By Gerald Bourguet

Three games into the season, the Phoenix Suns already have quite a few problems to address. Their 3-point shooting has been predictably subpar, their defense has been outright atrocious, they’ve played two of the three games without two of their three centers, and this new starting lineup looks even worse than expected.

Granted, it’s still very early in the year, but the Suns’ decision to start second-year big man Khaman Maluach at center has compounded those problems. Based on the evidence so far, it’s a choice that feels premature, even if Oso Ighodaro’s absence for the last two games wound up making it a necessity.

One’s opinion on the decision to start Man Man likely depends on that person’s expectations for the upcoming season, and it seems the fanbase is split between two prevailing schools of thought.

On the one hand, Maluach is undoubtedly the future of the center position in Phoenix. He was a recent top-10 pick, he has incredible upside and physical tools for a 20-year-old, and coming off a dominant performance in NBA Summer League, it was always going to be tempting to just throw him in the fire. Prioritizing the long-term development of these Suns youngsters — and especially this Suns youngster — makes sense within the context of a team that most people believe tops out as a second-round playoff exit at best.

On the other hand, it’s become clear through three games that Maluach just isn’t ready for a starting role yet. There have been flashes of brilliance, and he hasn’t been an unmitigated disaster, but if the Suns are intent on building on last year’s 45-win season and winning an actual playoff series, Man Man’s trial by fire could ultimately burn them.

The question is, are the Suns in a position where they can remain patient in an effort to usher in the future ahead of schedule? Or should they make a change to the starting lineup once Ighodaro is ready to return in an attempt to get this bumpy start to the season back on track?

To figure it out, we’re going to take a look at the good and the bad from Khaman Maluach’s current trial by fire.

The good from Khaman Maluach starting

Again, one’s answer to these questions depends on their outlook for the upcoming season.

To some, the development of the youngsters is not only paramount to the post-Devin Booker era that will arrive at some point in the future, but to the current Devin Booker era as well. Building around a soon-to-be 30-year-old Book with Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks and Miles Bridges remains a mind-boggling bit of malpractice, so their only path toward become a legitimate playoff contender may rely on massive, ceiling-raising strides over the next few years from guys like Maluach, Ighodaro, Ryan Dunn, Rasheer Fleming and Koa Peat.

On the flip side of that coin, while Maluach will eventually figure things out, feeding him to the lions right now probably comes at the cost of wins that could prove pivotal for seeding purposes by the end of the season. There were already justifiable concerns about the fit of Phoenix’s starting lineup, and that was back when we were pencilling in Ighodaro as the starter. Throwing Man Man into the mix before he’s even come close to realizing his true potential just puts him and the Suns in a tougher spot.

From Phoenix’s perspective, if the decision to start Maluach in the first place wasn’t enough indication, it’s clear which side of the fence they’re sitting on.

“The resilience to just keep coming back to work, he’s got that already in him,” coach Jordan Ott said after the Suns’ winover the Golden State Warriors. “So he’s only gonna continue to get better, and then not run from it. Like, every night’s gonna be different….He’s gonna continue to progress because he’s about the right stuff. And we’re gonna continue to put him in the environments and try to prepare him the best we can, but nothing replaces what he just has to go through each night — the physicality, the environment, the communication piece when it’s super loud.”

“It’s the little things, and he’s learning it on the fly,” Dillon Brooks agreed. “Being a starting big in the NBA, especially at his age, is very unheard of. A lot of greats were put in that position, so we have that same trust in him to learn at that speed. And his work in the summer, how he built his body, is gonna propel him to get to that point. But we’re gonna need his mind a little bit more for these next games so we can get a routine.”

So what has Khaman Maluach done well so far? At a base level, he’s been able to produce. Three games is obviously a tiny sample size, but Maluach is averaging 7.7 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.3 blocks in just 23.4 minutes per game. 

