Hornets Stumble Through Trade Deadline With Questions Unanswered

With 52 games in the books and the trade deadline past, the Charlotte Hornets’ first season with Jeff Peterson at the helm and Charles Lee behind the bench hasn’t thus far looked much different than past iterations of the team. 

Well past the halfway point of the 2024-25 season, the Hornets are 13-39, having seen several players go down with injuries, some of which were season-ending variety. Things are feeling familiar in the most unfortunate of ways as we look toward the future and try to make sense of the present. 

Charlotte did take some big swings at the deadline, though one of them appears to have already been a miss. 

Just after midnight on Feb. 6, the team traded young center Mark Williams to the Los Angeles Lakers for Dalton Knecht, Cam Reddish, and a couple future first-rounders. The trade looked like a promising one for the Hornets, but by Saturday night the Lakers had backed out, citing a failed physical by Williams. 

Some Hornets fans suspected buyers’ remorse on the part of the Lakers. That wouldn’t be a huge surprise, considering Williams’ recent struggles, which included some very public shaming from Hornets announcer Terrance Ogelsby. 

During halftime of a Feb. 3 matchup between the Hornets and the Washington Wizards, with the hometown Hornets down 77-54, Oglesby took his opportunity to lay into Williams. 

“Mark Williams has put together a first half that I have never seen from a starting center in the NBA and maybe even the college level. This is crazy,” Oglesby said. “And Mark Williams, if you’re going to be the center of a franchise, what they have invested in you and they have plans for you to be a core piece of what they’re going to be moving forward, that effort is unacceptable.” 

There was some back and forth between the Lakers and Hornets following the collapse of the Williams deal as they partook in a bit of a blame game, and as recently as Monday the Hornets were reportedly “exploring options to dispute” the Lakers’ assessment of Williams’ physical, but it would appear at this point that the deed will not be done. 

With Williams turning on his heel and coming back to Charlotte, Hornets PR went into damage control with a statement that read: “We are excited to welcome Mark back to our Hornets organization. After the other team aggressively pursued Mark, we made the difficult decision to move him. We have always held great respect for Mark’s talent, work ethic, and character. We are thrilled to see him rejoin our roster as a dynamic presence at the starting center position. His return strengthens our team, and we look forward to the impact he will make on and off the court.” 

Making things worse for the Hornets, in the time it took for the Williams deal to fall through they had already made a big move to plug the hole he had left at center, dealing Caleb Martin, Vasilije Micic and a 2026 second round pick to the Phoenix Suns for Jusuf Nurkic and a 2026 first round pick.

While they’re stocking up on draft capital, the question now becomes what do they do with Nurkic? He debuted with the Hornets on Wednesday night with restricted minutes as the trade is still technically pending, though likely a done deal. 

The team’s biggest prize from the trade deadline might involve major trades by Dallas and Miami. Charlotte benefited from the blockbuster Feb. 1 trade that saw Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic sent to the Lakers (even if it is what set the whole Williams mess into motion) because they have the Mavericks’ first-round pick — only top-two protected in 2027. 

The Mavericks are an aging team without Doncic, which could make for a high pick in two years. The Hornets could also catch a similar break resulting from the Miami Heat trading Jimmy Butler. The pick the Hornets have coming from Miami in 2027 is lottery-protected but would be unprotected in 2028, when the Heat may not be very good.

LaMelo Ball and the bug that always bites the Hornets

Seasons come and go, but the Charlotte Hornets’ injury jinx remains. Grant Williams went down for the season in November, a month that also saw Tre Mann go down for the long term. It was announced in late January that Mann’s back issues would require surgery, which will take him out for the remainder of the season, which is unfortunate because he was looking like a Sixth Man of the Year candidate. 

Sophomore standout Brandon Miller went out for the year in December and star LaMelo Ball missed several games recently with another aggravation of that ever-bothersome ankle injury. He’s still in-and-out of the lineup. 

Even as the least serious, Ball’s injury is arguably the most frustrating (save for Miller, perhaps), as he was having a great statistical season averaging 28 points, 7.4 assists and 5.2 rebounds per game before his ankle woes returned. 

Yet we have to ask what numbers we should be looking at in evaluating him. Are those above what we ought to consider, or do we need to look at 23.3 shots per game with 12.2 of them being 3-pointers, and a pedestrian .338 percentage on those shots? Ball has taken more shots and threes than anyone in the league. 

The real question: Is he running the offense or is he running his own offense? His teammates aren’t getting many opportunities, especially when he takes bad shots from way beyond the 3-point line early in the clock. It causes stagnation as players quit moving and start standing around and watching. 

Should Ball be the main ballhandler? Does his style of play and shot selection, lack of free throws for how much he controls the ball and his usage, which leads the league at 37.3%, equate to winning? That’s not even accounting for his aversion to playing defense. 

Looking back the last 30 years, no NBA team has won a title with a ball-dominant point guard. Peterson and Lee are going to have to figure out if Ball would be more conducive to winning basketball playing the off guard, assuming they can find an effective point guard who can get everyone involved. 

Is it too early to judge Peterson and Lee? 

It’s never good when a player gets called out by their own team’s announcer for not trying. Playing poorly is one thing; not putting in the effort is unacceptable. As the coach of the team, Lee has to take at least some responsibility for that lack of effort. 

It’s hard to say whether the offense he has installed is what we’re seeing when you account for all the injuries. Coming from Boston last year, he seems to have adopted that team’s propensity to shoot the three, with Ball leading the league in attempts and Miller ranked third before his injury. 

Lee’s accountable for the way Ball plays and shooting as many threes as he does. Being a first-year coach, he may not want to alienate his star player, but his star player hasn’t been a part of winning thus far in his career, so it might be time to take a different approach. 

We recently asked Lee his thoughts on how the team is taking to his teachings so far this season despite so many injuries. 

“I am extremely grateful and thankful how open-minded they have all been, especially with so many injuries,” he responded. “We have had to be flexible and adaptable and to keep moving forward and don’t let these obstacles slow you down and I think our team has done that really well. 

“I think we have shown regardless of all those things that are going on and the things we can control, our competitiveness and our togetherness, I’ve seen both of those things stay consistent, which I’m really happy and proud about,” he continued.  

Peterson didn’t make many changes coming into the season aside from his two draft picks, but his signing of French forward Moussa Diabaté to a two-way contract has paid off so well, earning him a multi-year deal earlier this week. Diabaté was a find, resembling a reincarnation of Dennis Rodman on the boards and with his energy. 

The Hornets have picked a direction and I applaud them for that. There should be more minutes for their young players in the last 32 games, and hopefully Nick Smith Jr. will continue to get consistent minutes like he has lately. Smith has had a great recent stretch and I can’t understand why he’s seen so little time thus far this season. 

Losing Miller for the season hurt. He was having a good year, and there’s still another level of greatness that he can attain … but it will have to wait. 

The Hornets are playing the long game with all the firsts and seconds they accumulated. It’s hard to say whether the intention is to bag for Cooper Flagg, the much-hyped Duke forward expected to be at the top of the draft come June, but it certainly looks from the outside like the Hornets are gathering as many ping-pong balls as possible. 

Lady luck hasn’t smiled on Charlotte since the Hornets’ inception, as they have never made the Eastern Conference Finals and only once won the draft lottery. They’re going to have to hope the balls bounce their way again, because at the moment this team looks a long way away from contending.