The Phoenix Suns have several important pieces of business to sort out this offseason, and what extenstion they give Mark Williams on his rookie deal is at the top of that list.
At this point the prospect of a sign-and-trade is not out of the question, especially with how prevalent they have become in this age of hard caps and second aprons.
Bulls, Celtics named among potential ideal locations for Williams.
Bobby Marks of ESPN attempted to break down all of the notable names who are eligible for an extension or who will be hitting free agency in some form, and he had some surprising names when it came to the future of Williams.
The Suns were obviously mentioned, but so too were the Chicago Bulls, Boston Celtics and Atlanta Hawks. The least shocking addition here are the Bulls, given there has already been some smoke about their potential interest in acquiring Williams.
You need only look at their own Williams in Patrick (often injured but who they gave a large contract to) and puzzling trades for DeMar DeRozan, Nikola Vucevic and Zach LaVine in the past to know that theirs is an unpredictable front office. If they are in love with Williams and his game/potential upside, they are going to attempt a sign-and-trade.
The Celtics also makes some degree of sense, given the disastrous playoff experience they just had with Vucevic. He might be often injured, but to give Williams his flowers he can be a difference-maker defensively and is able to bang with the likes of Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic.
That is a skill many organizations would love to have on their roster. The Atlanta Hawks is the only true surprise here, although their own playoff shortcomings exposed that although they've made serious progress since trading away Trae Young, they can be picked on inside as the New York Knicks exposed.
If any of these three franchises can offer a player or pick of note in a sign-and-trade, then the Suns simply have to do it. Letting him walk having given up a pair of first rounders to land him inthe first place would suck, but Marks at least believes there are other teams out there who make sense.
The most likely outcome is on Williams signing the kind of extension that is team-friendly and that can be moved down the road, and the hope will then be that the best is yet to come from the 24-year-old.
This will probably be as notable as the Suns' offseason gets however, which is a problem for another day.
Add us as a preferred source on Google