Charlotte Hornets fans have not had much to cheer about in the last two decades. They had a dreadful 7-59 season in 2011-2012 as the Bobcats and mismanaged multiple top-five draft picks with selections like Michael Kidd-Gilchrist 2nd overall and Cody Zeller 4th overall in back-to-back seasons.
Additionally, the franchise fired its head coach, Steve Clifford, in 2018, just to rehire the same man four seasons later. Charlotte has been the most dysfunctional team in the NBA and currently holds the longest active playoff drought in the NBA at seven seasons. The next closest teams, the Spurs and the Pistons, each have missed the playoffs in four straight seasons, which is poor, but not quite Hornets-caliber. In this upcoming 2023-2024 season, Mark Williams, the Hornets’ 21-year-old center, is going to be a crucial piece of turning this franchise around.
There are many question marks for the Hornets entering this season, ranging from whether they made the right decision in drafting Brandon Miller over Scoot Henderson, to whether Miles Bridges can still be effective after a full year out of the NBA, to whether LaMelo Ball can stay healthy and improve his game further. One thing that should not be a question mark is who should be the Hornets starting center… The answer is Williams and it is not close.
Williams was a highly sought-after big man prospect when he was drafted 15th overall in the 2022 NBA draft. This was mainly due to his tremendous interior defense and sheer length and size standing at 7’0” with a 7’6.5” wingspan. Currently, he has the 6th longest wingspan in the entire NBA, trailing only Boban Marjanovic, Mo Bamba, Rudy Gobert, Udoka Azubuike, and Bol Bol. On top of this, Williams was incredibly good last year for Charlotte, they simply did not play him enough.
The numbers indicate that Mark Williams needs to be a full-time starter
Last season, Coach Clifford implemented a wild committee structure for the center spot throughout the year. Mason Plumlee started 56 games for the team while all of Williams, Nick Richards, and Kai Jones, saw backup minutes and extended playing time through the first two-thirds of the season.
After Mason Plumlee was dealt at the trade deadline, Coach Clifford still did not commit to Williams being the surefire starter, and instead, Hornets fans found out that Williams, Richards, and Jones were going to rotate at C for the rest of season with two playing each game and one sitting out. While Richards did have some good starts and Jones showed intriguing flashes, it was Williams who stood out of the bunch and made the biggest impact.
Down the stretch of the season, in the games that Williams started and played 29+ minutes in, the Hornets were 6-2 (75% win rate). Across the season, Charlotte was 9-30 (23% win rate) when Williams did not play. He proved to be a menace inside, averaging 11.6 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks in 26.9 minutes per game as a starter. He recorded ten double-doubles in those starts as well, including an 18-point, 20-rebound performance against the Heat and a 22-point (on 9-10 shooting), 10-rebound, 2-block performance in his final start of the season against the Cavs.
The advanced stats loved Williams’ play too. He led the Hornets in defensive rating (110), was 1st on the team in total rebound percentage (19.6%) and defensive rebound percentage (27.7%), 2nd on the team in effective field goal percentage (63.7%), 3rd on the team in box plus/minus (+0.1), and 4th on the team in VORP (0.4). Essentially, he was incredibly effective for the Hornets, and the more they played him, the better the team was in 2022-2023.
Kai Jones is now away from the team indefinitely after his off-season outbursts, but Nick Richards is still with the team and recently signed his multi-season extension for 3 years-$15 million. Despite this, with nearly all of the rest of the Hornets’ core being offensive-minded players, Williams is the defense force that they need down low if they want any shot at breaking their seven-year playoff drought.