Lakers’ trade for Mark Williams rescinded

LOS ANGELES — The Lakers’ trade for center Mark Williams has been “rescinded” because of a “failure to satisfy a condition of the trade,” the team announced on Saturday evening.

The Lakers on Wednesday night acquired Williams from the Charlotte Hornets in a deal that was officially announced on Thursday night in exchange for rookie wing Dalton Knecht, veteran wing Cam Reddish, their 2031 unprotected first-round draft pick and a 2030 first-round pick swap.

But the trade was voided, with no elaboration from the Lakers on what condition of the trade wasn’t met.

The Lakers’ full statement from Saturday night read: “The trade between the Charlotte Hornets and the Los Angeles Lakers has been rescinded due to failure to satisfy a condition of the trade.”

ESPN’s Shams Charania, citing unnamed sources, reported after the announcement that Williams’ physical with the Lakers showed multiple non-back-related issues and that “the team failed him on the exam.”

Charania elaborated on ESPN’s NBA Countdown: “[The Lakers] found multiple issues in that exam. And it’s about the extent [of] the injury of what they got and what they found in that exam. Clearly they found some issues. And people have talked about his back being an issue. I’m told that was not the reason of the failed physical. They found a couple of other issues in his physical exam that they did not expect.”

Williams went into Saturday listed as questionable for the Lakers’ afternoon home win against the Indiana Pacers, with his official designation being “trade pending,” before he was ruled out. He did have a locker inside of the Lakers’ locker room at Crypto.com Arena, but it was empty.

When asked about the status of the trade before Saturday’s game, Lakers coach JJ Redick responded: “That’s out of my pay grade.”

Durability/health was one of the chief concerns with Williams before and after the trade was made.

Williams has only played in 85 NBA games in three seasons: 43 as a rookie (he also played 11 G League games), 19 the following year and 23 of the Hornets’ 48 games this season.

He dealt with multiple sprained left ankles as a rookie and had surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right thumb during the offseason after his first season.

Williams missed most of last season because of a lower back issue. He sat out the first 20 games of this season because of a strained tendon in his left foot before playing in 23 of 28 games.

After the trade was made but before Williams went through his full physical, Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka expressed confidence that Williams’ injury history wouldn’t be an issue.

“We fully vetted his health stuff, led by Dr. Kris Jones at UCLA Health and Dr. Leroy Sims on our team and he’s had no surgeries,” Pelinka said. “He’s still growing into his body. We vetted the injuries he’s had and we’re not concerned about those. We will have a chance to have a physical and continue to do a deep dive. So we’ll still have that step in the process of doing a full physical before the trade becomes official.”

The deal wasn’t allowed to be altered since the trade deadline, which was Thursday at noon PT, had passed.

With the trade rescinded, all of the players involved return to their original teams. None of the players involved had played after the trade was originally made.

The Lakers were hoping Williams would be the vertical-spacing big man that Luka Doncic, the star player the Lakers acquired from the Dallas Mavericks last weekend in a three-team trade, prefers to play with.

But that won’t come to fruition, at least not with Williams.

The Lakers were hoping to be players on the buyout market, with the trade with Charlotte leaving them a single open roster spot.

But they’ll go back to having a full roster of 15 players signed to standard NBA deals in light of the trade being rescinded.

Jaxson Hayes, who has been the starting center the past five games, is the lone healthy center on the roster signed to a standard NBA contract. The Lakers have Christian Koloko and Trey Jemison III signed to two-way contracts, but players signed to two-way deals aren’t eligible to play in the playoffs.