South Carolina MBB beefs up front office with hire of Charlotte Hornets exec
The South Carolina men’s basketball team is beefing up its front office.
As GamecockCentral first reported, the Gamecocks’ recently hired Charlotte Hornets’ front office executive David Duquette. The State confirmed that on Wednesday, with a source adding that Duquette will start as a consultant who will be involved in all aspects of the program.
Coming off a dismal 13-19 season last year, South Carolina head coach Lamont Paris was retained, but two assistants — Eddie Shannon and Will Bailey — both left the program. So far Paris has hired one of their replacements, tabbing veteran Bob Donewald Jr. as a new assistant.
While Paris has never hired a general manager, the addition of Duquette signals that he is trying to improve the systems used by South Carolina in roster building.
Duquette has worked for the Hornets for the last 14 years, including the last two years as Charlotte’s senior director of salary cap strategy. He was an assistant general manager with Charlotte from 2021-24, where he advised on salary cap management, player contracts and was responsible for a variety of other basketball operations matters.
In a 2023 Yahoo! Sports’ story titled, “Identifying the NBA’s next wave of front-office executives,” it was noted that “Duquette has also stood out to several league officials for his strategy acumen.”
Before landing in Charlotte, Duquette spent two years in the Minnesota Timberwolves organization.
This story was originally published April 22, 2026 at 6:35 PM with the headline "South Carolina MBB beefs up front office with hire of Charlotte Hornets exec."
