The Suns may not have one dominant answer at center, but they might finally have something better: real choices.
That’s the upside of bringing Mark Williams back on a three-year, $38 million deal, even if the contract raised eyebrows at first glance. Williams has never been the picture of durability, and last season’s 60 games - a career high by 15 - still left him 22 short of a full year. On paper, it’s fair to ask why Phoenix committed $11.7 million for 2026-27 when Khaman Maluach and Oso Ighodaro are already in the pipeline.
But the point isn’t just what Williams costs. It’s what the Suns can do now that he’s here.
If Williams plays well, Phoenix has a legitimate center who can hold down the position without needing the offense to run through him. If he doesn’t, or if Maluach takes off sooner than expected, the contract itself becomes useful.
That’s the kind of flexibility teams spend years trying to manufacture. More important for the moment, it gives the Suns a center rotation that actually looks adaptable.
That hasn’t always been the case in Phoenix. Recent seasons have featured combinations like Jusuf Nurkic and Drew Eubanks, then Nurkic and Mason Plumlee, and before that a different kind of disappointment entirely.
Too often, the Suns have been stuck with bigs who only handled part of the job. Rim protection, rebounding, finishing, screening, athleticism, and floor spacing are the six traits that matter most at the position.
Phoenix has usually been forced to settle for a couple of them and hope the rest worked themselves out.
This group is different.
Williams brings the safest floor. BBall Index gave him an A in rim protection, putting him in the 91st percentile.
He also earned A grades in defensive rebounds per 75 possessions, offensive rebounds per 75, and finishing talent, where he ranked in the 93rd percentile. His screening still has room to grow - that part landed at a C+ - but he did earn A marks in both screen assists per 75 possessions and roll man possessions per 75.
What stood out last season was how well he fit around everything else Phoenix was doing. There were moments when he looked underused, especially when mismatches opened up and the Suns leaned even harder into perimeter play.
Still, the contract makes sense in league terms. At an average annual value of $12.7 million, Williams ranks 34th among NBA centers, which is a pretty clean way to see the value if he stays on the floor and does his job.
Then there’s Maluach, the 20-year-old wild card.
He showed plenty in Las Vegas this summer, and the raw tools are already there. He has the rim protection, rebounding, finishing, and athleticism that teams covet from a lottery pick.
The shot may become part of the package too - he hit 40% from deep in Las Vegas on 20 attempts. Screening and floor spacing are still developmental pieces, but the talent is obvious, and the ceiling is what makes him such a fascinating piece for Jordan Ott.
Maluach also gives Phoenix a different kind of disruption. Last season against Denver, Ott put him on Nikola Jokic after Jokic had been carving up the Suns from the high post.
Maluach didn’t shut him down, but he made things harder. He changed the angles, forced Jokic to work for passes, and brought the kind of length and tenacity that can tilt a possession.
That kind of disruption mattered for Phoenix last season, and it fits neatly with what Maluach can become.
And then there’s Oso Ighodaro, the advanced-metrics favorite who adds a different flavor entirely.
He doesn’t check every box the way Williams does, and his offensive rebounding talent was a weak spot, grading in the 12th percentile with an F. Stretching the floor also doesn’t look like part of his immediate future.
But he does bring athleticism, finishing, elite screening for the position, and the ability to switch onto the perimeter. His rim protection earned an A, and his defensive rebounding came in at a B plus.
That makes him especially useful in today’s game. A big who can survive away from the basket and handle multiple assignments gives a coach room to maneuver, and Oso gives Ott that kind of flexibility.
Put all three together and the Suns have something they haven’t had in a long time: a center rotation that can change shape depending on the opponent. If all three are healthy, Phoenix can match size, speed, or skill.
If one of them is out, the team still has a workable answer. There’s no need to patch things together with emergency minutes just to get through the season.
And that matters because center is not the engine of this team. Phoenix doesn’t need a franchise-defining player at the five.
It needs the position to function, to answer different problems, and to do it over the course of 82 games. Williams offers production.
Maluach offers upside and disruption. Ighodaro offers mobility and versatility.
None of them is perfect. Together, they cover a lot of ground. For a Suns roster built around Booker, Green, Bridges, and Brooks, that might be exactly the right way to solve the position.
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