{"id":126474,"date":"2025-06-26T14:50:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T14:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/126474\/"},"modified":"2025-06-26T14:50:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T14:50:13","slug":"hornets-to-trade-mark-williams-to-suns-for-no-29-2029-first-rounder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/126474\/","title":{"rendered":"Hornets To Trade Mark Williams To Suns For No. 29, 2029 First-Rounder"},"content":{"rendered":"

9:00pm:\u00a0The full trade is as follows, according to Roderick Boone of The Charlotte Observer (Twitter link<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"\"Hornets receive:<\/p>\n

2025 No. 29 pick
\n2029 first-round pick with the least favorable language listed below
\n2026 second-rounder (least favorable of Golden State and Denver)
\nMicic<\/p>\n

Suns receive:<\/p>\n

Williams
\n2026 second-round pick (most favorable of Golden State and Denver)<\/p>\n

8:22pm: Right around the same time they drafted<\/a> Khaman Maluach<\/a>, the Suns agreed to acquire another Duke center, according to Shams Charania of ESPN, who reports (via Twitter<\/a>) that the Hornets are sending Mark Williams<\/a> to Phoenix in exchange for tonight\u2019s No. 29 overall pick and a 2029 first-rounder.<\/p>\n

Sources tell Charania that the 2029 first-round pick will be the least favorable of the selections controlled by Utah, Cleveland and Minnesota (Twitter link<\/a>). The Wolves\u2019 pick is top-five protected, so it would have to fall outside of that range to be in play.<\/p>\n

According to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Twitter link<\/a>), Vasilije Micic<\/a> is also involved in the trade, as he\u2019ll be sent back to Charlotte, which just traded him to Phoenix in February. Micic\u2019s $8.1MM team option for next season will have to be exercised for that to occur.<\/p>\n

Williams, 23, was nearly traded to the Lakers at the February deadline, but Los Angeles wound up rescinding that deal due to concerns about his physical.<\/p>\n

A 7\u20190\u2033 big man with an enormous 7\u20197\u2033 wingspan, Williams was productive when healthy this past season for Charlotte, averaging 15.3 points, 10.2 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.2 blocks in 44 appearances (26.6 minutes per game). He shot 60.4% from the field and a career-best 80.4% from the foul line.<\/p>\n

However, health has been a huge issue for Williams through three NBA seasons, having played a total of just 106 games. He also has been a negative defender, particularly when trying to switch onto smaller players on the perimeter.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s telling that Charlotte was so determined to move Williams despite his very real upside as a scorer and rebounder. The Hornets only won 19 games last season, but they were substantially worse<\/a> when Williams was on the court (-12.7 net rating) compared to when he was off it (-7.7).<\/p>\n

Obviously, Phoenix is betting that Williams and Maluach will be long-term answers in the middle. After trading away Deandre Ayton<\/a> two years ago, the Suns have been lacking reliable play up front.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the Suns sent Josh Okogie<\/a> and multiple second-round picks to Charlotte in January in order to acquire Nick Richards<\/a>, whose $5MM salary for 2025\/26 is non-guaranteed. Adding Maluach and Williams might signal that Phoenix will opt to waive Richards \u2014 yet another center \u2014 instead of retaining him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"9:00pm:\u00a0The full trade is as follows, according to Roderick Boone of The Charlotte Observer (Twitter link). Hornets receive:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,1011,10757],"class_list":{"0":"post-126474","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-mark-williams","10":"tag-vasilije-micic"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114750227991740898","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}