Oso Ighodaro's Oblique Leaves Suns Thin at Center — Who's Next?
Ighodaro is out Saturday vs. Golden State, leaving Phoenix with a center room of three. Here's who fills the void and who's worth a flyer.
Ighodaro's oblique opens real minutes for the second-year big.
- Ighodaro out Saturday vs. Warriors (oblique)
- Exited Wed's opener before halftime, didn't return
- Suns have one open roster spot after waiving Highsmith
- $4.4M of flexibility under the hard-capped apron
- Center room now Maluach, Reath, Timme
The Phoenix Suns' center depth was already a question mark. Now it's a crisis. Per Suns insider Duane Rankin, Oso Ighodaro will miss Saturday night's game against the Golden State Warriors with an oblique injury — and this comes just one game into the regular season. Ighodaro left Wednesday's opener against Portland before halftime and never came back.
That matters because Phoenix was already down a body. Mark Williams, the team's experienced starting center, is set to miss significant time after surgery to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder. With Williams gone, Ighodaro was the fallback — and now the fallback is hurt too. The current center room is Khaman Maluach plus two-way players Duop Reath and Drew Timme. That's the whole list.
The timeline is the scary part. Nobody knows the severity yet, but oblique injuries have a nasty habit of dragging. Look at Paolo Banchero last season (2024-25): his initial timeline was six weeks and he returned after 11. If Ighodaro's absence stretches anywhere near that, Phoenix is in genuine trouble up front.
The Shopping List
Phoenix has one open roster spot after waiving Haywood Highsmith, plus $4.4 million of room under the second apron (which they're hard-capped at). The free-agent board is stocked with rebounding vets. Dwight Powell, 35, has averaged 6.5 points and 4.2 rebounds across 768 career games and posted a career-high 15.1% rebounding percentage last season (2025-26) in Dallas. Kelly Olynyk brings 7-foot size, a 36.9% career three-point stroke and relentless motor. And then there's Jonas Valanciunas — the most intriguing name — a 15-year vet at 6'11", 265 pounds with career marks of 12.8 points, 9.0 rebounds and a 20.7% rebounding percentage.
For a team that lacks size and projects as a mediocre rebounding outfit, any of them would help. Valanciunas offers the most juice as a floor-spacing, glass-crashing big; Powell and Olynyk are cheaper energy options. Former Suns Bismack Biyombo and Mason Plumlee are also floating around if Phoenix wants familiarity on the cheap.
The Fantasy Angle
Here's the real fantasy story: Maluach. With Williams out indefinitely and Ighodaro sidelined, the second-year big's development timeline just got shoved forward, and he's the most likely beneficiary of real minutes. In deeper leagues, he's worth a speculative stash right now. Timme (6.3 fantasy pts/game across 27 games last season, 2025-26) and Reath are deep-league darts at best. As for the free-agent targets, Powell is the one to monitor — he averaged just 11.6 fantasy pts/game last season (2025-26) but was trending up, posting +7.6 over his season average across his final five games.
Bottom line: don't overreact to the veteran names until Phoenix actually signs one. The actionable move is monitoring Maluach's workload. If he logs 25-plus minutes Saturday against Golden State, he becomes a legit streamer in standard formats. Keep him on your watch list and pounce the moment the Suns commit to him.
