If it isn't obvious by now, the Charlotte Hornets are in dire straits. Losing three consecutive meetings by a margin of at least 36 has the team making the wrong kind of history anew.
Of course, it's tough to string together wins when several of your key pieces are dealing with injuries. Compounding it is that the Hornets are also near the end of a six-game Western Conference road trip. Even so, those aren't excuses for their hapless showings, especially since they have made a habit of coming back from huge deficits earlier in the 2024-25 campaign (although they still usually lose).
Hornets lead executive Jeff Peterson should have already started exploring their options in the coming offseason. The current iteration of the roster just won't cut it, even if LaMelo Ball and Mark Williams reach their peak physical health and Brandon Miller returns from his season-ending injury. The most obvious move to make is trading Williams — again.
Mark Williams needs to go this summer
We're not trying to kick the man while he's down, but the big man has become more of a liability for Charlotte. He has showcased his potential this season, for sure. However, he doesn't appear to be the same since his near-trade to the Los Angeles Lakers, even though the locker room looked happy when Buzz City defeated LeBron James and company last week. However, it's worth noting that Williams had a team-worst plus/minus of -5 in their three-point victory over the Lakers.
He had a chance to vindicate himself against the Portland Trail Blazers after sitting out Charlotte's loss against the Denver Nuggets. However, Williams only demonstrated why the Hornets were right to try to move on from him at the trade deadline in the embarrassing defeat.
In his defense, he showed up in the squad's Tuesday tiff versus the Golden State Warriors, putting up a double-double effort (12 points and 12 rebounds) and rejecting three shots. But centers are expected to do well against the Warriors. Besides, he was a complete non-factor in the third quarter when Golden State more than doubled the 15-point lead it had at halftime.
Unfortunately, the Duke University product has not had that much of a positive impact on winning for the Hornets despite his solid numbers. Through the regular season, he has registered the worst plus/minus (-6.8) among the club's key players. Only recent signings, Elfrid Payton, Wendell Moore Jr., and Damion Baugh, have logged worse. Williams has even been worse in that department in his past four outings, as Charlotte was outscored by 17.8 points per game whenever he was on the floor.
The silver lining for the Hornets is that several teams could need a big man with Williams' skill set. Hopefully, the remainder of the season will see him exhibit some improvements on the court and get a clean bill of health so that his value will increase by the time summer arrives.