Nov 6, 2024; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Charlotte Hornets forward Brandon Miller (24) and guard LaMelo Ball (1) high five after a dunk and assist during the second half against the Detroit Pistons at Spectrum Center. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

Why Jeff Peterson can't afford to trade too much of the Hornets young core

Originally posted on Charlotte Hornets on SI
By Zach Roberts | Last updated May 26, 2025 12:57 PM ET

NBA GMs walk a very fine line. Unless they're the GM of a winning team or a team that's perennially competitive, they have to build towards the future. Sometimes, that's a future that doesn't include them.

In the case of the Charlotte Hornets, Jeff Peterson isn't tasked with making the Hornets good right now. He's been asked to make them good down the line, a sustainable level of good that Charlotte has maybe never been.

That comes at a cost. Getting enough assets to be good in the future often means gutting a roster and enduring countless losing seasons. In the NBA, thanks to the draft lottery, that could mean a lot of losing seasons. A GM, even one who's clearly doing things to set themselves up in the future, can only endure so much losing before it costs them their job.

That's where trading some or all of the Hornets' young core might be a bad idea for Peterson. The Hornets went an astonishing 3-32 with LaMelo Ball sitting with injuries. They went 16-31 in games he played, and that includes a couple of games he left early with injuries.

The easiest way to get an absolute haul of draft picks and become like the Oklahoma City Thunder is to trade the superstar. In this case, trading Ball would likely net several future first-round picks, but at what cost? The Hornets were on pace to go an unfathomable 7-75 without Ball last year.

While they would be better with a healthy Brandon Miller and some other pieces, it's hard to imagine them being any form of decent without Ball, thus keeping them in the lottery where the Hornets are beholden to ping pong balls that don't respect them. That's not necessarily a recipe for success ever.

If Peterson decided to trade the other member of the Hornets' young core (excluding Mark Williams since he's the third of three and was already traded once anyway), things wouldn't go as well, either. Losing Miller last season sunk the Hornets.

With Ball and mostly without Miller, the Hornets were on pace to win 28 games, which puts them almost in mediocre basketball purgatory. They'd be bad, but not bad enough to get a top pick and really turn things around.

It's a dangerous game, which is probably why Peterson has opted to trade around the margins. Williams wasn't untouchable and may not be now. He also flipped Cody Martin, Nick Richards, and Vasilije Micic for picks at the cost of valuable depth. For now, that's mostly all he can do without risking losing his job later down the line.