Hornets GM Dell Demps agrees to extension

"We have a plan, working with coach Williams," Demps said before Friday night's tip-off against Oklahoma City. "We want to achieve sustained success. We've got a young core right now. We want to see those guys grow and play together and we want to compete at the highest level."

The Hornets announced the deal Friday but did not release terms of the contract. Hornets executive vice president Mickey Loomis says Demps "has a bright future," and that he and first-year owner Tom Benson "couldn't be more impressed" with the direction of the team.

Williams, who received a four-year extension running through 2015-16 last August, said it was important to him to have a GM in place with whom he felt he could work closely.

"Any time you get a chance to have a situation like this where you guys are working together and there's no in-fighting or any of that nonsense ... to be hand-in-hand in this capacity is something a lot of teams don't have," Williams said.

"I don't take it for granted. I talk to a lot of coaches around the league — mostly I just listen — they don't have this kind of synergy at work. I think the thing that we have is Mickey (Loomis). Before we had (former team president) Hugh (Weber). He gave us a lot of latitude to do some things and now Mickey has come along and done the same thing."

The 42-year-old Demps has overhauled the club's roster since his arrival in 2010 and New Orleans has shown promise early this season with a roster comprised mostly of players age 25 or younger. Only two — Roger Mason Jr. and recently acquired Matt Carroll — are older, but Carroll has yet to report and could be bought out, given that the Hornets are focusing on getting experience for younger players like Greivis Vasquez and Austin Rivers, Brian Roberts and Xavier Henry in the back court. The Hornets are also hoping that guard Eric Gordon, now rehabilitating his right knee in Los Angeles, can return to the starting lineup by the end of December.