Growing concern? Mark Williams doesn't appear to be returning to the Hornets anytime soon

Charles Lee provided the latest injury update on the Charlotte Hornets' center.

Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

After missing much of the 2023-24 season with a back injury, Charlotte Hornets center Mark Williams was expected to be a big part of getting things turned around in year one under new head Charles Lee. While that could still happen, it doesn't look like the third-year big man is going to be back in uniform anytime soon.

Williams suffered a foot injury the day before training camp and has yet to make his season debut. At the time of the injury, Williams, head coach Charles Lee, and Hornets VP of Basketball Ops Jeff Peterson all stated that it wasn't anything serious and that it wasn't expected to be a long-term injury.

It's been over a month since the injury took place and in his pregame press conference Friday evening, Charles Lee didn't give the most promising update.

“I think that he’s done a good amount of individual work right now and going step by step. He’s engaged and observing all practice activities and film. Even today at shootaround he’s standing next to me trying to talk through the gameplan and stuff. He’s doing all he can to make sure that he’s soaking up all the information, understanding terminology and when he comes back he’s going to be ready to hit the ground running.

“But for now, he’s just kind of doing individual work, and the next phase of his return to play plan he’ll do some group-type activities and once we get to practices and stuff like that then we’ll update people.”

Just going off what Lee said, it seems like Williams is more than just a few days away from returning. In fact, it sounds more like he could miss the next handful of games, if not more, before making his way back onto the court.

What makes the matter even worse is his replacement in the starting lineup, Nick Richards, left last night's game versus Boston with a shoulder injury and did not play in the second half. If Richards is unable to play, that leaves Charlotte with Moussa Diabate as the team's only center. Taj Gibson can slide to the five if needed, as could Grant Williams in a small ball lineup. It is certainly not an ideal situation for the Hornets.

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