New executive vice president of basketball operations Jeff Peterson is making the first addition to his front office, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who reports (via Twitter) that the Hornets are hiring Hawks executive Dotun Akinwale Jr. as their new assistant general manager.
Akinwale is currently Atlanta’s vice president of player personnel, having been promoted last summer. One of his responsibilities was managing the team’s pre-draft workout process, tweets Lauren L. Williams of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
A native of Maryland, Akinwale played basketball at Thiel College in Pennsylvania before graduating and getting his NBA start as an intern with Orlando. He spent two seasons with the Magic, and over the past nine seasons he has worked his way up the ranks in Atlanta, but now he’ll be heading to Charlotte to work with his former Hawks colleague Peterson.
Hornets co-owner Rick Schnall is familiar with both Peterson and Akinwale, as he was previously a minority owner of the Hawks. Peterson, 35, most recently worked as a Nets executive before being hired to become Charlotte’s top basketball decision-maker.
In an interview on Wednesday, Peterson said the team planned to make some new hires in the front office, which is now coming to fruition.