PHOENIX — If it is broke, fix it, and the approach to getting Mark Williams through an NBA season was broken.
The Phoenix Suns’ new starting center has missed 140 games three years into his NBA career, playing 106. A few of those were DNPs and G League assignments, but it’s a brutal track record that includes medicals scary enough for the Los Angeles Lakers to nix an agreed-upon trade deadline deal in February that left them with zero answers at the 5 the rest of the season.
With all of this in mind, Phoenix has had a combination of caution and diligence with Williams since he arrived in a trade on draft night in late June.
Head coach Jordan Ott spoke a handful of times throughout training camp on Williams, and the central takeaways are that while Williams does not have a current injury, he is not doing 5-on-5 yet and will not play in the preseason opener on Friday in Palm Desert against the Lakers.
“We know Mark’s history and we’re trying to change it,” Ott said Saturday. “We’re taking an approach. And he’s been out here, and it’s been good. He’s definitely added some strength to him. … Excited to see where he goes but we still do have another couple of weeks here.”
The way Ott phrased it on Wednesday was that Williams’ “camp started a long time ago” and that the center has been in the facility since the start of July working on his body, more than doubling his lower body strength (by whatever metric the Suns use to measure that).
Williams does not dance around it.
“I think I just want to prove my availability. … I just gotta be on the floor more,” he said at media day.
Phoenix has raved about Williams thus far. General manager Brian Gregory touted those gains thanks to Williams’ work ethic.
“He’s in here at like 7:30 every morning rehabbing and then he’ll get out on the court and stuff,” Suns guard Collin Gillespie said Saturday. “He’s working extremely hard to get back and I know he’s hungry to get back and be on the floor with us.”
Everything is in motion and everyone’s head is in the right spot.
“He understands this is a career,” Ott said Thursday of Williams’ mindset. “It’s not a today, it’s not a tomorrow type of plan. I think he feels our intention with that and his participation has been unbelievable. He comes with a joy every day, even though he is at times, [wanting] to do more.”
But, uh, Williams is not playing live basketball right now. And that’s a pretty large “but.”
While Ott said Williams is doing all of the drill work in practice, he is a spectator when the real deal is happening. Ott was asked if Williams will play at all in the preseason, and he said that is the goal, with the Suns currently “assessing exactly where he is.”
That is not a yes, and it’s the type of asterisk or qualifier that you wouldn’t want to see accompanying the oft-injured center. The reality, though, is that this is obviously a long-term approach and one preseason game is not the time to start tossing hands in the air and declaring, “Here we go again.”
With that said, it would be good to have him out there for multiple reasons beyond just the relief of taking more productive steps toward being past his problems.
Ott has referenced actual significance to the preseason for the Suns, that a lot of what he has talked about in terms of stylistic objectives will be seeing how it looks in these exhibitions and tinkering from there. So, Williams being out there — one of the five most important players on the team and arguably top-3 — would be helpful.
An unconventional schedule could set up Williams to not play in the preseason at all.
Will he play in China on Oct. 10 or 12? If that type of travel and environment is not considered suitable enough for the delicate way in which the Suns are going about this, perhaps the preseason finale on Oct. 14 will be. Then again, the ridiculous turnaround the league’s schedule put Phoenix on with a game two days later back in the states (as opposed to the Brooklyn Nets having a much more realistic five days) has its quirks too, almost guaranteeing the group that plays in China will be sitting out that finale.
Ott said the travel on the way back from China and that turnaround is the toughest period for situations like this one, noting the team will have a few days to settle in China before that pair of games. Williams will be traveling with the team for that international swing.
Phoenix has the bodies to partially make up for Williams’ absence. A competent center rotation of Khaman Maluach, Nick Richards and Oso Ighodaro could still be formed. The pecking order is unclear, as Malauch is raw and Ighodaro has shown enough flashes to deserve minutes, while Richards is the largest known commodity out of the three.
While the depth is there, it still should not be used as an excuse or reason as to why Williams’ absences are OK. He needs to play, and situations like this one are exactly why it’s unlikely he and the Suns reach an agreement on an extension off his rookie deal by the deadline on Oct. 20. Williams’ side is likely looking for far more guaranteed money than the Suns feel safe in offering before they see him play a more complete season.
