What Oso Ighodaro’s 2025 Summer League Showing can UNLOCK for the Phoenix Suns

What Oso Ighodaro’s 2025 Summer League Showing can UNLOCK for the Phoenix Suns

Very impressive summer league showing from Oso Igodaro. How translatable are the things that we did see from him to the NBA level going into his sophomore season? Is he likely to have an increased role that allows him more opportunity to kind of show the skills that he plays to? Will his skills translate in a way that kind of plays to the potential bigger role that he’s going to see in his sophomore year? Let’s kind of dive into the weeds on all of that from his summer league showing particularly in game two where he was a feature piece on both ends of the floor against the Atlanta Hawks. Let’s dive into the film. All right, so as we dive into the film, go ahead and start with the first play coming on offense. First, you want to start with seeing that he is playing a five in this game and I think that is very important to note because I feel like some of the best usage you’re going to get out of him because the Suns don’t have a starting or even a stretch five in most any capacity. Having him at the five is going to be some of the best spacing that they’re getting because that means they’re going to have more kind of skilled guys on the perimeter which opens up the inside for him and allows for them to get some unique usage out of him. To the unique usage point also starting this possession in the bottom left corner of the screen. So on the basketball court, he’s in the left corner. So what they’re getting into is called rifle action. So you’re gonna see a screen set on ball here. And this is what makes it rifle action because as I bring the cursor in or as I bring in a nice little new addition to our film session is this arrow here. I want to pay close attention to this defender right here. Because as I take it away also is in the left corner. He’s being helped off of. That means that there’s an opportunity to create offense on the second side. So you get this screen and the screen is essentially misdirection to pull an extra defender in and to get the defense to start to shift. And what they’re doing with the rightful pass to this opposite corner, which is where OSO is, is allowing for him to play in an uphill dribble handoff scenario. First of all, with this player right here, who happens to be Kobe Brea. So obviously right here, closest in relation to where Ooadaro is is Kobe Brea. So you get that portion of it. It is defended well. But the beauty of this kind of rifle action is you get to the dribble handoff situation. Nothing’s really there for that. You can either get an immediate attack from Oso or you can just kind of flow into something else. Obviously, the something else nature is what comes of action here. Moses Wood falls in the middle of the play which helps a little bit, but generally speaking, it allows for you to kind of be continuous with the offense and for it to not hit a hit a snag. And because of that, you get a nice opportunity for the point guard Yuri Collins to kind of settle into a mid-range pull up here in the first possession. Good flow, good cadence, moving from second side to third side ultimately ends up in the basket for the for the Suns. And we get to the next one. You see also initially setting the first screen in the double screen action, which immediately is going to then flip into an immediate post touch. And I think this post touch part is important because also can be used in multiple ways. The spots where he catches the ball on the inside of the three-point line can serve as triggers. and those triggers from the spots that he catches the ball from usually is going to lend itself to a more rand more random style of play where the Suns are playing off of principles rather than in a scripted manner. Now imagine this is Devin Booker that’s closest in relation to him or even if it’s Grayson Allen or Jaylen Green. The fact that it’s any of those kind of offensive minded guys that get a requisite level of attention as they cut off of his touch is gonna trigger a opportunity for not just those guards to turn the corner and engage the defense in a way that’s not created off of their own will but because of where someone else is that kind of tilts the defense in their favor and then also puts Oso right in his wheelhouse where he’s at his best because he’s not a threat from the perimeter as a shooter. No, but if he’s getting a touch in the inside part of the three-point line and then gets into action rolling downhill from that off of the gravity of the ball handler, the ball handler now has two to the ball. And because of where that tertiary defender is on the strong side block, this is almost like three to the ball and there’s no one that’s guarding Oso Eigodaro. And on his catch and the short roll, he has all the options in the world. Great spacing from the Suns on the backside. He can make one of two passes to that opposite wing area or that bottom left corner of the screen on the corner. No wrong direct, no wrong decision to be made there. Or he’s, like I mentioned, in his wheelhouse to take that floater push shot where he was as efficient as any of the top name guys there even on a less volume. Nonetheless, he gets to this catch point, he has options, he’s comfortable here. Alexa, the