The Hornets’ Mark Williams trade is starting to look like one of those deals that refuses to settle into a clean win or loss. More than a year later, Charlotte has enough on its side to avoid a flop label, but not enough to call it a home run either.
Williams was one of the more intriguing names attached to the 15th pick in the draft, a spot that has brought plenty of disappointment over the years. When Charlotte took him, the appeal was obvious: a rim runner, a shot blocker, a big with real defensive upside.
The problem was that the body never really cooperated. Back issues in particular kept him to just 106 games in Charlotte.
That was enough for the Hornets to move on in February of 2025, when Williams was traded to the Lakers. Los Angeles later backed out of the deal for medical reasons, leaving Charlotte in a tough spot. The team no longer wanted him as a long-term piece, but it was stuck carrying him until the end of the season.
The next move came in June of 2025, when the Hornets finally found a new partner in Phoenix. Charlotte sent Williams out and brought back Liam McNeeley, Vasilije Micic, and a 2029 first-round pick that is the least favorable of CLE, MIN, and UTA, with top-five protection.
If the question is whether Williams himself justified the move, the answer leans toward no. His 2025-26 season with the Suns was easily the best of his career. He started 55 of his career-high 60 games, gave Phoenix efficient scoring around the rim, and made his presence felt defensively with his length.
Still, the same old issues showed up. There were stretches when he looked uneasy or awkward on both ends, and his offensive game outside the paint remains extremely limited.
Even so, it was a strong year overall until the final stretch of the season, when the injury problems came back. A stress reaction in his left foot knocked him out for a few weeks in March, then again in April during playoff time.
That wasn’t the end of the bad news. Williams has since suffered a torn labrum that will keep him out for multiple months of the upcoming season, right after he signed a three-year, $38 million deal to stay with Phoenix in restricted free agency.
The return package gives Charlotte some reason to feel better about the trade. Micic was moved almost immediately to the Bucks and then went back to Europe, so his impact on the Hornets’ side was brief. The 2029 first-rounder is useful, even if its exact value is hard to pin down right now.
That leaves McNeeley as the most interesting piece. The former UConn wing had a difficult rookie year on a Hornets roster that unexpectedly pushed toward the postseason, and a 20-year-old with one college season behind him was never going to be the easiest fit. He appeared in 31 games, looked physically behind the pace at times, but showed real offensive skill.
He also flashed that upside in Summer League, where he handled a lot of the ball and averaged 21.7 points per game while shooting 52.6% from three.
So the verdict lands somewhere in the middle: Top, but only cautiously. Williams has not looked like anything more than a serviceable NBA center, and the injuries keep getting in the way. Charlotte, meanwhile, has already moved on comfortably with Diabaté, Kalkbrenner, and Steinbach, while McNeeley projects as a long-term wing and the pick gives the Hornets another asset to work with.
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The Hornets still have a window to work through the details, but the clock is moving and the stakes are clear for a franchise trying to build around its young talent. Millers development has already made him a central figure in Charlottes future, and what happens on his deal will ripple into how the team approaches the year ahead and the seasons beyond it. [Read more 🡒]