Once the offseason comes, the Charlotte Hornets' answer to whether Mark Williams is their center of the future will finally be revealed. They were willing to move on from him and find a different guy at the trade deadline, but the Los Angeles Lakers' decision to nix the deal has had the Hornets in a pickle with Williams.
There have been some calls for the team to move on again from the third-year center and find a replacement. The draft might be a good place to seek one, although the Hornets could also explore the trade market if they have to. Free agency might not be their best option since they don't have enough cap space to bring in a big fish unless they make some trades to offload some contracts.
An alternative for Charlotte, though, is to put the past behind it and keep Williams in the fold. After all, it was only last year when the ownership saw him as a franchise cornerstone. And despite his health issues, he has shown marked improvement in some facets of his game, particularly his playmaking.
Mark Williams has to be a sturdy defensive anchor to extend his stay in Charlotte
Still, it's understandable why the Hornets were, more than a month ago, willing to let him go in exchange for a package that included a rookie — although it's worth noting that Dalton Knecht is older than Williams — and a first-round pick in the draft that won't take place for six more years.
The organization has preached defense throughout the 2024-25 campaign, and while it had surprisingly displayed stout defense in the early goings of the regular season, it has significantly declined. Charlotte is currently in the middle of the pack in average points allowed. However, when accounting for pace, its defense is actually worse than it looks.
Of course, Williams isn't solely to blame for the Hornets' porous defense, but he hasn't exactly been a force on that end, either.
A look at his on/off stats shows that opponents are posting a higher offensive rating when he is on the court (120.9) than when he is off (114.7). The metric should be taken with a grain of salt because we also have to consider which teammates he has spent the most minutes with on the floor. Still, that huge dropoff indicates plenty of room for improvement for Williams on defense.
Unfortunately, time may have run out for the 23-year-old center to prove he can be a solid defensive anchor, lock up a long-term spot on the Hornets roster, and demonstrate why his name shouldn't be involved in trade discussions.
Charlotte has nine games left in the regular season, and Williams is already set to sit out their next contest against the New Orleans Pelicans. Given his injury-prone reputation, don't be surprised to see him miss a few more matches to end the campaign.