NBA Draft’s 2nd round has intriguing size for Suns to consider

After reviewing who the Phoenix Suns should target if they trade up all the way into the first round, let’s peek at a more reasonable possibility: that they’re able to move up a few spots in the second round.

At pick No. 47, Phoenix could easily get up at least 10 spots, perhaps more. In that area of big boards are two combo bigs who fit what they need, as well as a twitchy wing with size who could be available in the 40s.

All three are outside of the first round for a reason, but here’s a brief aside on that fact.

I’d be lying if I said the majority of my thoughts when watching Collin Murray-Boyles in Toronto weren’t what Suns head coach Jordan Ott could have done with him.

Murray-Boyles, who went one pick before Phoenix was up last year, is a tremendous defender with loads of versatility as a big, using a tremendous basketball IQ and awesome passing skills to impact winning. He also can’t shoot at all or score much — and is pretty undersized for his position. Much like what we saw Ott do with a similar player in Oso Ighodaro, though, Murray-Boyles is going to soon prove to be one of the most valuable big men in basketball, thanks largely to a coaching staff that knows how to maximize him.

Therein lies the thought behind all three of the following prospects, two of whom I’m certain the Suns will have to trade up from 47th to get. The other prospect might hang around until then. These are three guys with some wing-like skills who are better suited as bigs in a true 4/5 sense, where they could slot in as the third cog alongside Ighodaro and Rasheer Fleming.

The idea is to extract more value than most would with clear, NBA-ready talent in a few key areas and being able to cover up the weaknesses elsewhere. That is the blessing of having a very, very good coach.

It’s no surprise that all three are seniors who have improved a whole lot to refine that NBA skill.

Joshua Jefferson, F, Iowa State, 22 years old

Measurables: 6-foot-9, 246 pounds, 6-foot-11 wingspan
Stats: 16.4 PPG, 7.4 RPG, 4.8 APG, 0.8 BPG, 1.6 SPG, 2.5 TPG, 47.1 FG% (11.8 FGA/G), 34.5 3P% (3.1 3PA/G), 70 FT% (6.1 FTA/G)
Big board rankings: ESPN: 31, The Athletic (mock draft): 33, Yahoo!: 37, The Ringer: 20

I’m sure some of you saw the mention of Murray-Boyles and thought he would be redundant with Ighodaro on the same roster, and while there is legitimacy to that claim, it’s a matter of evaluating size versus skill at center and what means more to you in modern basketball. There’s a trickle-down effect to that discussion when talking about the 4 spot, where Ighodaro and these three names could play together if you live with major shooting question marks in order to add more size for a “forward.”

Let’s expand on that with Jefferson.

Suns fans for years have been asking for a “power forward,” even though the position essentially doesn’t exist anymore in the capacity y’all are asking about. You want someone bigger than a traditional wing that rebounds and impacts the game around the basket.

Jefferson is close.

He’s a true playmaker. Great passing big men can fall into a few different sub-categories, like how Ighodaro thrives when he’s at a standstill in dribble-handoff scenarios or catching the ball on a short roll. Jefferson, however, is using his dribble to set it up, hence the “playmaker” designation.

That skillset is deployed with a true NBA frame. This is a wide and strong man, who utilizes a good handle, too.

Joshua Jefferson’s comfort level with putting the ball on the floor and making the right passing reads really stands out.

Big, jumbo playmaker with potential to become a versatile offensive hub who can facilitate from the high post and serve as a secondary playmaker.

22nd on my… pic.twitter.com/K6hABkTvXh

— anthony chiu (@acfilmroom) June 9, 2026

Can he be some version of Jaime Jaquez Jr. as a scorer? Get the mid-post game to translate, thanks to the skill and size? That would be huge. His bag is not nearly as deep as Jaquez’s, but if Jefferson can hunt mismatches with his strength to find a way to threaten defenses beyond simple dribble drives, then that is his ticket. While the foundation of his jumper looked OK this year, the numbers don’t lie, and he can’t be treated as a reliable shooter right now.

What pushes his value over the top is his defense. While Jefferson is not going to be switchable onto the quicker perimeter players, he’s a terrific team defender and his elite steal marks the last two years properly represent how much of a nuisance he is around the ball. There aren’t many defenders you watch where you feel the need to highlight their hands specifically, but that’s Jefferson. He’s getting ’em on the ball constantly and taking any opportunity to swipe at it, often successfully.

