Hornets hiring Nets’ Peterson to front office

Nets assistant general manager Jeff Peterson is finalizing an agreement that will make him the next head of basketball operations for the Hornets. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski was first to report the news and said both sides are expected to reach a contractual agreement in the coming days.

Peterson, who reportedly beat out 12 candidates for the job, will become one of the NBA’s youngest front-office executives at 35 years old. The Springfield, Mo. native was hired by Nets general manager Sean Marks ahead of the 2019-20 season after working multiple roles in the Hawks’ front office. He played collegiately at Iowa, Arkansas and Florida State.

“He is not afraid to get a little dirty,” Marks said of Peterson in a 2022 interview with The Athletic’s Mike Vorkunov. “Just because you’re the assistant GM doesn’t mean you can’t do some of the other tasks, and I think for what we do here, we’re responsible for everything. Titles don’t mean anything. So it doesn’t matter who has a great idea, whether it’s a draft pick, a free agent, or whatever or trade, and Jeff is somebody who’s a great listener.

“I think that certainly helps, you know if you have a leader that listens to people, and I think that he does that really well. I think that that’s why his peers look up to him.”

According to Rod Boone of The Charlotte Observer, Peterson had been linked to the Hornets dating back to last summer. Charlotte has not reached the playoffs since 2016 and owns two top-40 picks in this year’s draft. However, Peterson will have two solid building blocks to work with in LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller.

Former Hornets president of basketball operations Mitch Kupchak moved into an advisory role earlier in the month.

Trajan Landon, now general manager of the Hornets, was the last assistant general manager during Marks’ tenure to be poached by another team. The Nets wanted to retain Peterson, according to reports.