What happens to Mark Williams if the Hornets' challenge fails?

The Charlotte Hornets are not taking the Mark Williams trade lying down. After the Los Angeles Lakers rescinded the deal and effectively sent Williams back to Charlotte for an alleged failed physical, the Hornets decided last night to challenge the matter with the NBA.

It remains to be seen what will happen now between the two teams. It's pretty unlikely that the Hornets will win this dispute over the Lakers, but they're at least trying not to let Los Angeles walk all over them.

The Hornets may fail, but the outcome for Mark Williams is the same: he's on a team that clearly doesn't really want him. The Hornets obviously traded him, so they didn't necessarily view him as part of the future. That's a black-and-white summation of a gray issue, but it's what it boils down to.

The Lakers traded for him, and they desperately need a center after moving off of Anthony Davis. Whether it's truly health-related or not, the team that did try to acquire him then later said they didn't want him.

That cannot be good for a young player's psychology. Williams has struggled with injuries all his NBA life, which undoubtedly impacts one's mental health, too. Now, to learn that two teams don't want him, potentially because of those injuries, has to sting.

The same is true for Dalton Knecht, though not on the same level. The team that drafted him this year clearly didn't think he was important enough to keep, but now he's back with them. Both young players will be affected by whatever happens.

In terms of the actual results of the challenge, there's no way to know what's going to happen. If the NBA sides with the Lakers, then the trade will be canceled, and Williams will remain with the Hornets. If they somehow side with Charlotte, that opens up a world of possibilities. They might reinstate the trade as is, alter it somehow with draft capital, or something else entirely.

Analyzing the Mark Williams Hornets dispute

Can make 2 arguments on Mark Williams:

CHA: Why would they dispute if they didn't feel like they have a STRONG case? Shine more of a light on MW's health for no reason? Think LAL got cold feet when they realized they over paid

LAL: Wouldn't overpaying a little be FAR…
— Trevor Lane (@Trevor_Lane) February 11, 2025

It may be a losing effort, but as Lakers Nation host Trevor Lane pointed out, why would the Hornets dispute if they didn't feel they had a chance to win this? Sure, they have nothing to lose, but if Mark Williams is a plausible trade candidate, why do they insist on revealing every negative aspect of this situation? That would tank Williams' value even more.

On the Lakers side, Lane says that overpaying, even if it's by a lot, for a major position of need in a win-now window should trump everything. They can't afford to start Jaxson Hayes every day when Williams was right there. If his medicals are fine, which the Lakers initially intimated, then shouldn't the need for a center to maximize LeBron James' final years be more valuable than Dalton Knecht and a future first?

This is a messy situation, and it's only going to get messier. Neither team will come out unscathed, but the winner will be let off a lot easier in the public eye. If Charlotte loses and it's revealed that Williams is in bad shape, then they'll look awful for trying to pawn him off and for playing him with major issues all the time.

If the Lakers lose, they'll look like a team that tried to skirt the rules and undo a trade they regretted, which is not how the sport works. Charlotte clearly has more at stake here, though, which goes back to Lane's initial point wondering why they'd challenge this in the first place.

This is a relatively unprecedented situation, so there's no indication of how this will go or when it will be resolved, but it's fair to assume that all players involved will remain inactive until it does. Fortunately, the All-Star break starts this week, giving the league a chance to focus on this issue.

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