Jeff Peterson was crushed on lottery night, but Kon Knueppel changed the mood fast

Originally posted on Charlotte Hornets on SI
By Schuyler Callihan | Last updated Aug 9, 2025 12:36 PM ET

When the disappointing 2025-26 season came to an end, Charlotte Hornets fans held onto the hope of winning the NBA draft lottery and the rights to draft generational draft prospect, Cooper Flagg. The fans weren’t the only ones with high hopes, of course; President of Basketball Operations Jeff Peterson and everyone else inside the organization shared those feelings.

Flagg would have been the juice this franchise desperately needs, but instead, they fell short in the lottery once again, landing the fourth overall pick.

In the Hornets’ latest episode of Reel Access, they showed clips from the draft workouts, interviews, evaluation conversations, the lottery, and, of course, the night of the draft.

On the night of the lottery, they captured Peterson’s reaction to Charlotte being revealed as the team that would own the fourth overall pick

“Unbelievable,” he said as he reached for his bottle of water to help wash away the feeling of missing out on the top prize. “Well, we’ve got a lot of work to do,” he added.

Fortunately, this was a deep draft class, so selecting fourth wasn’t the end of the world, even in a year where you miss out on a guy like Cooper Flagg. They quickly fell in love with Flagg's teammate at Duke, guard Kon Knueppel, during his workout at Queens University.

“He’s so hard on himself, which is exactly what you want. He cares. He cares to the highest level,” Peterson said to head coach Charles Lee while watching the workout. “The character, the person, IQ, all that.”

Landing Flagg would have completely changed the direction of the franchise without question. But the addition of Knueppel could be the next best thing, especially when you slide him between LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller.

Charles Lee and Jeff Peterson have been adamant about changing the culture in Charlotte, and adding more guys like Knueppel, who have a deep level of care and commitment to getting better, will eventually take this franchise where they want to go, which is to be a premier franchise in the NBA.