The Charlotte Hornets are excited to see where the 2023-24 season goes after a great media day. There's a lot of hype and excitement around LaMelo Ball & Brandon Miller. Two guys who are looked at to be the faces of the franchise and take this team to new heights that it hasn't seen before. In a perfect world, those two should flourish and grow into superstar talents. As critical as those two are, so is the man in the middle. Mark Williams is another young piece this team took in the middle of the first round in 2022.

Williams only averaged nine points and seven rebounds in his rookie season, but that showed a lot of promise as an interior defender. He became a full-time starter once Mason Plumlee was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers and made the most out of his opportunity. Bringing the Hornets' defensive rating into the top 10, Williams has a knack for altering shots around the rim and erasing shots with his length.

The one roadblock that he ran into though, was his like of muscle mass. Some of the premier players at the center position, like Joel Embiid & Nikola Jokic, have more girth and are just natural bruisers. Williams did struggle to guard guys with those builds, but he made a couple of adjustments to combat that issue.

“I'm close to 260 pounds right now,” Mark Williams said whenever asked about his weight gain. “I'm a lot stronger, my lower body, upper body. That time off I was really able to be in that weight room, especially on my lower body.”

Williams said that he was around 245-248 pounds last season, so gaining close to 15 pounds of muscle should aid in his quest to make an All-Defensive team this year. As for his offensive production, the added size should help him take advantage of little guys he might catch in switches after pick-and-roll situations. Plus, he did mention he still feels bouncy enough for explosive finishes around the rim as a lob threat.

LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller probably appeal more to the fanbase, but Williams could be primed for a big year too. Heading into the season as likely starter for the first time. He even mentioned about adding a three-point shot to his game to help create even more spacing on the floor. If the Hornets are going to claw into the postseason, Williams will be a big reason why that happens.