With Mark Williams headed for an extended absence after shoulder surgery, the easy assumption around the Suns is that Khaman Maluach is about to get a bigger runway. That would be the wrong move. The 19-year-old center is not ready to be handed a major role, and Phoenix has to be careful not to rush him into something that could do more harm than good.
Maluach showed enough in Summer League to get people talking, but that doesn’t mean the Suns should throw him into the starting five and ask him to solve a problem this big. Centers usually take longer to become steady NBA contributors, and Maluach came into his rookie year as a very raw prospect. There was already a development plan in place, and that should not change just because Williams is out.
Last season made that pretty clear. Maluach spent time in the G League during his first year, and in Phoenix he appeared in only 46 games with one start while averaging less than nine minutes a night.
Expecting him to suddenly absorb Williams’ 23.6 minutes from the most recent season would be asking for too much. The Suns would love to have another center ready to step in, but that option is not on the table.
Jordan Ott also made his coaching preferences obvious in his first season. He leans toward veterans when the goal is to win as many games as possible, and that matters here. With Devin Booker about to turn 30-years-old, Phoenix does not have the cushion to let Maluach learn through a string of mistakes while Williams is sidelined.
The cleaner solution is Oso Ighodaro. He should be the one moved into the starting lineup at center to cover the gap between Williams’ injury and the day Maluach is ready to start. Ighodaro has been used there before, and while the early results last season were rough, he has settled in since then.
That setup also lets Phoenix use Maluach the right way: in shorter bursts, where he can come in and impact the game without carrying too much. It would be much closer to how the Suns would have handled him behind Williams before the shoulder surgery. Maluach looks like the future at center, but the Suns have to keep him from being asked to do too much too soon.
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Golden State has not taken any official action, but the interest alone says plenty about how aggressively the market can move around a player of Bookers caliber. From Phoenixs side, the stance has stayed firm, with ownership making clear there is no intention of moving him, leaving the bigger question less about a deal being available and more about how long this kind of speculation can keep building. [Read more 🡒]
Ryan Dunn Just Got A Suns Opportunity He Did Not Expect
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The coaching staff now has room to get creative with lineups, and Dunn could be part of that answer in ways that were not on the table just a short time ago. Whether that means a larger role in the frontcourt or a different kind of defensive look, his path back into the mix is suddenly much clearer, even if the exact shape of that opportunity is still being worked out. [Read more 🡒]
Suns May Have One Starting Fix That Creates A New Problem
Collin Gillespie has become an intriguing part of the Suns lineup discussion because the fit questions around Miles Bridges keep pointing back to the same issue. In Charlotte, Bridges was at his best when he had a skilled passer like LaMelo Ball setting the table, and Phoenix does not really have that kind of true point guard in its current starting group. Devin Booker and Jalen Green are both scorers first, which has left the Suns weighing whether a different kind of lead guard would make the whole group work better.
Starting Gillespie could help solve one problem while creating another. It would likely push Booker back to shooting guard and give Bridges a more natural playmaker next to him, but it also raises the uncomfortable question of who gets squeezed out of the first unit. Green or Dillon Brooks would be the most obvious candidates to head to the bench, and how that group would react is part of what makes the decision more complicated than it looks on paper. [Read more 🡒]