Why Oso Ighodaro Is The NBA’s Most FASCINATING Prospect

Why Oso Ighodaro Is The NBA’s Most FASCINATING Prospect

It’s not often in the NBA you come across prospects like Phoenix Suns forward Oso Igodaro, but we’re here to tell you why he’s the most fascinating prospect in the NBA. It’s Eric Ruby and Steven Pjan Gardner here for PH andX Suns. Nice little trending mini edition of the show. If you want to check out more of our live coverage where we deep dive into all the players, themes, and storylines of the Suns, check it out on this very channel or in this audio feed. Stephen, when I say Oso Gdaro is one of, if not the most fascinating prospects in the entire NBA, would you mind enlightening those who are unfamiliar as to why that is? Yeah, it starts with um first of all, anybody identifying them as that being someone that is a sicko or a psycho or both of those two things. Um you think of players that are of that ilk, even if it is a role player, most people aren’t thinking of Oso Eigadaro right away. Um, and probably the only mainstream media person that is is Keith Smith, who took his opportunities to shout out everything that is unique about OSO all season long in his rookie campaign. But to that point, what makes him that for me is having such a unique skill set while also having the lack of a specific skill that most people look at as either you can make it because of this or you won’t make it because you don’t have it. That’s probably where I start there. Yeah. And when I say fascinating, I think some people sometimes will take that word and mean, oh, well, then you mean the best, right? If we’re going to do that, then Cooper Flag and Victor Wenyama are the two most fascinating prospects in the NBA. It’s the faults and the strengths as to what makes Oso Agaro so interesting because you could see his career kind of going one of two ways. It could be, you know, he kind of maxes out because he doesn’t have any semblance of a jump shot. He’s not as effective in the modern NBA. his athleticism, his passing, his court vision, like those things don’t matter as much. Or you look at it the other way and say, does he develop a game that’s so strong beyond the jump shot, beyond the offensive capabilities outside of the paint that it’s like he’s undeniable the point where he has to make the rotation. And we saw the impact last year of a guy, Stephen, who isn’t an an offensive threat in the traditional sense. Can he be a rim rim runner? Yes. Is he uber athletic? Yes. Yes. Has he gotten bigger this off season? Yes. But his best offensive skill, and correct me if if you feel like I’m wrong here, to me is his IQ, his court vision, and his passing, his play making. Yep. That’s where it starts. He put all of those together. And that’s his that’s his best skill set. And that uniqueness there at that position. It’s it’s something that can shift things in favor of the Suns, especially when you get to reserve units. Is there a world where Osdaro becomes so good at what he is already good at that it doesn’t matter as much what pieces around him are doing that he can still make that same impact or do you view him as somebody who’s like right situation right time this guy can be a floor raiser for a team [Music] I think it’s a little bit more of it being driven by him himself than the pieces around him because some of the things that he does are self-created. So, you can say he’s going to thrive because of having pieces like Devin Booker around him, of course, but Deon Booker is not going to be dribbling the ball for him. Deon Booker is not going to be making decisions for him when he does have the ball in his hands. Book can’t go grab offensive rebounds for him. Like those little things like that, I think Oso is good with those. And I think because of that, he’s always going to find a way to positively impact the environment that he’s operating in because of the IQ, because of the skill with the handle, because of the feel that he plays the game with on both ends of the floor. Yeah. And I think with his defense, too, the the athleticism, the timing, he had some pretty incredible blocks. I could see him being kind of like this four, five tweener, but it it makes it so interesting. And the reason why I call him fascinating is, you know, sizewise with where the NBA is going now or the return of the traditional big man, the return of the two big lineups, you kind of like having a guy like Oso Gdaro size-wise to be a four. Yeah. But traditionally speaking, he’s does not have anywhere close to the skill set of a of a modern four. Do you feel like he could survive with another non-shooting or below average shooting big in the modern NBA or does he have to be the slightly undersized fiveman in whatever unit he’s running