The Phoenix Suns' trade deadline plans have seemingly revolved around trading one of Grayson Allen or Royce O'Neale, although moving on from the latter feels like a mistake right now.
But the Suns have more assets than that to move if they want to get involved in trades, and one of their young players has quietly rehabbed his value in the last number of weeks.
Phoenix could get real value in Oso Ighodaro deal
Second year forward Oso Ighodaro began the campaign as a starter for head coach Jordan Ott while Mark Williams regained his fitness, and it did not go well.
Ighodaro being forced to play up a position, and although he has the bounce to hang with a lot of opponents, more imposing centers had a field day moving him out of position and bullying him.
But with Williams suspended for the the recent win over the Washington Wizards, and coming off the bench in his first back-to-back of the season prior to that, Ighodaro has done a nice job playing with the starters again.
Perfect read and pass on the roll from Oso to Dillon Brooks here for the 3.
— Erik Ruby (@ErikRuby) December 28, 2025
He has 8p/6r/4a/1s/1b in 22 minutes after getting the start tonight. pic.twitter.com/tb7ASDC22C
To be clear, the entire operation runs so much more smoothly when Williams, a true center, is manning the middle. But Ighodaro has played 23.3 minutes in December, up over four minutes on his season average as his side have gone 7-4.
The most points he has managed this month is 10, and that came in a loss to the Golden State Warriors, but he has fully bought into helping this roster in any other way he can to win games.
His ability to roll to the basket is clear, which is just as well given he has failed to this point to generate any kind of consistent offense from his jumper.
He also lives off scraps and offensive put backs to make up some of that scoring, which is again no problem given players like Devin Booker and Dillon Brooks are always going to see the ball over him.
It's far from perfect, and the progression from year one to year two has been up and down at best, but it still feels like there is something there.
With the value of bigs at a premium right now, the organization may even use Ighodaro in this unconventional way via trade to get better for the long-run.
Not that they need to move on from him, but it is something to always have in mind as the roster has already taken shape around Booker, and it would be a lie to say Ighodaro is untouchable in that regard.