Former Celtics Assistant Coach Poaches Forward Out Of Boston

Both Charles Lee and Drew Peterson were members of the 2024 NBA champion Boston Celtics team, the former serving as one of Joe Mazzulla’s assistants and the latter playing three games on a two-way contract during his rookie season.

Lee left the Celtics last May to join the Charlotte Hornets as their new head coach and now, 14 months later, Peterson is joining his former coach in the southeast.

Former Celtics forward Drew Peterson has agreed to a two-way NBA deal with the Charlotte Hornets, agents Mike Silverman and Troy Payne of Equity Sports tell ESPN. Hornets' Charles Lee coached Peterson in Boston two seasons ago.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 15, 2025

Celtics writer Bobby Krivitsky noted that Lee isn’t the only former coach that Peterson will be reuniting with.

Drew Peterson landed a two-way deal with the Hornets, per Shams. He joins a familiar group that includes head coach Charles Lee and assistants Blaine Mueller and Jermaine Bucknor, who came with Lee from Boston.

— Bobby Krivitsky (@bobbykrivitsky.bsky.social) 2025-07-15T04:42:21.666Z

The Hornets went 19-63 in Lee’s first year at the helm, though Charlotte had already been mired in a lengthy stretch of losing seasons prior to the 40-year-old’s arrival. The Hornets haven’t made the playoffs since 2016 (the longest active drought in the NBA) and have only had one winning season since then. Charlotte went 43-39 during the 2021-22 campaign.

Following two seasons at Rice University and three years with USC, Peterson went undrafted in 2023 and signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Miami Heat in August that year. He was waived two months later and inked his first two-way contract with Boston in December 2023.

Peterson signed another two-way deal with the Celtics last July and appeared in 25 games last season (one start), averaging 2.2 points, 1.6 rebounds and 7.4 minutes per contest.