What Hornets president Jeff Peterson said of LaMelo Ball, failed Lakers trade
Jeff Peterson took his place on the dais inside Spectrum Center, quickly settling in before speaking publicly for the first time since September.
“I just wanted to start by saying thank you to the fans,” the Charlotte Hornets president of basketball operations said Monday during the team’s exit interviews. “Our Hornets fans have been amazing. This is my first year experiencing it. I heard about it, of course, when I took the job. But just experiencing it on a daily basis or every other day basis has been phenomenal.
“Obviously the season didn’t go as we wanted it to, but just their passion and consistency in terms of showing up and giving the guys support has been amazing.”
The Hornets just completed another losing season, adding to the NBA’s longest playoff drought. Injuries played a major role again, despite the franchise bringing in a new 10-person performance staff, with first-year coach Charles Lee being forced to utilize different starting lineups in more than half of their 82 games — something that was mentioned several times by Lee and Peterson.
In fact, Peterson indicated the number of injuries made it difficult to truly get a gauge on things.
“It was certainly challenging to evaluate the roster on the whole,” Peterson said. “I think we looked (Sunday) and I want to say we had 45 different starting lineups, which was not far away from setting a record. That’s not ideal in any scenario to be able to evaluate.
“But look, it’s also part of it. One of the things that we talked about coming into the season was just establishing a culture of guys being together, hard work, being prepared and just daily improvement, player development. By all accounts, I think we achieved a lot of that.”
That, Peterson said, despite accumulating only 19 wins, the fourth-lowest output in franchise history and worst since the infamous 2011-12 campaign, when the then-Bobcats totaled only seven wins.
“The record doesn’t necessarily indicate that the season was a success, but when you look at the goals that we set out at the onset of the season, there was progress made,” Peterson said. “I know we’ve got a long ways to go, but I am pleased with the way our group handled the season.”
Peterson addressed several topics in his 20-minute session. Among them:
LaMelo Ball
Starting training camp on time shouldn’t be a problem for LaMelo Ball.
Following two arthroscopic procedures, the Hornets’ star point guard should “absolutely” be ready to go in September. Ball logged action in 47 games in 2024-25 and has suited up in only 231 games in his five seasons in the league.
“We’re doing everything that we can,” Peterson said. “I would almost flip it. Last year he played 22 games. The year before that it was 36 and this year it was 47. Since I’ve been here, he’s improved in that regard, and that’s a testimony to him for putting the work in and to our medical performance staff. Is it where we want it to be? No. Is it where he wants it to be? No.
“LaMelo is an incredible competitor, and he knows that in order for us to have the best chance to win and get to where we want to go, he has to be on the floor. We’re providing every resource, and again, he’s putting the time in and taking ownership in it. We’re happy the season is over in that regard and he’s able to ramp up and have a healthy start to the season next year.”
It’s imperative Ball takes an overall leap, too, becoming more of a two-way player.
“I think LaMelo, he can be as good as he wants to be, and we’ve seen that,” Peterson said. “He’s played at an All-Star caliber level. I told him this the other day that I’ve been fortunate, and Charles has been around some great players in this league, and LaMelo is very unique and does some things that no one else can do, quite frankly.
“I think the next step is two things: One, to continue to elevate his presence on the defensive end. The coaching staff has done a tremendous job of pushing him on that side of the ball, and he’s responded.”
And the other area?
“The second thing I think is just with his voice from a leadership standpoint, continuing to push guys in the right way and get the best out of them,” Peterson said. “Everyone knows he’s our engine, and as he goes we go. It’s a sign of respect when teams are double teaming you and triple teaming you and having to switch up the defenses. And sometimes he gets taken out of games. But again, that’s the ultimate sign of respect. Can he continue to lead from a vocal standpoint?”
Mark Williams
Peterson never spoke following the NBA trade deadline in February, so his thoughts on the matter were unclear. Until now.
