Hornets Trade Mark Williams To Suns

The Charlotte Hornets are trading center Mark Williams to the Phoenix Suns.

BREAKING: The Charlotte Hornets are trading center Mark Williams to the Phoenix Suns for the No. 29 pick tonight and a 2029 first-round pick, sources tell ESPN. pic.twitter.com/a6eDDn5aE6

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 26, 2025

According to Dave McMenamin of ESPN, the Los Angeles Lakers backed out of the Williams trade because they “couldn’t live with what they saw.”

Williams failed his physical with the Lakers and returned to the Hornets. Luka Doncic told Rob Pelinka that he wanted to play with Williams, which is why LA traded for the big man. 

“Williams was Doncic’s preferred lob partner out of a list of potential trade targets and told the team so, sources said, after Doncic had been so effective with Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford in Dallas,” McMenamin wrote. “The deal was agreed upon the night before the trade deadline, a buzzer-beater by the Lakers’ front office after already successfully negotiating the Doncic deal and the acquisition of Dorian Finney-Smith from the Brooklyn Nets in late December.

“Only Williams never suited up for L.A. He failed the team’s physical examination, and the Lakers ‘just couldn’t live with what they saw,’ a source with knowledge of the subject told ESPN.”

The Suns traded Kevin Durant to the Houston Rockets for Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, the 10th pick in this year’s draft and five second-round picks.