out? No, I think he can coexist with another big whether that big can space it or can’t space it and it’s because OSO can do things with the ball in his hands. and Oso can also thrive if a big that’s opposite of him is doing things on the perimeter where they’re getting the dribble handoffs or they’re screening. I think OSO can coexist, but you won’t see those benefits until what I believe um Jordan company will do is leverage that into a process in and of itself. The bigs understanding how to manipulate space at the dunker spot. the bigs understanding how to coexist with one another on the floor based off of understanding what each player in that front court group is bringing. Also is not going to coexist next to Mark Williams like he would next to Nigel Hayes Davis, not like he would next to someone like um like Nick Richards. So I think that principle having that kind of stapled early on will help for him to be better. And I don’t think that he needs a three-point shot. I know we’ve talked about this a lot on the show where it’s like a lot of people will look at like he’s got like this high school film, right, where he’s shooting and he’s hitting threes. People are like, “Well, why can’t he do that? What happened to his jumper?” I don’t need Oso Gdaro to develop a three-point shot. There are a couple of other things I do need him to improve on. I think his floater and his finishing around the rim beyond just dunking is something that needs to go up a little bit. He overall shot 60% from the field. All but two of his 187 field goals were from two. Uh, so obviously like he’s getting a lot of paint touches, nothing really in between, nothing beyond that, which is fine. I don’t want him doing that, right? His, you know, total assists is 71 assists on the season, but 1.2 per game, half a block per game, half a steal per game, 4.2 points per game overall in just 17.1 minutes per game. The main thing that I would like to see improvement from Osu Gadaro to the point where he doesn’t get played off the floor at certain points is going to be the free throw percentage. Mhm. He shot 58% from the free throw line on 58 attempts. That’s 29 out of 50 free throws hit. And him and Ryan Dunn, who we’ll talk about, of course, beyond uh you know, in the offseason and everything this whole season, they really need to improve that free throw percentage. Javoso could hit his free throws, be a presence in the paint, defend the rim and pass the ball. I see no reason why he can’t be a mainstay in the Suns rotation or if he ends up on another team, you know, another team wanting him to be there and and to kind of, you know, excel maybe the development of some of these other pieces that could benefit from having a big that can grab the ball, run down the court, make a pass in transition on the move, on the money, and go from there. Yeah, I think that’s where that’s where the beauty of Oslo lies is there there are deficiencies. There are kind of weaknesses to his game, but I feel like he has avenues to bridging that gap and flipping them ultimately into something that’s neutral or something that’s a positive for him outside of the shooting and like in the mid-range and spacing it in respect to that. Um, floater wise, he was he had one of the better points per shot in terms of the floaters that he did take last season. Now, not gonna say he was Jokic or he was Isaiah Hardenstein or Elisa Zubach, those kind of players that he’s in the same tier with in terms of points per shot, but volume is significantly lesser. When he took that shot, it was a good one for him. You just have to have another counter to that. I talked about that in the film session I did from the summer league showing those kind of decision- making moments like I’ve talked about with Jaylen Green just because you can take that shot. Don’t take the ones that you can take. Take the ones that you know you’re going to make and kind of discerning from there. Yeah. And obviously last season with Mike Benhoer, you know, the rookies were a big point of contention with fans and the usage. And I think it’s interesting because early in the season like he was getting used and he was getting a lot of minutes per game and then some injuries hit and then he was taken out and then into the rotation. And so I just want to read a couple splits for you. So in the month of November, 10 games played, just about 20 minutes per game. 20 minutes per game for Oso Gadaro in the month of November, 5.9 points per game, 4.9 rebounds per game. We’ll call that six and five. Over an assist per game, a half a block, a half a steal, shooting 81.8% from the free throw line on just about one attempt per game. But still, that’s over 10 games played. So about 10 free throws, he hit 81.8%. I want to also look at his post all-star splits. 