LaMelo Ball raises more questions than he answers in Minnesota

In a surprisingly fast-moving development, the up-and-coming Charlotte Hornets pivoted from building off the momentum they had made at the end of last season, when they were one of the NBA’s hottest teams, to trading a 24-year-old face of the franchise.

Charlotte dealt one-time All-Star point guard LaMelo Ball to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for Naz Reid, a 2033 unprotected first-round draft pick, first-round pick swaps from 2028-30 and second-round picks in 2029, 2032 and 2033, per ESPN’s Shams Charania. What will be a four-team trade will also send Julius Randle to the Brooklyn Nets. (Chicago is the fourth team involved.)

Advertisement

The move pairs the Nos. 1 and 3 picks from the 2020 NBA draft in Minnesota’s backcourt, as Ball will join four-time All-Star shooting guard Anthony Edwards on a team that hopes to vie for a championship. The Wolves made the 2024 and 2025 Western Conference finals, before losing a six-game, second-round series to the San Antonio Spurs this year.

There was a widening gap between the Spurs and the 2025 NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder and everyone else in the West, and Minnesota executive Tim Connelly was desperate to close it, adding one of the most mercurial players in the league to his mix.

Handing the keys from 38-year-old veteran point guard Mike Conley Jr. to Ball is akin to switching from a reliable and safe Volvo, even if it has 200,000 miles on it, to a barely street-legal motorbike. You may get where you are going faster, but the risk is manyfold.

Advertisement

Ball is such a carefree player, he often gets careless, and for the most part that has not been a winning formula in Charlotte, where the Hornets did not make the playoffs in his six seasons on the team. That’s right: The Timberwolves just tied their playoff hopes — the hopes of their 24-year-old superstar — to another who has never been in the setting.

Yes, the Hornets were 9.9 points per 100 meaningful possessions better when Ball was on the court last year, scoring at a rate (123.2 points per 100 possessions) commensurate with the greatest offenses ever. And, yes, he gives the Wolves a second elite…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/lamelo-ball-raises-more-questions-than-he-answers-in-minnesota-173444709.html

Author : Ben Rohrbach

Publish date : 2026-06-25 17:34:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.