Injuries have held back Mark Williams throughout his NBA career, ostensibly including when a failed physical reportedly nixed a February 2025 trade that would have sent the center to the Los Angeles Lakers.
But Williams appeared in a personal-best 60 games for the Phoenix Suns last season. Following what was the healthiest campaign in his soon-to-be five-year professional career, the Suns re-signed him to a three-year, $38 million deal this summer during free agency.
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Unfortunately for the Suns, their odds of getting that much run out of Williams in 2026-27 have reportedly taken a hit. Williams will miss an “extended period of time” after undergoing surgery Thursday to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Friday.
The injury occurred in an offseason workout, per Charania.
Williams, a Duke product and 2022 No. 15 overall pick of the Charlotte Hornets, will turn 25 this season. The 7-foot-1, 240-pound big man started 55 games for the upstart Suns last season. Along the way, he averaged 11.7 points, 8 rebounds and 23.6 minutes. Plus, he shot 64.4% from the field and 77.1% from the charity stripe.
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That said, he wasn’t a part of Phoenix’s brief forage into the playoffs. He was sidelined most of March, and, although he played in a play-in loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, his foot injury kept him out of the rotation for the Suns’ first-round playoff series versus the Oklahoma City Thunder.
In that series, the Suns leaned on Oso Ighodaro, a 2024 second-round pick from Marquette. Ighodaro started all four games against the Thunder and posted 7.5 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists per contest.
In Williams’ latest absence, Phoenix can once again turn to Ighodaro, except it might be able to rely more on 2025 No. 10 overall pick Khaman Maluach this time around. Like Williams, Maluach hails from Duke. The South Sudan native is entering his age-20 season. As a rookie, Maluach took the court for 46 regular-season games yet played sparingly when his number was called. He put up 3 points, 2.9 rebounds and 0.7 blocks per game.
As for Williams, his shoulder recovery is the latest hurdle in an adversity-worn career that was under the microscope around the trade deadline two seasons ago.
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At the time, it seemed like the Lakers were going to pair him with then-newly acquired superstar Luka Dončić. Williams didn’t get the opportunity to be Dončić’s pick-and-roll partner.
A Lakers trade that would have sent the Hornets Dalton Knecht and Cam Reddish — along with a 2031 first-round pick and a 2030 pick swap — was rescinded. Back then, it was reported that Williams failing a physical was the reason why the trade didn’t go through; however, Williams’ agent questioned that failed physical and the Lakers’ decision to cancel the deal.
On draft night last year, the Hornets shipped Williams to the Suns.
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