floater. And that’s two. Get to the next one. I like this option here because he’s filling the wing on the opposite side of where the ball is. It’s that transition skip that made the Suns one of the most deadly in transition on offense when they decided to get into transition off of stops last season. And I like it because it’s just simply him exploring space early in the shot clock, going to get a paint touch, and then kind of playing from there. So, he gets to attack early, gets into a nice little dribble pickup, rips through that underneath. This is all great. He gets a early offense paint touch with 17 seconds on the shot clock. But this is the part where we want to get a little bit critical because if he’s going to be a player that doesn’t have the kind of shooting that spaces the floor, he shrinks the margin for error for him on the skills that do make him a good player inside the ark. One of those main ones being with him that he’s a great playmaker. With great responsibility and great skill kind of comes that responsibility of being able to be sharp with that. By sharp, I mean this pass is perfect in terms of the decision on timing that he makes and the kind of process into it. Getting the paint touch, reading that he has a second defender and that the rest of the defense is kind of rotating around him. All great in terms of the read, but we’re paying attention to the accuracy here because this shooter in the corner is wide open. Also has to do a better job with the delivery because you see where this catch ultimately gets to the shooter in the corner. Now, you could say the shooter in the corner could be better in terms of where they position themselves in respect to where the help defense is, but at the same time, he is at a standstill earlier enough to where also can kind of make a better read on judging where he wants to put this pass. Again, the shooter is wide open, so even if he takes some touch off of it to get it to him, as long as it’s accurate, he can either take the shot on the catch and shoot three or he can attack that close out that’s going to come from the near from the nearest defender in this exile situation for the Hawks. But because the pass isn’t on timing or on accuracy rather, it leads to a turnover in a situation that should have created advantage for the Suns in the half court. Then to the next one, we see him electing early in this possession to for them to empty that strong side corner. That’s important because as you see the defense on ball, particularly the primary defender, kind of jumps the screen to kind of funnel the ball handler on that outer third to keep him away from getting towards the paint. This is good for them to empty that corner because it opens up opportunity for Oso. But these are the kind of short roll decisions that we want to kind of look at with them. It can’t always be automatic for him getting to the soft touch floater or that push shot. Even though it is efficient, you have to be more varied with the discernment to kind of make sure that the defense is staying honest, but also keeping them in rotation. The short roll is an opportunity for you to play in the advantage to that second side. Two players to the ball, that means it’s a fouron-ree advantage on that back side. Oso being one of those four having the ball in the middle of the court puts them in position to dictate towards the defense. Now we talked about the coverage on ball. If they’re in ice coverage committing two to the ball in a in a respect it’s a soft two to the ball but it is a double team. If Oso feels the semblance of any one or two players kind of collapsing on him in this fouron-ree advantage, that should be triggering that there’s a kick out opportunity in some capacity that’s going to result to green shot quality directly from OSO’s pass or from the other three players outside of OSO in that advantage. Kind of keeping that advantage with the next pass to kind of keep the defense in rotation. Get to the touch point for OSO. He doesn’t just have one in terms of that low defender already kind of sagging around in the paint, but there’s also that defender at the nail that’s already on also on the catch and immediately as he crosses the free throw line. That means that there’s three offensive players that can only be defended by one player that’s kind of playing goalie on that backside and that’s this defender right here that also should be looking to put in compromise right away. This defender right here. You got one offensive player here. Offensive player number two is right here. Offensive player three playing the field behind is right here. They should be taking full advantage of this spacing, but also the way that they’ve kind of flattened out the defense by making that extra pass also kind of automatically goes to that soft touch floater. Again, it’s a good shot for him, but it’s the discernment part of when he’s taking that shot and what they could potentially find as a better shot in terms of quality on the possession that I want to see him kind of sharpen and continue to evolve with. Because when you get to the NBA level, that could be any two or three of Grayson Allen, Devin Booker, and let’s just say Jaylen Green on that backside. Those are players you want to get the ball to as much as you possibly can, especially if it’s an