We’re continuing our Bright Side series by exploring what success looks like for each Suns player in 2025–26.
Passing. It is one skill that flies under the radar, but it is one of the most important skills in basketball. Shotmaking, shooting, rim pressure, defense, switchability, and rim protection are all skills that are valued as high or higher than passing.
Oso Ighodaro has a lot of skills, but the one that will allow him to have a long NBA career and play for the Suns next season is his passing.
Phoenix has one true point guard on the team with Collin Gillespie. Devin Booker is an elite playmaker, Jalen Green is an average playmaker, and that is about it. Mark Williams, similar to Ighodaro, has shown an ability to move the ball to the second side and hit cutters, but is not as comfortable handling the ball as Ighodaro.
If Phoenix wants to play offense with a lot of different cutting actions, like Jordan Ott stated in his introductory press conference, then Ighodaro is going to play quality minutes because that is his best skill. Whether playing out of dribble handoffs, pick and rolls, posting up, or as a cutter himself, his ability to catch the ball and make the next pass in one fluid motion is the difference between a wide-open shot and a contested one. This allows the Suns to play with proper pace in the half-court offense and alleviate pressure off of Booker and Green.
With Ighodaro on the floor, stagnant offense is almost impossible because he is always moving or always moving the ball. Are there weaknesses in his game that he has to improve? Absolutely, but he showed flashes during Summer League that he has gotten stronger and is more aggressive around the basket.
So what does success look like for Oso Ighodaro?
Phoenix Suns v Denver Nuggets
Photo by Bart Young/NBAE via Getty Images
For Oso Ighodaro to develop into a quality rotation player in the NBA and for the Suns, he needs to improve in two areas: his rebounding and his ability to score around the basket. Even in college at Marquette, Ighodaro struggled to rebound the ball at a high level as the full-time starting center and never averaged more than seven rebounds per game in any season. The Suns don’t need him to be a double-double machine, but they need him to hold up against other teams’ centers and not get overpowered on the glass or get pushed under the rim on defense.
While small ball is becoming increasingly less common in the new NBA, when teams do go small against the Suns, Ighodaro’s switchability will be something the Suns take advantage of. It will likely be the main role he will have to begin the season. Unless Ighodaro can prove to be a power forward, his role will be playing spot duty as a small-ball center until he shows he can hold up better this season against other teams’ centers. If he does that, he can be a staple in the Suns’ rotation now and in the future.
Offensively, for Ighodaro, for him to have a successful season, he has to improve his floater and become a better finisher attacking the rim with aggression.
Ighodaro does not necessarily need to add a jump shot to his game, but what he does need is a change-up to his fastball. If his floater is consistently deadly, which it can be, he needs to also be able to finish strong and through contact to keep defenses honest and not overplay his floater. He has the athleticism to be a good finisher around the rim, he just has to show he can do it.
Success for most second-round draft picks is sticking in the league for a few seasons at best. Last season, Ighodaro averaged 4.3 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 1.2 assists per game, a decent year for a second-round pick. If he finishes this season with the same numbers, it will be considered a success, although I expect the assist and rebound numbers to increase. But the more important metric for his success this season will be the eye test… has he added the required NBA strength to not get bullied? And, is the best connector on this year’s team?
If the answer to those two questions is yes, then expect Ighodaro to play basketball in the NBA for many seasons and be one of the steals of the second round last season.
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