Everything Jeff Peterson Said at His Introductory Press Conference
Wednesday morning, the Charlotte Hornets officially introduced Jeff Peterson as the Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations. Below, you will find quotes fro today's press conference.
What he believes made him standout from the other candidates
"I think they were able to see how truly excited I was about this opportunity. Again, I think it helped that our vision and our values aligned. You guys are going to get sick of me saying this, but we are going to turn this into the premier franchise in the NBA. And there was no hesitation in terms of how we were going to do it. It may take a process, we're not going to skip steps. I think that's what helped is that we were completely in alignment."
Thoughts on the roster
"I'm very excited about our roster. We have different phases. We have a young core group in LaMelo (Ball), Brandon (Miller), Mark (Williams), Miles (Bridges). And then we've got some veterans in Davis (Bertans), Seth (Curry), Cody (Martin), Grant (Williams), and just some more developmental pieces in Bryce (McGowens), Nick (Smith Jr.), and JT (Thor). I think we have a lot of good pieces. I'm excited to take this time quite frankly to evaluate and see exactly where we can tweak some things to get better. I had a chance to spend some time with them yesterday and one of my main things was let's use these last 21 games to get better. There's no excuse that we can't have individual goals and collective goals and really use this time to improve."
Timeline to becoming the premier franchise in the NBA
"I don't think it's fair to necessarily put a timeline on it. As I've said, when the three of us sat down and realized that this was the best direction that we were going to go, it's not fair to skip steps. We want it to happen organically. Now I will say, all three of us are very competitive, so we're going to try and find ways to expedite that without jeopardizing our future in any fashion. As Rick and Gabe touched on, character is number one priority in this organization and we're going to continue to build around that."
Evaluating these last 21 games
"I actually look at it as a positive. I know it's a small sample size, but it's better than no sample size at all. I think every day you're trying to collect a little bit more data and figure out how to factor it into those decisions. But I see it as a blessing because most of the time obviously in these situations the turnover doesn't happen until the summer. I'm looking at it as a positive."
Thoughts on Plotkin/Schnall working the trade deadline with Mitch Kupchak
"Yeah, for a minute I thought they might not even hire a GM, they may just be GM/Co-GM. But no, in all seriousness I thought they did a nice job. I think they're realistic in terms of their approach. To add Seth, Davis, Vasa, Tre, Grant to this mix, obviously a couple assets/picks - I think they did a really nice job of putting the whole picture in perspective."
Working with Steve Clifford again
"It's funny... you never know how life's going to work out. Cliff and I, we crossed paths in Brooklyn and before that, I didn't know him. I thought he was just this angry guy that never smiled. I quickly realized that was not true. Whether that was at dinners or on the golf course of whatever it was. I'm so thankful to be able to have that year with because I learned (so much) and I can't tell you how valuable it was to sit with him and pick his brain - the stories, what he's seen, and what's been successful, what hasn't been successful. I'm excited to be reunited with Cliff."
