North Charlotte Today

Hornets President of Basketball Operations, Jeff Peterson, is actively reshaping the team's roster and acquiring assets to build a sustainable future for the Charlotte Hornets. Since joining the team on March 5, 2024, Peterson has focused on long-term success rather than short-term fixes.

Peterson emphasized his vision on his first day: “We want sustainable success. We want this to be a consistent winner. More importantly it’s something that we’re going to do with the right people, with the right character and just have a blast doing it… we’re always going to do what’s best for the franchise long term.”

In his initial offseason with Charlotte, Peterson retained veterans Miles Bridges and Seth Curry while adding Taj Gibson for both court performance and locker room leadership. He also acquired Josh Green and two second-round picks in a six-team trade, along with drafting Tidjane Salaun and KJ Simpson.

On Wednesday, Peterson made another strategic move by acquiring guard Josh Okogie and three second-round draft picks from the Phoenix Suns in exchange for center Nick Richards and a second-round pick. Okogie's energetic play style aligns well with Head Coach Charles Lee's strategies.

“Charles and I have had sort of conversations of the type of humans and players that we want to bring into this organization, and Josh fits that build,” Peterson stated post-trade. “He competes every night... He's having a career year shooting... We're just excited to get him into the organization.”

The transaction also increased Charlotte's draft capital significantly. The Hornets now hold multiple additional first-round picks beyond their own until 2031.

“Everything we do again is going to be building towards that goal,” said Peterson about focusing on sustained success over sporadic playoff appearances.

Despite making necessary trades for future gains, saying goodbye to players like Nick Richards can be challenging. Richards was in his fifth season with Charlotte after being drafted in 2020.

“I want to start by just saying thank you to Nick Richards,” said Peterson. “In my short amount of time here, he's been the consummate professional... He was everything that you wanted a Hornet to be.”

The trade opens opportunities for other players such as Moussa Diabate who might see more playing time following Richards' departure.

“Moussa has done a nice job in taking advantage of the minutes he's earned at this point in the season.” commented Peterson.

With less than a month until the NBA Trade Deadline on February 6th, further moves could be expected as Peterson remains open to deals that enhance long-term prospects.

“That's my job... To continue to do what's best for the organization... If deals present themselves or we're proactive... then we're going to have to look really hard at that,” he concluded.