Diving into more specifics, this conversation has to start with his screen-setting. Entering Wednesday’s batch of games, Man Man ranked fifth in the entire NBA in screen assist points (9.7 per game) and third in screen assists (4.7 per game), trailing only Domantas Sabonis (7.3 per game) and Nikola Jokic (5.3 per game). Extrapolate that over a per-75 possessions basis, and Maluach was leading the league in screen assists:

The best part is Maluach can continue to improve in that respect. ESPN’s Tim Legler mentioned Isaiah Hartenstein as an elite screen-setter that Man Man could learn from, and the prospect of him getting better in this area, when he’s already capable of using his 7-foot frame to set bone-crunching screens for his ball-handlers, is pretty terrifying.

There have also been flashes of the skill-set Maluach will need to bring to the table more consistently. On the rim protection front, some of his blocks at the rim are jaw-dropping, he’s averaging 2.1 blocks per 36 minutes, and there’s potential to stonewall defenders when he’s able to maintain verticality. 

The flashes are fleeting, and they’re harder to appreciate when the Suns have fallen behind by double figures. All three of their games have either underwhelmed or been outright disappointing, and Maluach being in the starting lineup is one (of many) direct contributors to those results.

But watching him hold up in space on an isolation, or even function as an offensive hub to hit his teammate for a backdoor pass, suggests he’s only just starting to tap into his full potential, where even some of his weaknesses might not be a problem in just a few years. For his part, Maluach seems to possess the right mindset about facing expectations head on, as well as the work ethic it’ll take to meet them.

“I think it’s valid to want more,” Maluach said. “And I love it. I love the fact that everybody wants me to fasten up the process, and I like it. I don’t mind it. ‘Cause now, it’s like, I’m learning a lot from different people, from my teammates, from my coaches. So it’s good for me. It’s a lot of learning for me, and I like it.”

The bad from Khaman Maluach starting

Maluach may be learning more and more every day, but in the interim, it leaves the Suns on the wrong side of a ill-fitting starting lineup. We should note once again that Ighodaro’s oblique strain would’ve forced Maluach to start anyway, but in the first game of the season when both bigs were available, Man Man got the nod.

It’s worth wondering whether that was the right call, and how much more Jordan Ott will need to see before making any tweaks. Three games is a small sample size, but boy, were they loud.

In 37 minutes together, the five-man lineup of Devin Booker, Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, Miles Bridges and Khaman Maluach has been outscored by 27 points. That total point differential of -27 is tied for the second-worst plus/minus among 33 NBA lineups that have played at least 20 minutes together so far this season.

The Suns’ new starting lineup also has a -35.5 Net Rating, which is the second-worst Net Rating among those same 33 lineups. This group has shot 42.1 percent from the floor when they’ve shared the court, including an anemic 9.1 percent from 3. They’ve committed 11 turnovers with only 12 assists, and they’ve racked up 10 fouls with only 3 steals.

Just go back and rewatch that disastrous first quarter in Portland— where they were outscored 21-0 to start the game and trailed 43-12 by the end of the period — if you need a reminder about how bad this starting five has looked together.

Not all of that can be pinned on Maluach, but as the anchor and lead communicator on defense, a fair portion of the Suns’ miscommunications trace back to him. He’s been nowhere near as detrimental as Brooks and Bridges have been to Phoenix’s 30th-ranked defense — that’s right, they’re dead last in defensive rating one week into the season — but some of the communication errors, botched rotations and 30th-ranked defensive rebounding falls on the shoulders of a 20-year-old who just isn’t ready to anchor a defense yet.

For starters, while Maluach’s per-36 block numbers are…fine, the rim protection hasn’t been there consistently. According to NBA.com, opponents are shooting 4.4 percent better at the rim than they’d normally shoot when challenged by Man Man — a stark contrast from last year, when he held opponents to 21.5 percent worse shooting at the rim.

“At the end of the day, you gotta protect the rim at a high level,” Ott said after Maluach recorded 2 blocks against the Warriors. “In that second half, he had some of those possessions where just his sheer size helps us, and we’re gonna need more of it.” 

