Return to Sender: The Mark Williams Thread

[countryboi]

We baby these players, yea you got slighted by the Hornets and the Lakers. Put your big boy pants, wipe your tears with 100 dollar bills and go do you job and in a few years you can go wherever you like.

[Bassman]

Williams will NOT make his first game back against the Lakers on Wednesday. That’s my prediction. If this trade flip flop has got him this mentally screwed up, he SURE doesn’t have the balls to make his return against the team that rejected the deal.

If he had reported back to the team before the AS break, then had the proverbial media post saying “happy to be back with my bros”, no problemo. We’d all be looking at the Lakers game with anticipation of a TOLD YOU SO smackdown by Williams.

Nope, he’s apparently hiding in his time out corner, waiting for the big bad LA to go away before he comes out.

[Rich4114]

The absolute best way to bury the Lakers and make them look foolish would be for Mark to suit up and dominate this game with his only competition at the rim being Jaxon Hayes. Need to play LaMelo and just feature Mark on offense. It would be amazing.

[Chapelchilla]

The absolute best way to bury the Lakers and make them look foolish would be for Mark to suit up and dominate this game with his only competition at the rim being Jaxon Hayes. Need to play LaMelo and just feature Mark on offense. It would be amazing.

It's the kinda statement game a man needs to make. If he misses this opportunity to stay home and pout , it shows a lot about his character.

[amcoolio]

Yeah I’m done with Mark if he doesn’t play this game. Just cut our losses and move on

[Slava]

If I had to make a guess, the hornets and Williams had verbally agreed to an extension at a certain price point prior to him being traded. Charlotte then have second thoughts and offer him to the lakers. The lakers traded for him with Charlotte withholding that information. When Williams and his agent bring it up, the lakers say they have no intention of honoring an agreement the hornets made and they prefer to keep their 2026 cap space open anyways. Williams, wants to get his bag sooner than later owing to injuries. Lakers rescind the trade and Williams thinks that the hornets did him wrong. Hornets won’t file a claim because the league would bring the hammer down on them for verbally agreeing extensions prior to negotiating period.

[Rich4114]

The absolute best way to bury the Lakers and make them look foolish would be for Mark to suit up and dominate this game with his only competition at the rim being Jaxon Hayes. Need to play LaMelo and just feature Mark on offense. It would be amazing.

It's the kinda statement game a man needs to make. If he misses this opportunity to stay home and pout , it shows a lot about his character.

I mean, this is a rare and non ideal situation for everyone. I'd love to know exactly what went down and in what order. But do we really think Mark is pouting and wanting to stay home? He's not some superstar, he's a young mid-first draft pick who has around 85 games to his name in 3 seasons and has mostly been a turnstile defensively despite being over 7ft tall. If anything, now is the time to prove to everyone the Lakers made a mistake that they'll regret.

[yosemiteben]

If I had to make a guess, the hornets and Williams had verbally agreed to an extension at a certain price point prior to him being traded.

That seems extremely unlikely. He returned from a calendar year long injury vacation and only started playing without a minutes restriction at the end of December. It makes no sense to sign him to an extension when they were unsure he would be able to stay healthy, and it makes no sense if you're Mark to sign an extension at your lowest possible value.

[SWedd523]

If I had to make a guess, the hornets and Williams had verbally agreed to an extension at a certain price point prior to him being traded. Charlotte then have second thoughts and offer him to the lakers. The lakers traded for him with Charlotte withholding that information. When Williams and his agent bring it up, the lakers say they have no intention of honoring an agreement the hornets made and they prefer to keep their 2026 cap space open anyways. Williams, wants to get his bag sooner than later owing to injuries. Lakers rescind the trade and Williams thinks that the hornets did him wrong. Hornets won’t file a claim because the league would bring the hammer down on them for verbally agreeing extensions prior to negotiating period.

well that's certainly a creative imagination

[EmpireFalls]

We **** it up. Basically. Jeff Peterson has ruined this team.

Losing Mark Williams for nothing will be the nail in the coffin of a failed team.

[Slava]

If I had to make a guess, the hornets and Williams had verbally agreed to an extension at a certain price point prior to him being traded.

That seems extremely unlikely. He returned from a calendar year long injury vacation and only started playing without a minutes restriction at the end of December. It makes no sense to sign him to an extension when they were unsure he would be able to stay healthy, and it makes no sense if you're Mark to sign an extension at your lowest possible value.

It’s a gamble on both sides, like Steph Curry’s first contract. Mark locks in guaranteed money wary of his injury history and the Hornets lock in a high impact asset at a lower price point.

