What Suns Lineup Looks Like After Mark Williams Injury

PHOENIX -- After being decimated by injuries all season long last year, the Phoenix Suns have already lost a major piece a few weeks before the start of training camp.

Phoenix announced last week that starting center Mark Williams underwent surgery on a torn labrum, which usually has a recovery timeline of at least five months.

The Suns will now be forced to make a change to their starting group, which appeared to be set, after Williams' injury.

Predicting Suns' New Rotation Without Mark Williams

Here's our prediction for the Suns' new rotation with Williams out of the lineup:

PG: Devin Booker, Collin Gillespie, Jamaree Bouyea, Pat Spencer (2W)
SG: Jalen Green, Luke Kennard, Haywood Highsmith, Koby Brea (2W)
SF: Dillon Brooks, Jordan Goodwin, Ryan Dunn
PF: Miles Bridges, Rasheer Fleming, Koa Peat
C: Oso Ighodaro, Khaman Maluach, CJ Huntley (2W)

Ighodaro gets the nod over Maluach at this point for the starting center spot because of his experience and trust from coach Jordan Ott in him, but that could change quickly, as we wrote about earlier here.

Although Huntley is technically now the third-string center, he seems unlikely to truly play this role and really is an emergency option unless he develops well in the G League, as Fleming, Peat and Dunn could all be small-ball 5 options ahead of him.

Williams' injury could end up allowing for breakout years from any of these players, but Maluach specifically if he comes into his own following a dominant Summer League performance that came after he didn't play much, but showed flashes in his rookie season after being drafted No. 10 overall.

If Maluach does end up becoming the starter, Phoenix would have three starters from the return of last year's blockbuster Kevin Durant trade to the Houston Rockets that ended up netting the Suns Green, Brooks and the draft picks that became Maluach, Fleming and Brea.

Outside of the center spot, the biggest rotational question remains how Phoenix plans to utilize all of its depth with quality players buried in the lineup at other positions.

This injury could allow for more playing time for some of these players, like Highsmith, if the Suns use unique lineup combinations to make up for the loss of Williams that would allow them to play faster, be more switchable on defense and spread out the floor offensively.

If history repeats itself, as it has over the past few years, this injury won't be the first Phoenix has to deal with, so the Suns will have to continue to adapt, but they now have a whole training camp to figure just how they will replace Williams.

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