The Los Angeles Lakers’ decision to walk away from their 2025 trade for Mark Williams is looking increasingly consequential after another significant health setback for the Phoenix Suns center.
ESPN’s Shams Charania reported on September 11 that Williams underwent surgery Thursday to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder and will miss an “extended period of time.” Charania reported that Williams suffered the injury during an offseason workout.
The shoulder injury should not be treated as proof that the Lakers were right about the specific medical findings that caused them to rescind the Williams trade more than a year earlier. But it is another reminder of the availability risk Los Angeles was unwilling to assume, and the decision looks even more important considering what the Lakers eventually did with the draft capital they kept.
Lakers Preserved Major Trade Assets by Walking Away From Williams
Los Angeles agreed in February 2025 to acquire Williams from the Charlotte Hornets shortly after landing Luka Dončić.
The price was substantial: Dalton Knecht, Cam Reddish, an unprotected 2031 first-round pick and a 2030 first-round pick swap. NBA.com documented the complete package before the transaction was rescinded.
Williams then failed the Lakers’ physical.
ESPN reported that the examination revealed “multiple issues,” although Williams’ back was not the reason he failed. The Lakers consequently rescinded the deal, sending Williams back to Charlotte and restoring Knecht, Reddish and the draft assets to Los Angeles.
The call generated pushback. Williams’ agent, Jeff Schwartz, later said doctors consulted by his camp believed Los Angeles should not have failed Williams on the physical. The Lakers declined to respond publicly to Schwartz’s criticism.
More than a year later, however, the consequences of Los Angeles protecting those assets are easier to measure.
The Lakers used an unprotected 2031 first-round pick and a 2030 first-round swap as part of the package that landed Walker Kessler from the Utah Jazz in July 2026. Los Angeles also sent an unprotected 2033 first-rounder and a 2028 swap in that deal.
In other words, two premium assets that would have gone to Charlotte for Williams remained available long enough to help the Lakers make a different long-term investment at center.
Dalton Knecht also remains on the Lakers’ roster entering the 2026-27 season.
NBA News: Phoenix Suns Center Mark Williams Undergoes Surgery
Williams eventually left Charlotte anyway.
The Hornets traded him to Phoenix in June 2025 for Vasa Micić, the draft rights to Liam McNeeley and a future first-round pick. Williams went on to play a career-high 60 games for the Suns during the 2025-26 regular season, averaging 11.7 points and 8.0 rebounds.
Phoenix then doubled down on Williams this summer, signing him to a reported three-year, $38 million contract.
That made Thursday’s surgery a particularly rough development for the Suns ahead of the new season.
It also extends a career in which health has routinely been part of the Williams conversation. Before the Lakers rescinded their trade in 2025, Williams had appeared in only 85 of a possible 212 games over his first two-and-a-half NBA seasons.
Again, the torn left labrum is a new injury suffered in an offseason workout. There is no basis to say it was one of the issues the Lakers uncovered during Williams’ 2025 physical.
The broader conclusion is more defensible: Los Angeles faced a choice between accepting considerable medical uncertainty or protecting a valuable collection of players and picks.
The Lakers chose the assets.
Eighteen months later, Williams is facing another extended absence, Knecht is still in Los Angeles, and two of those preserved draft assets helped the Lakers acquire Kessler.
That makes one of the Lakers’ most controversial reversals of 2025 look considerably different today.
Lakers Mark Williams Decision Resurfaces After Suns Surgery News