20 games played, 22.1 minutes per game averaged. Beyond that, averaged 5.6 points per game, 4.5 rebounds per game, 1.6 assists per game, half of half a block, half a steal, and then of course 71% from the free throw line, which is pretty damn good for him considering where he had been on a season, but only about.7 attempts per game. Now, I say this to say this was in a terrible situation on a poorly coached team in his rookie year as a second round pick, right? If he is involved from the start with a coach that we have faith in in Jordan and used creative creatively in the offense, what do you feel like his averages can be from a minutes perspective, from a points, from a rebounds perspective? And do you feel like his games played at the end of the day? He played 61 games. Do you feel like that also goes up? I think his minutes go up because conditioning will be better, but not just conditioning in the how long can you sustain stamina wise. I think physicality wise, he can take more hits and dish out more hits this season than he did in last season’s frame that naturally is going to give him opportunity to sustain a level of play. Put that in tandem with the skill development. His handle is tighter than it was last season. Now, he needs to get tighter if he’s going to be doing the things that I imagine he can do with the ball in his hands, running some inverted pick and rolls, grabbing goals, dribbling through a little bit of traffic at times. He has shown the the ability to do it, but the handle has to get tighter. Um, and then the other thing with the with the question that you’re asking, the free throws, man. Yeah. But not the not the volume or not the not the um efficiency, the volume. Sure. I think that comes from the decision to be a floater heavy guy to having a a curveball change up. People know I want to get to this floater. Can I go put someone on my shoulder after they anticipate the floater and then create that space and contact to get up uh attempt at the basket and that’s going to induce a little bit of contact. I think that would help him a lot. And seeing him, I was there in person in summer league and he looks bigger, he looks stronger. He measures in at 7 foot. I don’t know if he’s 7 feet tall. He feels a little bit smaller than that. I think he’s probably like 6’9. I feel like yeah, 610 is fair. I don’t see him like I’m looking on ESPN right now. It says he’s 7 feet tall and that was actually shocking to me. That being said, he plays bigger as well. He has great defensive instincts and I did see him get a lot more comfortable driving to the rim. Now, that of course against summer league talent in his second year, but as a second round pick in his second year, he proved that he was much too good to be there. We’re going to need to see that aggressiveness. We’re going to need to see the free throw percentage. I think it’s going to be on Jordan in this team in a fascinating sense to see how do you use this guy that has such clearcut strengths and such clear-cut deficiencies and if he can take away from any of those deficiencies as well. It’s like okay well then are we talking about somebody who can be a starter on a team? I think a lot is on the table for Oso Igodaro. I think it’s fascinating. I know you think it’s fascinating but what do you all think of Oso Igodaro about his future about his now? about the prospect of his game. If you’re watching on YouTube, drop a comment. Also, leaving a like and subscribing is a massive, massive benefit for us here. It helps us keep the lights on, and we do really appreciate you helping us out with that. If you’re listening on audio, five star reviews go a long long long long way. We’re still live every single day of the week in the offseason, Monday through Friday at 3 p.m. Doing mailbags, doing deep dives on individual players, and so much more. So, you want to tune in for PHNX’s live shows all throughout that as well. You can follow us at phnx_sons on Twitter. And on Instagram, you can follow Stephen at Steven PG3. That’s Stephen with a ph. You can follow me at Eddie Rub Y. And we got the freckled Mamba behind the Mac. You can follow him at freckledmamba making fire thumbnails as always. We appreciate y’all. We’ll talk to you again soon. [Applause] [Music]

The Phoenix Suns could have one of the most fascinating players in the NBA in 2024 2nd round pick Oso Ighodaro. Why does he make the case for that title? Erik Ruby and Stephen PridGeon-Garner break down all the different positives and negatives that come with the big man, and where he could take his career next season. Follow the show @PHNX_Suns, @StephenPG3, @ErikRuby & @FreckledMamba!

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