Young executive bolts to run Hornets’ basketball operations

Though the Nets beat the Hawks on Thursday night at Barclays Center, they took a loss off the court.

The Hornets are set to hire Nets assistant general manager Jeff Peterson as their new head of basketball operations, according to ESPN. Peterson will replace Mitch Kupchak, who is transitioning from general manager to an advisory role with the Hornets.

Peterson, who reportedly beat out 12 other candidates that were interviewed, quickly rose to prominence in the Hawks’ front office before joining the Nets. At age 35, he becomes the NBA’s youngest top front office executive.

The Nets sought to retain Peterson, NBA insider Marc Stein reported, with a bump in salary and a new title. Seemingly, it wasn’t enough to stop him from leaving to run his own team.

Peterson joined the Nets ahead of the 2019-20 season as assistant general manager under Sean Marks and since had been his trusted No. 2.

Peterson started as an intern with the Hawks and ascended to assistant general manager within four years. Rick Schnall, one of the Hornets’ two new owners along with Gabe Plotkin, was a Hawks minority owner when Peterson was there. Hornets coach Steve Clifford has a connection to Peterson as well, serving as a coaching consultant with the Nets during the 2021-22 season.

Peterson played collegiately from 2007-12 at Iowa, Arkansas and Florida State.

➤ Ben Simmons had been expected to return to the lineup for the Nets’ 124-97 win over Atlanta on Thursday. Instead, the former All-Star point guard sat out the game with left leg soreness.

He had missed Tuesday’s 108-81 loss to the Magic as he is not yet cleared to play back-to-backs in his recovery from his back injury.

Simmons was not on the Nets’ injury report on Wednesday but was downgraded to questionable earlier Thursday before being ruled out.

He had originally been questionable for the team’s 111-86 win over the Grizzlies on Monday with the sore left leg but played 14:10 off the bench before then sitting Tuesday.

➤ Day’Ron Sharpe entered Thursday with just two made 3-pointers on the season, but he drilled two on back-to-back possessions in the fourth quarter to match his season total. He finished with 12 points, eight rebounds and four assists.

“I think a couple of months ago, he wouldn’t have taken that shot,” Dennis Schroder said of Sharpe. “He’s working on his stuff, we trust him, the decisions he does, and we just go with it.”