This still doesn’t feel like enough, though. Jefferson will have to either be a consistent scorer off the dribble, consistent shooter as a spacer or a great overall defender to be a good rotation piece. Two of those boxes have to get checked for him to be a starter on a great team.

And yet, I usually feel safe betting on these types of prospects.

To make that sound less like some corny intuition and illustrate it better, consider this: Jefferson’s statistical/skill profile for his assists and steals is essentially that of a guard, and the company he will join speaks to how intelligent a player he is.

Look at his steal and assist percentages as qualifiers amongst drafted players since 2003. The only guys taller than 6-foot-6 that pop up are Scottie Barnes, Ben Simmons, Michael Gbinije, Caris LeVert, Kyle Anderson, Draymond Green and Evan Turner, per Stathead. All of them, with the exception of Gbinije, had good NBA careers at the very least, and a few accomplished much more. Tack on Jefferson’s rebounding percentage, and it’s just Simmons, Anderson, Green and Turner.

Jefferson is just about the most square peg in this class for the square hole of Ott’s style of play. Adding a playmaker to the forward rotation would be a major boon for Phoenix. He makes a whole lot of sense.

Baba Miller, F/C, Cincinnati, 22 years old

Measurables: 7-feet tall, 208 pounds, 7-foot-2 wingspan
Stats: 13 PPG, 10.3 RPG, 3.7 APG, 1.2 BPG, 0.7 SPG, 2.2 TPG, 52.9 FG% (9 FGA/G), 19.2 3P% (1.7 3PA/G), 65.8 FT% (4.8 FTA/G)
Big board rankings: ESPN: 36, The Athletic (mock draft): 43, Yahoo!: 45, The Ringer: NR

When writing about the draft for over a decade, you fall into the trap of thinking you’ve got a pretty good handle on the types of journeys you see prospects go on, identifiable paths that help project their potential success as an NBA player.

Every now and then, there are some weird ones, like our friend Baba.

Miller entered college basketball in 2022 as one of the best international recruits coming overseas, placed inside 247Sports’ top-50 before committing to Florida State. Born in Spain, Miller was in Real Madrid’s youth program from 12 years old, until he came to America. In other words, he was on NBA Draft radars all the way back then as a skilled big man. And then he quickly drifted back off them.

Miller was suspended for half his first collegiate season after violating NCAA rules for taking $3,000 to attend a training camp in the U.S. in 2020. That delayed start made his sophomore year more of one to watch. He was an uninspiring starter for Leonard Hamilton, so Miller transferred to Florida Atlantic, where he got back on track but was still at a pedestrian 11.3 PPG and 7 RPG.

The big move to Cincinnati came last summer, and Miller was one of the best players in the best conference in college basketball. A Second Team All-Big 12 honoree, Miller was much more productive in a still rather limited role on nine shot attempts a game.

But Miller has become a favorite of many as a sleeper outside the lottery picture thanks to a splashy skillset.

Miller can straight up handle the ball as a playmaking big. In the ways Suns fans have seen Ighodaro embrace more drives to the basket this year, look at what Miller was doing on the perimeter. While Ighodaro is still relegated to line-drive slashing, Miller’s got some tempo and shake to his attacks, a level up from what we just covered with Jefferson.

Like Ighodaro, Miller is a fluid athlete, where the pre-draft love a half-decade ago still shines through. Mix in some passing feel, which is more direct to playmaking as opposed to Ighodaro’s DHO-based looks, and you’ve got some explosive stuff.

Baba Miller is the most underrated prospect in the 2026 NBA Draft.

– 6’2″ at 14 → 6’11” now
– Excellent passer for a big
– Switchable shot-deterring defender

Most boards have him mid-to-late 2nd round

That’s a mistake https://t.co/YFZG4WTLGV pic.twitter.com/XUEycAdAe5

— Alex Barutha 🏀 (@BaruthaAlex) May 25, 2026

That’s what draws all the oodles of buzz, but that’s more of a supplementary part of his game. The base will be on defense, where Miller showed a ton of promise. The tape was inconsistent in terms of his possession-to-possession impact but when it was all clicking, he was a monster. The exterior-to-interior coverage is there.

In my opinion I think Baba has a case for being the best defender in the class at 6’11.

