Charlotte Hornets GM Jeff Peterson is proud of the progress his team made, but won't take shortcuts to push his team into the playoffs next season. The Hornets fell to the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference Play-In Tournament's game for the eighth seed.

"We can’t skip steps," Peterson said. "Again, I’ve seen it too many times and it ends up not going the way that you think it goes, in terms of trying to speed things up. Look, we’ve made a ton of progress this season internally, and I’m excited because I know that’s going to continue to happen. But we’ll continue to be strategic and when the opportunity presents itself, I know we’ll be ready because of the flexibility that we have."

Charlotte has two picks in the first round of the 2026 NBA Draft. After selecting four rotation players a year ago, the Hornets have another opportunity to deepen their roster this year.

"I’m very excited about this draft," Peterson said. "It’s if not the deepest, one of the deepest that I’ve ever been a part of. A lot of good players all over the draft, of course. But again, where we are from an asset standpoint, it’s going to allow us to be flexible. So whether that means we bring two players in, consolidate, we’ll have different options that we’ll continue to explore and look at.

"But I’m excited for whoever we bring in because I know that it’s going to be someone who is a Hornet, and about what we’re about and at some point will contribute to what we are building here."