A Hornets starter had surgery to repair a torn finger ligament. What it means for his summer
Mark Williams’ summer just got a little bit longer.
The Charlotte Hornets starting center had surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right thumb on Wednesday, the team announced. No timetable was given for his recovery, but the team said Williams is expected to make a full recovery.
Williams was supposed to participate in summer league action next month when the Hornets travel to Sacramento, California, before heading over to Las Vegas, but with game action a little over two weeks away, that’s no longer the case. He’ll instead likely focus on rehab and recovery before ramping up activity later in the offseason.
Williams initially injured his finger in March, causing him to sit out six games. He returned to action against Dallas on March 24 and played in six of the Hornets’ last eight games, recording double-doubles in the season’s last two outings, including a career-best 22-point outing against Cleveland in the finale.
For Williams, it capped off an up-and-down six-month span. He slowly gained his confidence in the G League with the Greensboro Swarm and proved himself once he cracked into the rotation.
Williams amassed 11 double-doubles, which were the sixth-most in a season by a Charlotte rookie, in 44 games and finished second among first-year players with a block per game. His defense greatly aided the Hornets on the interior, giving them the rim presence they had been searching for.
Last month, when he served as the Hornets’ representative on the dais at the NBA Draft Lottery, Williams reflected on his initial year as a professional and was already looking ahead to the offseason.
“It was good,” Williams said in Chicago after the lottery. “I learned a lot. We’ve been through a lot of ups and downs as a team, me personally as well. The game started to slow down for me.
“I felt like I got more and more comfortable out there on the floor every night we played. And it’s just continuing to build on it.”
This story was originally published June 14, 2023 at 7:04 PM.