advantage like a threeon two or a threeon-one like this one is. And then you get to the next possession. Back to the offensive end still. We’re going to be on the offensive side for all of these possessions. Then we’ll transition to the defensive a little bit later. So you get the screen set and this is a very similar action to what they ran to start this film session and to start this game. So he talked about corner solutions and spot triggers. You see him spaced in the corner off of Yuri Collins getting this kind of angle slot ball screen going towards the outer third. You see the screen, you see the roll. You see where the help defender is that’s guarding OSO also being in the bottom left corner of the screen again. You see where he is in respect in relation to where OSO is. That’s a ton of space. If you can get the ball to him accurately in that kind of action that we were speaking to a little bit earlier, you can kind of play to the twoon-one putting this defender right here in compromise because of where OSO is, where his next player offensively is, and where this one defender is to kind of guard these two. So you get back to the rifle pass being made. Great action for them to get into. The Hawks do a good job getting a beat on it and rotating a little bit preemptively. However, even though they do do a good job, what we want to pay close attention to is who is initially guarding Oso Egodaro. And though this isn’t the most most clean rep in terms of him getting into the uphill dribble handoff part of the rifle action, what it does trigger with that skip pass and also being able to get it to Kobe Brea is a late shot clock switch. So, this is a defensive X out where the two players off the ball are switching to kind of keep the defensive shell intact. But if you’re doing that late in a shot clock and now it’s Kobe Bre playing ones against someone that he has a little bit of a speed advantage with in terms of attacking in space, this is job well done for the Suns within their halfcourt offense. Kobe Bre does what he does best as a shot creator for himself. Knocks that down late in the clock against the switch. Next possession here. Looking at them again against ice coverage. You see the relation to where the ball handler is trying to keep the trying to have his player be kept from uh kind of going towards the middle of the paint. That opens up the short roll opportunity again for Oso Igodaro. And back to the discernment and decision- making again because if he’s being played like this, either the decision has to be confident to get into that soft touch floater at this point or he has to commit to kind of taking one extra dribble getting into the body of the nearest defender that’s going to cut him off from getting to the paint which then will allow for him either play through contact, play through footwork, or make a pass to that second side where there’s going to be an advantage as the defense collapses on him. Isn’t the most confident with this read here. You see the subtle hesitation as he crosses the free throw line. Kind of gets caught in no man’s land a little bit. I think there’s still time for him because he kind of has a soft tooth to the ball here to make that pass to that person that’s right to the left wing. A wide open opportunity is going to trigger another one of those X outs from the defense. And if he can then make a plus one pass to who it is that’s in that corner on the same side as him, there’s opportunity for them on offense. Also Alexa go with the floater after the subtle hesitation. would much rather see him be better with that. Or worse come to worse, with 16 seconds left on the shot clock, take it out, take some retreat dribbles, get into a dribble handoff, and you can get into something else and create a better shot than ultimately was taken on this possession. We get to the next clip here. See, Kobe Bray in the corner is in a little bit of a bad way here, but this is where the brilliance of Oso and the skill and versatility of him kind of rises to the forefront. So, he gets this catch here. The defense is immediately expecting for him to find someone to float into a dribble handoff with in some capacity. Because of the skill of Oso, even going to his left hand, he’s able to just neglect all of that while the defense is kind of loading up to take that action away and just play one-on-one. And because it’s kind of in a sudden unexpected fashion, he’s able to just kind of catch even the help defenders off guard to where there’s no help for the primary matchup, he’s just able to blow right past them on a rip through on the catch. catches them all with an element of surprise and then puts down a thunderous dunk with the left hand. Something that he can kind of repeatedly kind of press the button on as an element of surprise. Then next possession here, you see him again on the offensive end getting to a little bit of a delay action. You see a lot of movement going on around him. You see the Suns doing a good job of kind of manipulating the space. You see Moses Wood at the top of the screen setting his pin down on the weak side of where OSO catches the ball from. You see the person that passed the ball to Oso, kind of cutting over the top of him. All that is kind of manipulating space. It’s removing help layers of defense and it’s giving Oso optionality