Maluach’s 7-foot-2 frame obviously gives him an advantage against the 6-foot-11 Ighodaro, which will theoretically help him as a superior rim deterrent and defensive rebounder. But in the here and now, Man Man still lacks the functional strength to put his size to its utmost use, which explains why Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was able to dribble into the paint, bump Maluach off his line, and dunk all over him (the play was waved off, but it still wound up being pretty eye-opening).

In addition to the rim protection not being where it needs to be yet, the Suns rank 30th in opponent offensive rebounding percentage, with opponents grabbing a staggering 43.3 percent of those available boards. For reference, the team just ahead of Phoenix in 29th is only giving up 36.6 percent of those boards. That’s not all on Man Man, but he’s the only true center the Suns have right now, and the number of O-boards this team has given up is unsustainable.

Maluach has also been fairly turnover-prone for a low-usage player. He’s averaging 2.3 turnovers in just 23.4 minutes per game so far, and in every single game, there have been multiple instances where he’s been stripped on a rebound or catch in the paint. His hands have simply got to be better if he’s going to hold it down on the glass and feast at the rim, where he’s only shot 7-for-12.

If he’s unable to convert at a high enough level at the rim, if he’s only getting to the free-throw line 2.7 times a night, and if he continues to commit more turnovers (7) than assists (5), the Suns are in for a long season with him as the starter. Man Man should improve in some of these areas, but he’s not just going to flip that switch overnight.

Without Ighodaro, the Suns have had to resort to either Duop Reath or small-ball whenever Maluach has sat over two out of these three games. However, the Suns have still fared slightly better with Maluach off the court (-18 in 74 minutes) than they have with him on the court (-25 in 70 minutes). 

“It’s probably a tough assessment,” Jordan Ott told AZ Central’s Duane Rankin when asked how he thought Maluach played after the Rip City massacre. “Throwing young guys into the fire, that’s what you see. And he’ll learn from this. He was part of the group that’s out there to start the game when that avalanche is coming. We need him. We need him to grow, he will continue to grow. We need him to take a step, he’ll take steps. Now depending on what happens to Oso, we need him even more. That’s a spot we’re in and I know he will take the challenge.”

This 20-year-old is bound to make mistakes, and Ighodaro’s absence for the last two games has left Phoenix with no choice but to start Man Man regardless. But as those lapses, errors and learning experiences mount, continuing to start this second-year big may feel more and more rushed.

If you wanted a second opinion, NBA analyst Sam Vecenie seemed to be in agreement after thoroughly breaking down the Suns’ lifeless loss to the shorthanded Thunder.

“I also haven’t really loved the Khaman Maluach as a starting center experience so far,” Vecenie wrote. “I just don’t think his hands, screening or offensive processing skills are good enough yet for such a large role….I am definitely in favor of him being a backup this year, I think he’s shown enough to be useful there. But I’d probably start Ighodaro over him when he’s back healthy because I think they need someone who can process the game quickly and move the ball with this starting lineup.”

For a team that’s trying to build on last year’s 45-win campaign, the Suns may not have the luxury of affording Maluach all the mistakes he needs to make in order to learn, especially in a starting lineup that felt like a poor fit even withIghodaro’s basketball IQ and secondary playmaking included.

Maluach is the future of the center position for Phoenix, and he’s going to be something special in time. But as much as his development should be a top priority for the Suns, he can still get ample room to grow in similar minutes off the bench. Demoting him may feel like an overreaction three games into the season, but there was a stronger case for Ighodaro to start in the first place. Throwing Maluach into the fire has come with a steep learning curve, and the growing pains aren’t going to stop anytime soon.

For more of Gerald Bourguet’s Suns work, check back with Sports360AZ on a weekly basis, subscribe to his Patreon articles and podcast at Suns After Dark, or follow him on Twitter.

The post A trial by fire is good for Khaman Maluach, but how much longer can the Suns afford to burn? first appeared on Sports360AZ.



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