Baba has an extremely high motor on the defensive end and his mix of length and athleticism allows him to switch and defend multiple positions at an elite level.

Baba was the catalyst for… pic.twitter.com/PF0nl3pdzP

— KJ (@KJScouting) June 4, 2026

You’re watching the highlights and are probably confused as to why Miller is designated as more of a big, since it looks like he could handle being on the wing. But we are four years into his development and have seen little progress on the jumper.

Cincinnati had him pull back on it, with the 1.7 3PA/G the lowest of his four seasons in college. This most notably hurts his playmaking, because there’s no deep or midrange game for defenders to worry about beyond his back-to-the-basket work.

Essentially, that puts Miller in a tweener status, like Ighodaro. As we saw last year, players of Ighodaro’s ilk can make it work if they are great athletes with some high-end skills.

Miller is that, with the great rebounding numbers giving him a major plus to overcome this type of issue. Fleming had his own mesh of skills that helped him out on this 4/5 paradigm as well. If the Suns indeed like this archetype and it goes beyond just Ighodaro and Fleming as individuals, Miller will be their top target.

Dillon Mitchell, F, St. John’s, 23 years old

Measurables: 6-foot-8, 202 pounds, 6-foot-11 wingspan
Stats: 8.3 PPG, 7 RPG, 3 APG, 0.7 BPG, 1.3 SPG, 1 TPG, 55.9 FG% (6.4 FGA/G), 6.7 3P% (0.4 3PA/G), 49.4 FT% (2.4 FTA/G)
Big board rankings: ESPN: 42, The Athletic (mock draft): 59, Yahoo!: 42, The Ringer: NR

It is a dangerous game looking for the next ______. Oh, come on, you know what I’m talking about.

That snazzy draft trend when a prospect eludes conventional thought and then blows up, doing so in a way that makes front offices (and us) reconsider how he went under the radar so we  all can better identify a similar version of that prospect in the future. The reality is that the situation comes down to the individual more so than the type of prospect we’re talking about.

But! Let’s play the game. If we’re looking for the next Toumani Camara, our best shot is Mitchell.

Mitchell has as good an athletic profile as you’ll find for a prospect definitively outside the top-40. Unlike Camara and like Miller, this was a “guy” coming out of high school. Mitchell was ranked eighth in the country by 247 Sports in the 2022 recruiting class, sandwiched by two first-rounders in Ke’lel Ware and Keyonte George. He then went from Texas to Cincinnati before finishing with the Red Storm, where his defensive talents continued to soar.

This carries over to him with space, where as a roller, cutter or transition threat, he will glide on the ground and in the air.

Dillon Mitchell (Texas ➡️ Cincinnati ➡️ St. John’s) might be the bounciest player in college basketball 🐇

Season Stats:

10.5 points
6.5 rebounds
2.6 assists
2.1 steals
1.4 blocks
69.2 FG%

and he DUNKS EVERYTHING

Best Dunker in College Hoops??? pic.twitter.com/92zl5SNQ9d

— The Portal Report (@ThePortalReport) December 8, 2025

Two outlier skills he brings on offense to compensate are rebounding and passing.

Some dudes you watch crash the glass, and there is a sense they are playing their own game within a game. It’s like their sole desire in life for those few seconds comes down to one thing and one thing alone — to get the basketball. Mitchell is one of those men on a mission, a true nut.

The passing was the best surprise on the tape. It’s nothing sexy, but a 3-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio is a rare sight to see in a draft prospect. He’s got it.

Mitchell’s massive holdup is still on offense, where some type of consistency as a slasher would do wonders for him. He really needs it because this is the worst shooting profile for a perimeter player I’ve seen in a few years.

Outside of 34 attempted 3s with the Bearcats as a junior, Mitchell took a total of 23 across his three other collegiate seasons. Even worse, he’s a career 48.8% free-throw shooter. Anytime a guy flutters below 60%, the deficiency becomes a real liability.

It’s hard to see an NBA coach ever trusting him on the floor with that combination of concerns on offense. But again, this was the guy amongst this trio who is in mind with the No. 47 pick. At that point, you’re just not going to get attributes as good as Mitchell’s best, even with the major lows elsewhere.

You take a shot and hope he can at least find a breakthrough at the foul line with a consistent coaching staff. If that can happen, then we’d be getting somewhere, and he’d continue the efforts of getting more athletic.