While the Phoenix Suns are trying to reverse course early in the regular season, help could be on the way.

Suns center Oso Ighodaro is trending in the right direction to play in Friday night's home matchup with the Denver Nuggets, according to The Arizona Republic's Duane Rankin.

Ighodaro has missed the last two games with his right oblique strain suffered in the season opener. He exited just before halftime of the Portland matchup and missed matchups against the Warriors and Thunder.

The Suns will reveal their initial injury report against Denver later today, where we'll get an official word on his status.

Khaman Maluach initially earned starting duties at center as typical lead man Mark Williams is out for months with a shoulder injury, though the second-year product hasn't quite played up to hopes. The Suns have been dominated on the glass to begin the season and overall have looked dysfunctional.

There's hope Ighodaro's presence into the lineup, starting or not, could help alleviate some of those issues. Phoenix seems to value his presence down low as a versatile defender, though he's not quite the elite rim protector Maluach can develop into.

"It's hard to see the Suns fixing their defensive rebounding issues, as they are staggeringly allowing teams to grab 43.3% of their own misses on the offensive glass and are also letting up the most offensive rebounds per game (15.7) and second-chance points (23.0)," our own Brendan Mau wrote when evaluating his three biggest takeaways.

"Ighodaro will bring more size when he returns, but he is not known as a strong rebounder, so the Suns need to find a way to work around this issue, which was also a problem they faced last year when they ranked 29th in defensive rebounding."

Whether Ighodaro will start upon returning remains to be seen — that seems to be a big possibility with Maluach's overall struggles to start the year. It was a bit surprising to see Ighodaro benched in their opener, as many believed Ott valued Ighodaro more than Maluach.

It's still early, and as Ott told reporters last weekend, they're still experimenting with different looks and lineups. However, it's been a dismal start to the regular season — far below expectations in terms of play on the court — and Phoenix will need solutions to the wide array of problems currently plaguing the team.

Perhaps Ighodaro can alleviate some of those concerns.