GM Jeff Peterson: Hornets will ‘listen to everything’ ahead of NBA trade deadline

Jeff Peterson’s cellphone is apparently racking up quite a minute’s log.

“We’ve received calls on multiple of our players,” the Charlotte Hornets president of basketball operations said during a Zoom call Wednesday night. “Nick Richards, we received multiple calls on him. We have good players. I think some of the injuries from a synergy standpoint have made it really tough to jell and see what this group can do.

“But, yeah, I think at this point, look, we are going to listen to everything. We are not going to do anything to compromise the future, but we are going to do what’s best for the organization that we see going forward in order to be sustainable going forward.”

That’s why the Hornets traded Richards and a second-round pick to Phoenix for Josh Okogie and three second-round picks on Wednesday. The Observer reported the mutual interest between the two teams while the Hornets were in Arizona on Sunday.

Charlotte acquired second-round picks from the Denver Nuggets in 2026 and 2031, and a second-round pick from Phoenix in 2031. The Hornets are sending the less favorable of a 2025 second-round pick from either Denver or Philadelphia to the Suns.

With the Hornets (8-29) floundering in the standings, moving Richards is likely the first of several transactions Peterson will pull off on his first full year as the team’s president of basketball operations. Mired in second-to-last place in the Eastern Conference, the Hornets are currently in position for a premium lottery pick in a draft featuring Duke star Cooper Flagg and are long shots to snap their playoff drought that’s nearing nine years, which is currently the longest span in the NBA.

Peterson must balance stockpiling assets for years to come while not sabotaging the present and the team’s development under first-year coach Charles Lee.

“As I’ve said when I first got here, we are not going to take shortcuts,” Peterson said. “If you are really going to build a sustainable contender, you can’t do something short-sighted that’s going to compromise your future. So, we won’t do that Everything that we do is going to be building toward that goal.

“I have zero interest in making the playoffs for one year, and then being out for the next four or five, and then in for two and out again after that. So, we want to again build something that has sustainability to it. So, at the same time, we’ve got to continue to take advantage of deals like this that’s adding picks to our treasure chest, if you will, or whatever it may be for us to have that optionality.”

Richards had one of his best games of the season during the Hornets’ win over the Suns on Feb. 7, registering 15 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks. He’s averaging 8.9 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.3 assists, numbers aided by him producing during the nine games he started in for an injured Mark Williams.

Signed to an economical three-year $15 million contract in 2023, Richards is in the second season of his contract and his 2025-26 salary is non-guaranteed, not becoming fully guaranteed until June 29 if he’s not waived by then.

Okogie, who’s 6-foot-4 and can play small forward or shooting guard, is averaging six points and 2.9 rebounds in 25 games. He inked a two-year, $16 million pact last summer and is earning $8.5 million this season. The 26-year-old’s $7.7 million figure for 2025-26 doesn’t get guaranteed until June 30.

“Charles and I have had a ton of conversations about the type of humans and players we want to bring into this organization,” Peterson said, “and Josh fits that bill in terms of he competes every night, he’s going to give you exactly what he has on a nightly basis. It doesn’t matter if you are playing in Utah or Phoenix, whatever the night may be,

“He’s having a career year shooting the basketball this year. It speaks to his work ethic and amount of time he puts into the gym. So he’s physical, he’s a great defender. We are just excited to get him into the organization.”

Williams returning to full health made Richards expendable, as did the steady improvement of Moussa Diabaté. According to Cleaning the Glass, heading into Thursday night’s game against the Utah Jazz at Delta Center, the Hornets’ net rating improved by 14.4 points with the third-year big man, placing that ranking in the 97th percentile league-wide.

Plus, the Hornets’ offensive rebounding percentage increased by 11.2% — putting him in the 100th percentile — and the opposition’s offensive rating dips by 9.1 points (96th percentile) while their turnover rate rises by 4.7%. That kind of production is part of the reason why the Hornets aren’t sweating their depth after losing Richards.

“We feel good about it,” Peterson said. “Charles and me are lockstep in what a deal like this means for the roster.”

NBA ANNOUNCES SCHEDULE ADJUSTMENTS

The Hornets have two trips to Los Angeles in their future.

An updated schedule was announced by the NBA on Wednesday, less than a week after Charlotte had its Jan. 9 and Jan. 11 games postponed because of the Southern California wildfires.

The Hornets will play the Lakers at 10 p.m. ET Feb. 19 and travel back to Los Angeles again on March 16 to match up with the Clippers in a 7 p.m. ET tipoff. Both games will be broadcast on FanDuel Sports Network Southeast.

Due to the compact nature of the Hornets’ remaining schedule, it was difficult to fit a pair of games in Los Angeles during the same trip. So, as The Observer previously noted, the most reasonable conclusion meant moving one to the final day of the All-Star break prior to the Hornets’ outing in Denver on Feb. 20.

That makeup date against the Lakers gives the Hornets a nine-game road trip wrapped around the All-Star break that also includes stops in Detroit, Brooklyn, Orlando, Portland, Sacramento, San Francisco and Dallas.