He didn’t shed much light on the details of the appeals process and what went on behind the scenes, though, preferring to tiptoe around the delicate situation. He was also directly asked about Williams’ future with the organization, but didn’t really answer it.
“I’m not going to get too much into the trade and what happened,” Peterson said. “Quite frankly, we’re past it and Mark’s back. The one thing I’ll say is this: It’s a testimony to Mark’s character on how he handled the situation. I’ve been around for a decent amount of time in the league, and there’s not many guys that would’ve handled it the way that he did.
“Again, just his character and the way he was raised by his parents and his professionalism. His agent was a tremendous amount of help during that process. Unfortunately, it’s a little bit of just the reality of the NBA. Sometimes those things happen, but he came in right away and went back to work and just reintegrated with the group and was amazing throughout the process.”
And about the Hornets’ recourse following the trade being nixed?
“I’m not going to comment on that just for various reasons,” Peterson said. “But I appreciate the question.”
Roster reconstruction timeline
In keeping with the theme he’s had since his arrival last spring, and in concert with co-owners Rick Schnall and Gabe Plotkin, Peterson reiterated the Hornets aren’t going to deviate from their plan of being methodical.
“I think the goal is always to be a consistent winner,” Peterson said. “We want to put a sustainable product on the floor. That’s been my goal since I interviewed for the job, and fortunately it’s in line with ownership and Charles’ vision as well. Look, no one’s happy that we won 19 games this year. No one in the locker room, no one in the front office, coaching staff, medical performance. It’s not fun, quite frankly.
“The season just ended, so Charles and I are going to have some long conversations and really re-evaluate and reflect on exactly what this team needs. The goal next year is to win and to compete for the playoffs, and we’re going to do everything in our power to do it.”
A rapid fix apparently still isn’t an option.
“I will double down on how we’re not going to expedite anything,” Peterson said. “We’re not going to skip steps. I think there’s plenty of examples that we’ve seen around the league and in other sports that when you try to skip steps and go too fast, that’s when big mistakes end up happening and ones that make it really, really hard to crawl out of that hole. We’re going to be patient, diligent, opportunistic, very strategic in terms of how we build it.
“As I’ve said before, I don’t have any interest in coming here for a year, making the playoffs but we compromised our future or jeopardized our flexibility moving forward and then we’re out of the playoffs for another three, four years.”
Breaking the playoff drought
If Peterson has visions of the Hornets’ nine-year span of missing the playoffs ending in 2025-26, he’s not admitting it. While the league’s postseason tips off in full this weekend, the Hornets will only be spectators. Again.
“It’s the best part of the year,” Peterson said. “I love this time of year. If you’re a basketball fan, an NBA fan, basketball is on all the time and the intensity ramps up – the level of focus, level of detail and engagement in all of it. That is our goal. I’m not going to sit here and say we’ll be there next year because we just don’t know.
“Charles and I really have to sit down and re-evaluate and reflect on the season and figure out what we need to do to get there. If that’s next year or two years from now, I don’t know when it’s going to be, but the goal is always going to be to build something that’s sustainable.”
Charles Lee
Lee was Peterson’s top choice to be at the end of the Hornets’ bench, so it’s no surprise he’s pleased with the job the 40-year-old did in his initial season. Charlotte had more than a few rough stretches, compiling a double-digit game losing streak and lost all of its four matchups to the Washington Wizards — the team that had the NBA’s worst record for most of the year.
“Charles is tremendous,” Peterson said. “I couldn’t ask for a better partner, and we couldn’t ask for a better head coach. I would say don’t pay attention to the record. I don’t care what coach you have, if you have 45 starting lineups, it’s going to be really, really hard to have success and have just a consistent product on the floor. He’s seen winning at the highest level.
“He has two championships, as I said when we hired him, and a lot of it was player development and accountability. Those were two of the biggest reasons we hired him. He started in the player development space and that’s very, very important to him. You go down the roster, I think most the guys got better in some capacity.”
This story was originally published April 14, 2025 at 12:58 PM.
