NBA Trade Rumors: Heading into the NBA offseason, Mark Williams is expected to find himself back on the trade block.
For a moment, Mark Williams was a member of the Los Angeles Lakers. However, the trade deadline move that would have sent Williams to Los Angeles would soon after be rescinded. It awkwardly sent Williams back to Charlotte. Even though the two sides have done their best to make the lemonade out of lemons, Williams is not a player who likely is going to be a Hornet for much longer. There's growing speculation that he could be playing his last few games in a Hornets uniform.
According to a recent report, there continues to be an expectation that the Hornets are going to continue to explore Williams' trade market heading into the offseason. After the deal with the Lakers fell through, the hope is that the Hornets will be able to find a new suitor for Williams this summer.
What will the trade market be for Mark Williams?
What type of trade market emerges for Williams will be interesting to watch. In theory, Williams is a good, rising young player. At 23 years old, Williams may still be just scratching the surface of the player he can be in the future. In his third season with the Hornets, Williams is averaging 15 points and 10 rebounds on 59 percent shooting from the field. Of course, there is one big concern for Williams - it's his health.
Through the first two seasons of his career, Williams played in a combined 62 games. This season, Williams is expected to play in the most games of his career, but it's still not going to eclipse the 50-games played mark.
That has to be a concern for any team that may be interested in trading for the talented center - especially considering that the Lakers' doctors saw something in Williams' physical that enabled them to rescind the trade.
Could there have been more at play that may never come out? Sure. But if there were some medical concerns that the Lakers found out after digging deeper into his physical, that can't bode well for the Hornets' hopes of trading Williams during the offseason.
If Williams can continue to prove that he's healthy and only beginning to play the best basketball of his career, you'd have to imagine there's going to be at least one team willing to take a flier on the 23-year-old center. For the Hornets' sake, you can only hope.