to attack space. And I think the ways that the Suns can kind of tilt the defense going into this season off of their spacing, but off also off of personnel within it all is going to allow also opportunity to do what he does here, which is just attack space. plays to the dribble handoff initially allows for his eyes and his body language to tell lies. Gets to the crossover knowing that he has space to that left hand and you see what he does there kind of plays off of rather than getting to that soft touch floater as an automatic being able to be a little bit more of an athlete a little bit more varied in the approach to score though this is going to ultimately be a miss. I just like him being a little bit more varied in how he’s going about trying to score below the free throw line. It can’t just be a steady diet of one specific shot. That’s something that he’ll kind of sharpen going forward. So lastly, generally speaking on Oso on the offensive end of the floor, what I want to see from him is to make the right decision with the right cadence time and time again. Whether that’s to catch it in a short roll and kick it to the second side because he feels the defense collapsed or to confidently go into the floater or go into a catch on the short roll one dribble into the body of the main defender and then get up a layup or play through the contact and get a pass off and things like that. just making the right decision on the right cadence for what the situation is presenting to him and not always anticipating what he wants to go to before the action actually the dust settles on the defense around him. So, as we transition to the defensive clips here, we got four that we’re going to get into before we get out of here on this film session. Thank y’all again for tapping in with me. Um, start looking at him guarding in pick and roll defense. So, obviously he’s going to be in the middle third of the floor here guarding against a spread pick and roll. You see the pickup point for the ball handler significantly higher up the floor closer to half court than it is to the three-point line. Watch how well Oso moves laterally in his drop coverage. A lot of bigs can get caught because of fundamentals in terms of their approach to technique guarding and drop coverage, but also is just such a fluid side to side lateral athlete. He can go from a situation like here where he goes from at this point right here being a little bit more squared to the ball to now literally being square to the ball at this point to now okay he sees this man on ball got clipped commit commit completely goes over to committing to the ball right here but then is still able enough as an athlete pick a right route pick a right angle go and pick up the roller and be able to defend in a two versus one advantage that drop coverage naturally concedes without really giving up any leverage. Doesn’t allow for the ball handler to turn the corner cleanly, but also doesn’t allow for the roller to get downhill without feeling his contact and cutting off his angle being physical to the legal limit. All of this is very, very, very, very, very great. Not something that most bigs can do. That’s what makes Oso unique. Ultimately ends up in a miss on the initial stop for the Suns. Then we get to the next clip on defense. Number two is again him defending in not necessarily drop coverage. This is more so ice or side defensive coverage. They want to keep the ball handler funnel to the right side of the floor and away from the paint. So you see the screen come into play. Also it’s communicating on ball ice or side side. They have different names like blue as well for some terminology wise that some teams use. They just want to keep the ball handler funneled towards OSO on the outer third of the floor. Moses Wood does a good job kind of chasing, keeping that leverage and steering the wheel of the defensive possession from the point of attack. Funnels the ball directly to Oso. And what I like most about Oso is where some bigs will be dropped way back off of where the ball and where the point of the screen is, Oso’s up. You can see him rather than stepping back, he’s stepping closer and closer to the screen to the point where once the screen is actually used the direction that he wants it to, he’s conceding no leverage. And now the ball handler has to make a decision. Is he gonna try to cross over at this point? Is he gonna try to blow by Oso going to the ball handler’s right hand, which is going towards the baseline side? Make a decision. This is back to the fluidity of Oso’s athleticism and space on the defensive end of the floor. He says, “You’re not going to be able to do either because I’m stepping up, being aggressive with my coverage on ball after the screen.” ends up plucking this away from the ball handler, gets a steal, and now the Suns are going to be out on the break on going into offense. Next clip defensively, this is going to be where we’re going to look at a little bit more of where I want to see more from him in terms of applying pressure on the ball. Nonetheless, you see a screen getting ready to be set is set. He’s a little bit out of position here, but I’m okay with where he’s at because of the fluidity of his athleticism and space like we spoke to on the last rep. And you’re gonna see him just do a solid job ultimately