Jeff Peterson didn’t hide what the Charlotte Hornets are doing this offseason: they’re reshaping the roster for what comes next.
After a busy stretch of trades, Charlotte has stacked up future draft capital and reoriented the team around Kon Knueppel and Brandon Miller. The front office has clearly chosen a long view, and the moves have been aggressive enough to make that impossible to miss.
The biggest swing came when Peterson sent LaMelo Ball and Josh Green to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a deal that brought back Naz Reid, a 2033 first-round pick, three first-round pick swaps, and three second-round picks. He followed that by moving Miles Bridges, a 2029 unprotected first-round pick that was the least favorable of Charlotte, Utah, Cleveland, or Minnesota, and a 2027 second-round pick to the Phoenix Suns for Royce O'Neale, Grayson Allen, and a 2033 first-round pick.
Charlotte also absorbed Dorian Finney-Smith’s salary from the Houston Rockets and picked up three second-round picks in the process.
The Hornets didn’t stop with trades. They added two more young players in the draft, taking Hannes Steinbach at 14 and Christian Anderson at 18.
All of this comes after Charlotte’s second-half surge in the 2025-26 season, when the Hornets finished just one game short of a playoff spot before losing to the Orlando Magic in the second Play-In Game. Even with that push, the front office made it clear it wasn’t sold on Ball and Bridges as the long-term answer.
Ball’s 2025-26 season was his best in a while from a health standpoint. He played 72 games and averaged 20.1 points, 4.8 rebounds, 7.1 assists, and 1.2 steals while shooting 40.7 percent from the field and 36.8 percent from three. Peterson and the front office moved while his value was high.
Bridges is now in the final year of his contract after putting up 17.1 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 3.2 assists per game while shooting 46 percent from the floor and 33.3 percent from beyond the arc.
From Charlotte’s perspective, flipping a least-favorable 2029 first-round pick into a potentially stronger 2033 first-rounder from Phoenix was another smart piece of business.
The Hornets could take a step back in 2026-27, but the path Peterson has laid out points toward a much brighter future.
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