[Diop]

If I had to make a guess, the hornets and Williams had verbally agreed to an extension at a certain price point prior to him being traded. Charlotte then have second thoughts and offer him to the lakers. The lakers traded for him with Charlotte withholding that information. When Williams and his agent bring it up, the lakers say they have no intention of honoring an agreement the hornets made and they prefer to keep their 2026 cap space open anyways. Williams, wants to get his bag sooner than later owing to injuries. Lakers rescind the trade and Williams thinks that the hornets did him wrong. Hornets won’t file a claim because the league would bring the hammer down on them for verbally agreeing extensions prior to negotiating period.

How about this guess:
After speaking to Luka, Lakers traded for Mark Williams to appease their new star. Lebron James went WTF!, ain't i still the king around here. You dont make no damn moves because of some chubby slavic kid. I liked Knecht and you wasted assets on bum Williams you could have used to get my buddy in the offseason. Bum Williams aint winning us nothing, I suggest you stop this trade or I'm out.

Lakers front office squealed like scared school girls and rescinded the trade and kissed lebrons feet.

Just as likely as the extension theory (I should point out I dont actually believe this, just showing how easy it is to make up conspiracy theories)

[JustBuzzin]

Mark isn't our future anymore. We crossed the line and now we have to deal with the consequences.

We will likely trade him this off-season. We screwed up he has no value now. Sucks for sure , but this is the Hornets I'm not surprised.

All we can hope for is we get a top 3 pick that gives us another legit piece to put next to Melo/Miller.

[yosemiteben]

If I had to make a guess, the hornets and Williams had verbally agreed to an extension at a certain price point prior to him being traded.

That seems extremely unlikely. He returned from a calendar year long injury vacation and only started playing without a minutes restriction at the end of December. It makes no sense to sign him to an extension when they were unsure he would be able to stay healthy, and it makes no sense if you're Mark to sign an extension at your lowest possible value.

It’s a gamble on both sides, like Steph Curry’s first contract. Mark locks in guaranteed money wary of his injury history and the Hornets lock in a high impact asset at a lower price point.

Mark has played a total of 56 games for the Hornets in his entire career. Steph played more than that his rookie season and also in his 2nd season.

The injury risks aren't comparable.

[Diop]

Mark isn't our future anymore. We crossed the line and now we have to deal with the consequences.

We will likely trade him this off-season. We screwed up he has no value now. Sucks for sure , but this is the Hornets I'm not surprised.

All we can hope for is we get a top 3 pick that gives us another legit piece to put next to Melo/Miller.

if his value is screwed then i treat him like Miles. We don't give him away for nothing and hold onto him while he can help the team and build value.

[countryboi]

We **** it up. Basically. Jeff Peterson has ruined this team.

Losing Mark Williams for nothing will be the nail in the coffin of a failed team.

Im curious to know where exactly you feel like Jeff Peterson failed here

[JustBuzzin]

We **** it up. Basically. Jeff Peterson has ruined this team.

Losing Mark Williams for nothing will be the nail in the coffin of a failed team.

Im curious to know where exactly you feel like Jeff Peterson failed here

That's easy.

Hiring a HC who has no system besides chucking 3's

Screwing up the Salaun draft pick

Miller showing no signs of growth in his 2nd season which goes back to the coaching hire and no system

Screwing up the Mark trade now he's labeled as damage goods


I mean I can keep going, but yeah I'm not sold on him as of right now.

[KembaWalker]

We **** it up. Basically. Jeff Peterson has ruined this team.

Losing Mark Williams for nothing will be the nail in the coffin of a failed team.

Im curious to know where exactly you feel like Jeff Peterson failed here

It’s not like the scenario we are currently in was some unforeseeable outcome, for example my first post after the deal was about hoping the pressure of LeBrons age would ultimately discourage any reneging though unfortunately that wasn’t the case. So everyone saw the possibility. So Peterson rolled the dice, a pure gamble and it’s looking like he lost and now we are in a worse spot than we were. That’s a fail. The biggest part of a game job is utilizing your relationships and information to not lose gambles

[EmpireFalls]

We **** it up. Basically. Jeff Peterson has ruined this team.

Losing Mark Williams for nothing will be the nail in the coffin of a failed team.

Im curious to know where exactly you feel like Jeff Peterson failed here

Trusting the Lakers. Burning the bridge with Mark without confirming that he’d pass the physical. Squandering his young center’s trade value and reputation around the league. Ruining the relationship between Mark and his team.

Overall this failed trade has completely capsized our future. We get all of the downside without any of the assets to make up for it.

If you think this is unfair, remember that he drafted Tidjane Salaun. Any benefit of the doubt flew out of the window after he did that. I have zero trust and confidence in this new regime, if they decide to use lottery picks on utter crap like Salaun, how can you trust their judgment on anything?

[Chapelchilla]

We **** it up. Basically. Jeff Peterson has ruined this team.

Losing Mark Williams for nothing will be the nail in the coffin of a failed team.

Im curious to know where exactly you feel like Jeff Peterson failed here

Or how he decided a player with 2 years of contract control has been lost for nothing
Lol