Jordan Ott keeps Suns’ center job open before Portland: ‘We need 48 minutes of great center play’

PHOENIX — Jordan Ott still is not saying who will start at center when the Suns open the season in Portland on Wednesday. After Monday’s practice, the Suns’ coach repeated the line he has used all month, Oso Ighodaro and Khaman Maluach are “two guys that we love,” and said the decision will keep being worked out “as we get close to Wednesday.”

“We need 48 minutes of great center play,” Ott said. “Whoever starts got to play well. Whoever comes off the bench got to play well. Doesn’t mean who starts will end the game.”

Not a matchup-to-matchup call

The question matters more because Phoenix is without Mark Williams, its starting center, who is expected to miss several months after shoulder surgery. Maluach, the second-year big man, started the preseason finale. Ighodaro sat out that game with a hip issue and then signed a three-year, $29 million extension that became official on Monday.

Asked whether Wednesday’s starter should be seen as the long-term choice or a game-by-game call based on the opponent, Ott would not commit either way. “I don’t want to say yes or no to that,” he said. “I’m not one to change kind of game to game.” He said the Suns will adjust in-game if someone gets in foul trouble or struggles with a matchup early, but “we’re not going into the game worried about the opponent as much. We got to play well ourselves.”

Ighodaro’s free throws are ‘not an end of the game thing’

One reporter raised the obvious late-game concern. Ighodaro is a career 49.1% free throw shooter, so teams could foul him on purpose in close games. Ott said the staff has talked with him about his free throw shooting in general, not as a closing-time problem. “If it’s the first quarter, we want to make a free throw,” he said. “Of course, he knows about it. We all know about it, but we’re not going to make that the key to his game. He brings a lot of other stuff.”

He listed what Ighodaro gives Phoenix late in games: the “ability to switch, ability to force turnovers late in the game, ability to pass.” Ott added that what the Suns do at center to close games “will change game to game and some of it we do have to see.”

Ott also said passing from the five is a big part of how the game is changing. Ighodaro has had that feel since day one, he said, and Maluach is still developing it. Against a Portland team that pressures the ball as hard as anyone, Ott said, the center often becomes the outlet that takes pressure off the guards.

Kennard had a ‘test day’

Luke Kennard, who has been dealing with a sore left knee, did more on Monday. “Yeah, he did more today for sure,” Ott said. “… This was kind of the test day to see exactly where he’s at. Tomorrow will be a lower day. Um, trying to be right for Wednesday.” Kennard led the league in three-point percentage last season, and if he is ready, Duane Rankin reported that the Suns look set to open with a 10-man rotation: Devin Booker, Dillon Brooks, Jalen Green and Miles Bridges as starters, with Collin Gillespie, Jordan Goodwin, Kennard and Ryan Dunn off the bench, plus Ighodaro and Maluach at center. Rankin added that Rasheer Fleming will probably sit behind Dunn in the backup four role.

Ott said he is happy with that depth after a competitive camp. “We really like our depth because that gets tested throughout the 82-game season,” he said.

Running, and Lillard’s return

Ott said the Suns have made running the floor a point of emphasis, and that it starts with selflessness, sprinting the lane even when the ball might not come. He said Booker reinforces it by looking up the floor and throwing the skip pass to the runner. “The thing that we really have to challenge ourselves is to do it across 82 games,” he said, “whether you’re tired or not.”

Wednesday’s opener also comes with a big crowd moment for the other team, with Damian Lillard back in a Trail Blazers uniform. “Lillard’s return in Portland is something that I’m sure we’ll feel,” Ott said. “But that quickly wears off, like after a couple minutes it’s just back to playing.” He said the real test for a group with several new pieces is how it handles “the first point of adversity” and whether it can stop an opponent from going on a big run.

As for his own second season, Ott said nothing carries over. Phoenix won 45 games last year before being swept by Oklahoma City in the first round. “You know, we [had] 45 wins last year, but we have zero right now,” he said. “I do feel like we’re in a better place.”

The Suns play at Portland on Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET, which is 5 a.m. Thursday in Cairo.