Suns have no choice in Mark Williams extension talks

The Phoenix Suns made one of the stranger trades this offseason, sending out what amounted to a pair of first round picks in order to bring in 23-year-old center Mark Williams. A deal that on the surface made a lot of sense - but if you dig a little deeper - leaves fans with more questions than answers.

Why they decided a big man with a long injury history after only three seasons in the league was a solution it is unclear, with the organization also drafting Khaman Maluach 10th overall and still having Nick Richards on this roster. Make no mistake - the Suns would trade Richards if they could find somebody who would take him - but reaching for Williams in the way that they did was puzzling.

Suns will be forced to pay Williams more than they should.

Adding another layer of intrigue to the arrival of Williams is the fact that he is eligible for an extension on his rookie deal. You would think that the team has a lot of the leverage here, given the injury history of Williams. They will surely push to have performance based incentives that need to be met in his next contract, but that won't fix what is going to become a glaring problem.

Williams is going to try and secure as much money and years on his next deal as he can - which he should - and that is going to leave the Suns with a headache down the road. His side can rightly argue that he is now the starting center for the franchise moving forward, because Richards certainly isn't and Maluach isn't close to ready.

If that's the case, then he should be making starting big man money. The Suns are now below both aprons as well - and although they'll be paying Bradley Beal for the next five years - their cap sheet looks better than it did at the start of the summer. A fact that will surely not be lost on Williams and his representatives.

But when Phoenix agrees to a deal that it probably isn't totally comfortable with, they are then going to be stuck with Williams. For a legit seven-footer he doesn't have the defensive impact you would like to see, while mobility is already an issue for him because of his injuries. The hope is that Maluach develops into a beast, which would then make Williams expendable.

Why pay what it is hoped will be your backup center starter's dollars, especially if he can only play 60 games a season? When that time comes however, the front office aren't going to find a willing trade partner. If they can't shake Richards and the $5 million he is owed next season, what hope will they have with Williams?

They will then be stuck with a backup center who is overpaid relative to what he produces, although the alternative is even worse. That would be Maluach failing to become the player we all hope he can, and Williams remaining as the starter into Booker's 30s, and one that doesn't play nearly as much as he should. Talk about a lose-lose scenario here.