being able to get up a great contest on the ball. not completely committing to where he concedes leverage to the roller, but kind of towing that midline and drop coverage to where you’re able to kind of play to going downhill, but also the athleticism and the fluidity and not just being able to play and be an athlete in space. This is literally a big man being able to play like a free safety in a sense because he’s playing in space, but he’s not just sliding side by side. He has to be able to stay coordinated with his footwork while retreating, backpedaling if you will, as action is coming towards him. This is not a natural type of thing. This is trained and it seems like it’s natural because of how fluid OSO is in this. Defends it extremely well. Gets to the point where the ball handle has to make a decision. The pocket pass is not there because of how OSO toes the midline. And then he’s able to kind of time it up well and get up a block, beating this before it ultimately gets to the basket. Great job from Oso there kind of cleaning things up on the back end. And then we get to this final rep and this is going to be the one where I think it was the loudest in terms of the weaknesses um over most of the drop coverage reps or just general reps with him on defense throughout summer league. Room for improvement for him here. So you’re going to see him do a good job communicating with the ball handler. They’re trying to get into their ice or blue if you will, keeping things to the sideline. Ball handler just kicks it to his big man above the three-point line. Now he’s going to be kind of playing looking for a dribble hand off on the pop. For also in this situation, I would love for him being the level of athlete that he is and to be as good laterally with sliding as he is and his hands as well. I would love to see him not concede this space for this big man to just dribble freely without pressure. I would love to see Oso get into the hip and really kind of get into the dribble handoff lanes and that kind of pocket where the exchange from handoff recipient and handoff receiver kind of meet. I would love for him to just keep pressure applied to ball handlers every time he’s on the court because he’s not doing that here. That allows for a moment where the ball does get terminated in terms of the ball handlers dribble, but he’s still not really applying any pressure. I would love to see him be in his grill not conceding any space. If he’s closer to where the person that had the ball before it got flipped to the guard is, this switch becomes a lot more aggressive than him having a weight at this spot and the person that’s coming off of the dribble handoff. Ultimately having two dribbles to kind of steer up a little bit of momentum to get downhill. And you can see because of the body language of Oso here, you get the ball to the ball handler is getting downhill. also is now having to take steps up to try to meet him rather than already being there and being able to kind of slide laterally to taking away that potential angle that he ultimately gives up as he gets downhill, gets into the del steps into the layup. Just little things, nothing egregious. It’s something that he showed to be good at last season, but these moments like this did kind of show up at times. For someone like Oso that has the gamechanging type of ability to defend from the front court, I want to see him applying pressure to def to offensive players every second that he’s on the court. There you have it on this latest episode of Steven Study. We dove into everything that was Osu Vigodaro in game two of the Suns summer league season schedule. um just kind of dove into a lot of the different things that I feel like will translate some of the strengths, looked at some of the weaknesses slash areas of improvement for him, but generally speaking, quicker decisions using him and featuring him in ways that are going to kind of allow for his strengths to both be complimentary and accentuate everything that is Jaylen Green or Devin Booker or any of the other primary options for the team. And again, just generally leaning into his versatility on both ends of the floor, allowing for it to hit as a change of pace in multiple respects. I think Jordan Kn has that in store for Oso Gadaro in his sophomore campaign. Now, it’s just a matter of seeing how much will they lean into it. [Applause] [Music]

Oso Ighodaro had an impressive showing for the Phoenix Suns this Summer. The Summer League level of play is lower, but that’s why you look for trends from a player and what’s either improved or surfaces through increased usage. In the case of Ighodaro, it was his playmaking — both by self and as a function of connecting play in a way that triggers more comprehensive action for the team offensively. For all of the attention he gets for the lack of shooting prowess and how defenses subsequently guard him, he has depths of skill that can — if featured appropriately — allow for the Suns to apply unique pressure to opponents that does not feature Devin Booker or Jalen Green as the primary creator, which is as valuable as any development.

Stephen PridGeon-Garner is here to dive into the film detailing the unique ways Oso Ighodaro CAN add value to the Suns in his Sophomore season.

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