out a role here. But a strange thing has happened at Summer League, with Ighodaro bringing the ball up the court on a few occasions.

Nothing really came of this - he's certainly not an initiator of plays or even basic offensive sets - but we could be seeing an early wrinkle in how coach Budenholzer will set his team up. He's a much more free spirit offensively compared to previous coach Frank Vogel, and it is why guys like Bol could profit once the season starts.

But if Ighodaro can show comfort in handling the ball some, then it will throw opponents off because they surely won't expect that to be the case. Why have the ball in his hands when you have Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal on this roster? The answer is that it would free them up to get into space to get the ball and create from there, while Ighodaro won't always play with all three.

The Suns aren't expecting him to even be as good as Nurkic in this regard, but there is no doubt they struggled for coherence offensively last season. Morris has been added to bring order, but he won't play over Booker or Beal when it really matters. Not that Ighodaro is going to be out there either, but if there's injuries on this roster to bigs and he can come in and handle the ball some, all the better.