So it begins already... Mark Williams out for load management

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Re: So it begins already... Mark Williams out for load management 

Post#21 » by Indomitable » Sun Oct 26, 2025 9:35 am

cupcakesnake wrote:I thought Mark Williams was out to start the season. He has a right knee injury. I thought it was surprising he played at all. He is listed as out for today's game. Why are people upset that an injured player is having his minutes managed? I find the "load management" discourse has just become whining and rage bait.

Charlie Sollers wrote:
My brother travelled all the way from Australia to watch him play and this is what he gets. What a bummer.


Your brother travelled halfway around the world... to watch Mark Williams?

Mostly Laker fans because they need to throw a tantrum about last season.
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Re: So it begins already... Mark Williams out for load management 

Post#22 » by UcanUwill » Sun Oct 26, 2025 1:32 pm

SlimShady83 wrote:
cupcakesnake wrote:
SlimShady83 wrote:hahaha Lakers were right all along.

Also didn't he vow to make the Lakers regret it or something like that?


We'll never know what the Lakers saw in his physical, but it was well discussed at the time that Mark Williams' health over the next few seasons would inform how that move is perceived.


That's true, I'm not laughing at him for being injured or anything like that, I'm mostly laughing because he vowed the Lakers will regret not trading for him or what ever the words exactly were.


What else could he say? Yeah, I am almost done, do not offer me any money to play sport anymore...
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Re: So it begins already... Mark Williams out for load management 

Post#23 » by GoBobs » Sun Oct 26, 2025 2:13 pm

He didn't play all preseason. He is probably just out of shape. The Suns said they had a plan to load manage him. I wouldn't shock me if he has some games later in the season where he looks really good. 40 games or something like that.
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Re: So it begins already... Mark Williams out for load management 

Post#24 » by Yoshun » Sun Oct 26, 2025 3:38 pm

SlimShady83 wrote:
Yoshun wrote:I'm not sure I understand why the Suns wanted him at this point. He's got talent but what good is it if he's not playing?


Didn't they just need Centers and no one was around at the time?


True, but he's also not a around.
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Re: So it begins already... Mark Williams out for load management 

Post#25 » by Indomitable » Sun Oct 26, 2025 4:35 pm

SlimShady83 wrote:
Yoshun wrote:I'm not sure I understand why the Suns wanted him at this point. He's got talent but what good is it if he's not playing?


Didn't they just need Centers and no one was around at the time?

They had Richards but they are bad at asset management.
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Re: So it begins already... Mark Williams out for load management 

Post#26 » by og15 » Sun Oct 26, 2025 4:38 pm

cupcakesnake wrote:I thought Mark Williams was out to start the season. He has a right knee injury. I thought it was surprising he played at all. He is listed as out for today's game. Why are people upset that an injured player is having his minutes managed? I find the "load management" discourse has just become whining and rage bait.

Charlie Sollers wrote:
My brother travelled all the way from Australia to watch him play and this is what he gets. What a bummer.


Your brother travelled halfway around the world... to watch Mark Williams?

Yea, that's pretty wild, didn't know Mark Williams had super fans, very random guy to be traveling to watch play.
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Re: So it begins already... Mark Williams out for load management 

Post#27 » by SlimShady83 » Sun Oct 26, 2025 5:54 pm

UcanUwill wrote:
SlimShady83 wrote:That's true, I'm not laughing at him for being injured or anything like that, I'm mostly laughing because he vowed the Lakers will regret not trading for him or what ever the words exactly were.


What else could he say? Yeah, I am almost done, do not offer me any money to play sport anymore...


"Is what it is, I'd like to move on from the topic", then you let your game do the talking, not your mouth :).
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Re: So it begins already... Mark Williams out for load management 

Post#28 » by SlimShady83 » Sun Oct 26, 2025 5:58 pm

Indomitable wrote:
SlimShady83 wrote:
Yoshun wrote:I'm not sure I understand why the Suns wanted him at this point. He's got talent but what good is it if he's not playing?


Didn't they just need Centers and no one was around at the time?

They had Richards but they are bad at asset management.


You need more then Nick Richards, much like how the Lakers need more then Hayes LOL
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Re: So it begins already... Mark Williams out for load management 

Post#29 » by Indomitable » Sun Oct 26, 2025 6:05 pm

SlimShady83 wrote:
Indomitable wrote:
SlimShady83 wrote:
Didn't they just need Centers and no one was around at the time?

They had Richards but they are bad at asset management.


You need more then Nick Richards, much like how the Lakers need more then Hayes LOL
They also drafted a center and had another on roster.They do not need 4 guys who can only play center.
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Re: So it begins already... Mark Williams out for load management 

Post#30 » by UcanUwill » Sun Oct 26, 2025 6:08 pm

SlimShady83 wrote:
UcanUwill wrote:
SlimShady83 wrote:That's true, I'm not laughing at him for being injured or anything like that, I'm mostly laughing because he vowed the Lakers will regret not trading for him or what ever the words exactly were.


What else could he say? Yeah, I am almost done, do not offer me any money to play sport anymore...


"Is what it is, I'd like to move on from the topic", then you let your game do the talking, not your mouth :).


Waving a trade because of physical have negative consequences to player career, Detroit did it twice in last 10+ years, one of the players was Donatas Motiejūnas, who strongly feels that Detroit doing that ultimately cost him NBA career. I am not sure I would agree with that as I never was fan of his game, but it definitely had some effect of how teams perceived him going forward. By the way hes been healthy for years and still start for Euroleague team now at age 35.

