The Charlotte Hornets have dealt with injury-riddled season after injury-riddled season for the past few years. This year, fans were hopeful that our injury luck would be changed this season, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. It is early November–no more than a month into the season–and the team is down: Miles Bridges (minimum of two weeks - bone bruise), Nick Richards (minimum of two weeks / indefinitely - cartilage fracture), Mark Williams (indefinitely - left foot). In fact, Mark Williams now holds the current NBA record for most consecutive days inactive, with 332 days. Additionally, we’ve already missed Brandon Miller for a handful of games in the first weeks of the season. Now, we’re playing without a legitimate rotation which makes it difficult to win games. While Lamelo Ball’s health has made progress this season with the use of ankle braces, he simply can’t do it alone.
In the 2023-2024 NBA season, Lamelo Ball played just 22 games while Mark Williams played just 19 games; a wasted season. Going back to the 2022-2023 NBA season, Lamelo Ball played just 36 games while Mark Williams played 43 games; a wasted season. This team simply cannot become a playoff team if our top players are unavailable to play in more than half the games.
Our fanbase–and the leadership within the franchise–has been holding onto the idea of seeing this young core play together. We just want to see it come to fruition. Our hope remains: if this team can all be out on the court together and healthy, we can start to build something special. But, the prospect of this happening is growing increasingly unlikely as time progresses, and it begs the question of what is the correct path forward. Injuries are often largely out of the players’ control, I promise I understand that. We just want to see this team take the right steps to build something special. Heal up, everyone!
Photos: Hornets
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