The Charlotte Hornets have wasted no time getting involved with the 2026 season offseason. First, they came out of the clouds to trade away LaMelo Ball to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Three days later, the team set free the other half of Air BnB, sending Miles Bridges to the Phoenix Suns. Aside from the emotions that come with seeing longtime Hornets traded away, there are a lot of commonalities between the two deals. And those commonalities tell us a lot about what Jeff Peterson and company are trying to build. We really already knew the gist of it, but these trades further establish what the plan is.

First, here’s a summary of the moves:

Out:

• LaMelo Ball
• Josh Green
• Miles Bridges

In:

• Naz Reid
• Grayson Allen
• Royce O’Neale

First, the players themselves. Ever since Peterson and head coach Charles Lee arrived, they’ve clearly shown that they have a certain type of player they value. Every draft pick and every acquisition with longterm potential has been a gym rat, hard worker, and team player that plays with toughness, physicality, and intelligence. This is not meant to be a slight at either of the departing players, but they were maybe not the best fit with that kind of culture, particularly LaMelo. For LaMelo’s part, for as much as he clearly loves the game of basketball, he has always played (and driven) with a level of recklessness that is tough to build around, and that’s compounded by how difficult it’s been for him to stay healthy. While Bridges does jibe with that locker room culture, his on court impact hasn’t quite aligned. He looked a bit out of place with the starters for a lot of the season until finding a role as a mismatch attacker later on.

The incoming players are more in line with the types of players the Hornets have been trying to bring in for the last couple of years. Naz Reid brings more size to the forward position with more reliable 3-point shooting without any significant drop-off in defense or ancillary role player skills. Royce O’Neale has long been a quintessential high-IQ 3&D player that provides knockdown outside shooting and a seamless fit around more ball dominant players. Grayson Allen adds elite 3-point shooting, which is also always a target of this front office. They all bring traits to the table that are exactly what this front office prioritizes. There are no awkward fits. There are no workarounds required. They are guys that play solid basketball and can be seamlessly integrated into any lineup combination.

While the talent might look like a downgrade in some respects, particularly in the deal for LaMelo Ball, the fits are better. The team doesn’t have to work around a point guard that doesn’t provide rim pressure and gets trigger happy from three or a power forward that needs the ball a lot to be at his best but doesn’t get the ball a lot because there are other players that need it. That’s not meant to be a slight against either of them. Every player has strengths and weaknesses, but now the team has a squad that better complements itself.

The other side of this, and maybe the more interesting side of this to me, is who exactly Peterson was targeting. The Timberwolves and Suns both were backed into a corner because of previous moves, and Peterson essentially took them for every draft asset they had at their disposal as they made last ditch efforts and relevance. The Timberwolves had gutted their cache of first round picks for Rudy Gobert. The Hornets are getting their unprotected 2033 first round pick basically as soon as it became available to trade. They received a bunch of potential pick swaps, which could be nothing, but they’re also extra lottery tickets that could land the franchise a difference making pick without the Hornets themselves needing to lose a bunch of games to get it. The same goes for the Suns pick in 2033. They basically had no draft assets left to give after botching the Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant trades.

The draft picks are way out there, but that’s how you build sustained success. The Hornets can continue trying to build a winning team knowing that they can still be the beneficiaries of lottery luck based on the potential failures of other teams. It just so happens that the other teams in question are both trying to scratch and claw into competitiveness after some poor front office decisions, and the long term competitiveness of both teams is hanging on by a thread. Both are reasonable bets to see some major teardowns in the coming years if things go sour. If that happens to be the case, the Hornets stand to benefit.

Peterson has always made it a point to act as a sort of scavenger in the NBA trade landscape. We’ve seen him acquire assets out of nothing to help teams push through other deals. We’ve seen him get a first round pick for taking on Jusuf Nurkic, then use Nurkic to get Collin Sexton, who eventually helped the Hornets land Coby White. And that was just to help the Suns get out of a jam (the Hornets should try to continue trading with the Suns whenever possible). Now he’s going after teams on their last legs to acquire assets that could hit right when the bottom falls out from them.

I’m sure there’s more to come, but Hornets fans should be confident that the organization is in good hands. The team keeps adding winning players while acquiring assets, particularly from teams that may be on the downswing when it comes time to pay up. Each move has a chance of not working out, but the process is incredibly shrewd and bound to produce good results before long.