I am just saying, even if Lakers were right, it still very much negatively effects the player and he has right to at least open his mouth and defend himself. Sometimes just being healthy is not good enough anymore, perception around the league of the player shifts no matter what.

Even if Williams is wrong, I do not think you should fault him for saying things.
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Re: So it begins already... Mark Williams out for load management 

Post#31 » by og15 » Mon Oct 27, 2025 2:32 am

UcanUwill wrote:
SlimShady83 wrote:
UcanUwill wrote:
What else could he say? Yeah, I am almost done, do not offer me any money to play sport anymore...


"Is what it is, I'd like to move on from the topic", then you let your game do the talking, not your mouth :).


Waving a trade because of physical have negative consequences to player career, Detroit did it twice in last 10+ years, one of the players was Donatas Motiejūnas, who strongly feels that Detroit doing that ultimately cost him NBA career. I am not sure I would agree with that as I never was fan of his game, but it definitely had some effect of how teams perceived him going forward. By the way hes been healthy for years and still start for Euroleague team now at age 35.

I am just saying, even if Lakers were right, it still very much negatively effects the player and he has right to at least open his mouth and defend himself. Sometimes just being healthy is not good enough anymore, perception around the league of the player shifts no matter what.

Even if Williams is wrong, I do not think you should fault him for saying things.

Yea, unless someone has received some conclusive no chance diagnosis, since when it's a young player ever going to say, "yea, I'll never be healthy"?

We tend to think we are even invincible as youth, so yea, of course he can be confident he can stay healthy. His confidence of course has no effect on whether it actually happens, but definitely not something to fault or criticize.
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Re: So it begins already... Mark Williams out for load management 

Post#32 » by garrick » Mon Oct 27, 2025 2:43 am

I mean the trade is super baffling given we drafted Maluach at #10 so we no longer needed another center at that point so why not just call off the trade if you're Phoenix?

Mat Ishbia continues to make extremely stupid basketball decisions and we will be cursed as long as he is the owner because he's an egotistical narcissist who thinks all the moves he makes are the right ones.
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Re: So it begins already... Mark Williams out for load management 

Post#33 » by FrodoBaggins » Tue Oct 28, 2025 4:22 am

Played great tonight. I still think LAL should've acquired him. Knecht isn't doing anything, and they still could've gotten Ayton. Mark would've plugged a huge hole and given them a legitimate crack at the NBA Championship last season. Even 15-20 mpg, playing 41/82 games would be worth it, IMO.



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Re: So it begins already... Mark Williams out for load management 

Post#34 » by Manimal » Tue Oct 28, 2025 4:25 am

Could be worse...you could have DeAndre Ayton as your starting center.
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Re: So it begins already... Mark Williams out for load management 

Post#35 » by FrodoBaggins » Tue Oct 28, 2025 6:09 am

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Re: So it begins already... Mark Williams out for load management 

Post#36 » by Diop » Tue Oct 28, 2025 6:37 am

FrodoBaggins wrote:Played great tonight. I still think LAL should've acquired him. Knecht isn't doing anything, and they still could've gotten Ayton. Mark would've plugged a huge hole and given them a legitimate crack at the NBA Championship last season. Even 15-20 mpg, playing 41/82 games would be worth it, IMO.



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how was the defense? we got some good scoring out of him, but his defense went down badly after his injury
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Re: So it begins already... Mark Williams out for load management 

Post#37 » by ShouldaPaidBG » Tue Oct 28, 2025 1:41 pm

Injuries beget injuries, we need to stop acting surprised
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Re: So it begins already... Mark Williams out for load management 

Post#38 » by ConSarnit » Tue Oct 28, 2025 3:11 pm

FrodoBaggins wrote:Played great tonight. I still think LAL should've acquired him. Knecht isn't doing anything, and they still could've gotten Ayton. Mark would've plugged a huge hole and given them a legitimate crack at the NBA Championship last season. Even 15-20 mpg, playing 41/82 games would be worth it, IMO.



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What team in their right mind would pay Knecht, an unprotected 1st and a swap for a player who can only play 15mpg for half the season?

The player you are describing might not even be worth trading a 2nd for.
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Re: So it begins already... Mark Williams out for load management 

Post#39 » by Billl » Tue Oct 28, 2025 3:13 pm

He's coming of an injury, so I don't think it's fair to label that "load management". Teams almost always ramp guys up with minutes restriction, rest on back-to-backs etc and then hold them out if there is any even minor sign of the issue flaring up. That's not the same as holding a completely healthy guy out of the lineup just for rest.
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Re: So it begins already... Mark Williams out for load management 

Post#40 » by FrodoBaggins » Wed Oct 29, 2025 5:58 am

ConSarnit wrote:
FrodoBaggins wrote:Played great tonight. I still think LAL should've acquired him. Knecht isn't doing anything, and they still could've gotten Ayton. Mark would've plugged a huge hole and given them a legitimate crack at the NBA Championship last season. Even 15-20 mpg, playing 41/82 games would be worth it, IMO.



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What team in their right mind would pay Knecht, an unprotected 1st and a swap for a player who can only play 15mpg for half the season?

The player you are describing might not even be worth trading a 2nd for.

Context matters.

1) he was on a rookie contract.
2) his conditional value was significantly high to the Lakers because of their weak rebounding, interior size, and lack of a roll & cut vertical threat.

15-20 mpg for a piece that plugs significant holes can make a huge difference. See: Chris Andersen, 2012-13. LAL was good enough to secure a top seed without him; what's more important is that he's healthy for the postseason. So, yes, Mark Williams playing 15-20 mpg & load-managed to be fresh for the playoffs would've been more than worth it.

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