By John Hollinger, Jovan Buha and Zach Powell
The Los Angeles Lakers are trading Dalton Knecht, Cam Reddish, a 2031 first-round pick and a 2030 pick swap for Charlotte Hornets center Mark Williams, team sources confirmed to The Athletic.
The Lakers are sending two of its younger assets and draft capital East to pair Williams, a 7-foot-2 center, with five-time All-Star Luka Dončić. Knecht, 23, is gaining traction approaching the halfway mark in his rookie season, averaging 9.4 points and 3.1 rebounds on 46.5 percent shooting from the field. Meanwhile Reddish has logged just 31 games for the Lakers this season.
Williams is an up-and-coming big who could fare well with the Lakers. In Charlotte, Williams averaged 16.0 points and 9.8 rebounds in 22 games of action.
The deal comes just four days after the Lakers dealt superstar Anthony Davis to Dallas for Dončić in a blockbuster deal.
Making sense of the deal
The Lakers gave up more draft equity to get Williams than they did to get Dončić! The injury-plagued big man fits a specific niche on their team when healthy, as a giant rebounder and shot-blocker who can finish around the rim. However, he hasn’t really been the type of rim-runner that you might imagine thriving next to Dončić.
One other item that had to tempt the Lakers is that Williams is on his rookie contract through 2026, making just $6.3 million next season. That should allow the Lakers to more easily add other pieces to the lineup. One can fairly question, however, whether it was worth the last chips the Lakers had left to play in their 2031 first and Knecht. — John Hollinger, senior NBA writer
How Williams pairs with Dončić
When Lakers vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka described the type of center the franchise was looking for ahead of the 2025 trade deadline, he used the terms “versatility,” “mobility,” “a vertical lob threat” and “competitive.”
Those terms, to a large degree, describe Mark Williams.
After consulting with Dončić shortly after the trade over the weekend, the Lakers prioritized adding a lob threat and rim-runner to pair with Dončić in a similar vein to Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford, Dončić’s former Dallas teammates.
Over his past 10 games, Williams averaged 20.3 points, 12.6 rebounds and 1.5 blocks. When he’s played more than 20 minutes in a game this season, he’s averaged 18.7 points, 11.6 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.4 blocks on 59.2 percent shooting.
He has eight double-doubles in those 15 games.
The two biggest concerns with Williams are the nuances of his defense and his injury history. While he can block shots due to his athleticism and record-setting 9-foot-9 standing reach, Williams can struggle in pick-and-roll coverage and with the details on that end of the floor. He has never played more than 43 games in a season (he played in 23 of the Hornets’ 48 games this season).
However, considering the state of the center market — both the lack of the options and the high prices — and the alternative to making this type of move being Jaxson Hayes continuing to start, the Lakers did about as well as was reasonably possible. — Jovan Buha, Lakers beat writer
Charlotte is left vacant at center
Everyone will focus on the Laker side of things, but can we talk about Charlotte for a minute? While the new administration there wasn’t wedded to the old regime’s draft pick, Williams was a productive 23-year-old center, and in his absence the Hornets have absolutely zero size. What is the succession plan at the center position going forward? Was this strictly an asset play for a team that seemingly is going even deeper into a rebuild? Should we be reading tea leaves on LaMelo Ball’s future based on this move? Or was it simply raw opportunism, just too good an offer to pass up for an injury-prone player who was due for an extension this summer? — Hollinger
Required reading
(Photo: Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images)
