With the NBA still reeling from the Lakers’ acquisition of Luka Doncic, the team needed to find a way to improve quickly at center. Replacing Anthony Davis is something the Lakers couldn’t do easily — but Rob Pelinka made a significant upgrade on their post-AD situation overnight by getting Mark Williams from the Charlotte Hornets.
This trade was considerably more difficult to make than the deal for Doncic, which is mind-blowing. It required the Lakers giving up Dalton Knecht, Cam Reddish, an unprotected first-round pick in 2031, and a first-round pick swap in 2030 to get the 23-year-old big who has been averaging 15.6 points and 9.6 rebounds in 23 games this season for the Hornets.
At first glance, this might look like a home run, but there are more layers to this than you might think. Let’s grade the deal from both sides.
Lakers grade for Mark Williams
With one of the biggest wingspans in the NBA, Williams is a long, athletic scorer, and a solid rebounder — when he wants to be, and when he’s healthy. Those are the two big caveats to this deal from the Lakers’ perspective.
Williams is a mercurial talent who goes off for monster double-double games one night, then completely vanishes the next, looking as if he doesn’t even want to play basketball. That could be a factor of playing in a hopeless situation in Charlotte, and it’s something the Lakers are banking on. There’s no doubt that Los Angeles paid attention to the Feb. 1 game between the Hornets and Nuggets in which Williams went 20 and 15 with three blocks when matched up with Nikola Jokic.
The biggest issue has been Williams’ mediocre defense. He’ll stuff a stat sheet, but gets incredibly lazy when it comes to the little things. He doesn’t box out well, he shows no sense of urgency defending the perimeter, and generally plays like a guy who waits for the game to come to him, rather than trying to assert his will on the defensive end.
A lot of this can be hand-waved away due to a lack of locker-room leadership on the Hornets. They’re a young team, without vocal leaders, but the Lakers have LeBron James. If pressure from inside the roster can push Williams to work on the rough areas of his game, then there’s a real potential this could be a home-run deal for Los Angeles.
The other big concern is injury. Only playing in 85 games over the last three seasons, Williams has spent more time on the bench than the court as he’s battled through a variety of foot injuries, as well as a back injury that allowed him to play in only 19 games in 2023-24.
There’s reason for some optimism, but a lot of red flags too. This is nothing close to the fleecing that the Lakers did with the Mavericks, and in fact they might have given up a little too much for a player with as many concerns as Williams.
Lakers grade: B-
Hornets grade for Mark Williams
It had become increasingly apparent that the Hornets were no longer interested in Mark Williams, not just individually, but as an archetype.
Coach Charles Lee wants a stretch five in his starting lineup, with Williams being a traditional big. In addition, the Hornets had a roster block, where they wanted to give more minutes to (or even start) defensive-minded Moussa Diabaté at center — but couldn’t justify that with Williams on the roster.
In the wake of injuries to LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller, the organization did a very good show showcasing Williams for trade, and got the Lakers to bite. Not only does the trade add to the Hornets’ war chest of draft picks for the future, but it gives them a promising rookie in Dalton Knecht who they seriously considered selecting with the No. 6 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft before deciding to go with the high upside of Tidjane Salaun.
Knecht gives Charlotte a developmental player who could eventually slot in alongside Ball and Miller to give the team a lot of range and scoring, with the organization aiming to be more defensive at the 4 and 5 spots.
With those draft picks coming in the Hornets now have an embarrassment of riches to finally build something good. As it stands Charlotte now has all their picks intact, as well as:
- 2027 first (via Heat, lottery protected)
- 2027 first (via Mavericks, top two protected)
- 2030 first-round swap (Swap rights to Lakers pick)
- 2031 first (via Lakers)
Not to mention another SEVEN second-round picks over the same timespan, which can be used as tradable assets. It appears the Hornets are building in a slow, considered way that could finally make them relevant if they don’t screw it up (which they probably will).
Hornets grade: A
