New Phoenix Suns center Khaman Maluach on playing with the team
Center Khaman Maluach talks about playing with the Phoenix Suns during a Summer League post-game interview July 11, 2025.
New Phoenix Suns center Mark Williams is a 7-footer with size and length, but he’s injury prone and a defensive liability, says Sam Vecenie of The Athletic.
“He’s actually been quite poor on that end at this point,” Vecenie said about Williams’ defense on the Game Theory Podcast with guest Bryce Simon of Motor City Hoops this week.
“I really hated everything I’ve seen from him on that end. He’s not as good as the length would make you believe on defense and his mobility has not been strong enough in ball screens and he consistently gets beat, but he’s massive. He’s a great lob threat.”
Vecenie and Simon were discussing players up for rookie extensions. Williams is in the final year of a four-year, $18 million deal.
He’ll be a restricted free agent after this season.
“I kind of wonder if they’ve backed themselves into having to pay him,” Vecenie said. “If I’m him, I’m taking $20 (million) a year. I think the biggest thing for them is like you do 20ish a year, or whatever, and you build in all sorts of injury insurance designations.”
Williams averaged a career-high 15.3 points on 60.4% shooting and 10.2 rebounds in 44 games last season with the Charlotte Hornets.
“Like if he misses X number of games, he played 50 games, the next year is guaranteed,” Vecenie continued. “If he plays 60 games, the third year is guaranteed. Like stuff like that. Like we see in other players in these circumstances.”
The Suns are under the first and second tax apron after trading away Kevin Durant to Houston and buying out Bradley Beal, giving them more roster flexibility.
However, Williams may be in line for $20 million a year when considering Jakob Poeltl signed a four-year, $104-million extension this summer with the Raptors to put him under contract through the 2029-30 season. Poeltl averaged similar numbers last season – career-high 14.5 points on 62.7% shooting and 9.6 rebounds in 57 games.
“Maybe it’s a (four years, $80 million) or something, and it’s $20 million guaranteed or maybe even $40 million guaranteed and the third year, as he has to play at least 55 games in Year 2 in order for Year 3 to be guaranteed,” Vecenie continued. “That feels like the fairest structure to me.”
Vecenie questions whether the Suns have a team capable of maximizing Williams’ strengths. The Suns traded a first-round pick in the 2025 and 2029 drafts, and guard Vasa Micic, to Charlotte for Williams and a 2029 second-round selection.
“I do wonder if this Phoenix team is well equipped to take advantage of what makes him so special as a threat, but at the same token, he also has massive injury concerns,” Vecenie said. “Has real concerns seemingly with his back. There’s like a knee concern. I don’t know what to expect here.”
The Los Angeles Lakers initially traded for Williams before the 2025 trade deadline, but the deal was rescinded due to him failing a Lakers team physical.
A first-round pick in the 2022 NBA draft out of Duke, Williams has played a total of 106 games (77 starts) in three NBA seasons.
The Suns landed Khaman Maluach with the 10th overall pick in the 2025 draft, but at 19 years old, the 7-footer from South Sudan, who spent one season at Duke, is viewed as the future big of the franchise.
“We saw the opportunity to do both, for us, we have to do it,” said Suns general manager Brian Gregory, going into NBA Summer League play in July, about Maluach and Williams. “We were very poor at protecting the rim last year. Now we should be able to have a full game where there is protection of the rim.”
The Suns finished 27th in defensive rating last season. Gregory sees the additions of Williams and Maluach improving the Suns on that end, but Vecenie isn’t the only one critical of Williams’ defense.
“Even when he was healthy, he was usually a liability on defense despite his height and length,” wrote Orel Dizon of Fansided’s Swarm and Sting. “Williams suffered from a lack of mobility and IQ, and his rim-running and rebounding proficiencies were probably not enough to compensate for his defensive deficiencies.”
Dizon added that Phoenix may pause to grant Williams an extension because of his “struggles in protecting the paint and staying on the floor.”
Dizon added, “It could limit the squad’s roster flexibility and have it stuck with an untradable contract.”
Gregory even acknowledged the injury history of Williams, who averaged a career-high 1.2 blocks last season.
“When a young player, again, 23 years old, has had those injury issues, you take a look back and you say OK, do we have the things in place that can help him?” Gregory said. “Do we have the resources and tools and personnel that can put him in a better position where his body is able to recover from any previous injuries or prevention of other ones.”
Williams has had foot, back, knee, ankle and thumb injuries in his NBA career. He only played 19 games in the 2023-24 season.
“Obviously, it’s talked about and discussed, but we felt pretty confident with (Williams) in our environment that we can get him healthy and he can play the way he’s capable of playing on a more consistent basis,” Gregory said.
Phoenix still has 7-footer Nick Richards, who they got from Charlotte in a trade before the 2025 deadline, and Oso Ighodaro, who added 12 pounds of muscle in the summer.
Still, Williams is viewed as Phoenix’s starting center going into the 2025-26 season.
“Phoenix, you gave up capital to get him,” Simon said. “They drafted a young center right behind that as well. I’m not exactly sure what their long-term play is there, but he’s one I’d be nervous (about). Maybe this is the shorter-term one because of the injury concerns.”
Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.
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