LaMelo Ball trade grades: What are the Timberwolves and Hornets doing?

After the NBA Draft ended, trade rumors about LaMelo Ball potentially being on the move surfaced. By the morning, a deal was done.

Despite having their most successful season in a decade, the Charlotte Hornets are parting ways with Ball, sending him and Josh Green to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Naz Reid, a 2033 first-round pick, three first-round pick swaps and three second-round picks. ESPN first reported the trade.

Don’t forget that the Wolves are already trading Julius Randle to the Brooklyn Nets in a salary-dump move. So … what are the Wolves doing? What are the Hornets thinking? Is this the type of trade that makes sense for either team? Let’s bust out the red ink and slap some grades on this deal.

Minnesota acquiring LaMelo Ball, Josh Green

My first reaction to this was, “Someone check to see if David Kahn is wearing a Tim Connelly mask.”

The Wolves sending Randle to the Nets was all about dumping salary, getting under the tax aprons and having the flexibility to sign Ayo Dosunmu to a long-term deal, which was agreed to earlier this week. They could move on from Randle easily because Reid, a former Sixth Man of the Year, is a starter-quality big man who really stretches the floor.

Or maybe the move was so they could trade for Ball and push the roster right up to the first-apron threshold? The Wolves have decided that any flexibility they had from that Randle deal needed to disappear before they could get it. And their future draft capital is toast. All so they could get Ball next to Anthony Edwards in the backcourt.

How did the Timberwolves land LaMelo Ball?

Jon Krawczynski

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The Wolves have had a glaring absence in the backcourt next to Edwards in two of the last three postseasons. It really hurt them against Dallas in the 2024 Western Conference finals and again against OKC in the 2025 conference finals. Against San Antonio in the second round in May, their issues were mainly perimeter defense against so many wing players for the Spurs, defending the 3-point line and having the right size to bother Victor Wembanyama. Ball does not help with any of that.

Ball has had two healthy seasons in his six-year NBA career. He has missed 179 games in those six seasons, 37 percent of his career games. When he’s on the floor, he’s about a league-average 3-point shooter at a career mark of 36.5 percent, and he’s an incredibly inefficient shot-maker at 41.8 percent for all field goals. To his credit, he is a good free-throw shooter at 84.7 percent. Most of his issues with shot-making are about decision-making. He needs the ball in his hands a lot, or at least he has for most of his career.

Last season, Ball averaged 20.1 points, 7.1 assists and 4.8 rebounds while putting up 40.7/36.8/89.9 shooting splits for a paltry 54.6 percent true shooting. The Hornets had their most success with Ball there with 44 wins, but they lost in the Play-In Tournament with a chance to get the No. 8 seed. The Wolves desperately need Ball to change his style of play with Minnesota, deferring to Edwards a lot of the time and setting guys up. They’ll need him to play perimeter defense and use his 6-foot-6 frame on that end of the floor.

LaMelo Ball’s last-second layup leads Hornets past Heat in thriller

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The Wolves are also marrying themselves to a very small roster once we get away from Rudy Gobert. Jaden McDaniels will likely start at the four with Ball, Edwards and Dosunmu filling out the lineup. Donte DiVincenzo will likely be out for the entire season after his Achilles tear. Terrence Shannon Jr. and Green have to be regular contributors. And they’re going to need Joan Beringer and Rocco Zikarsky to be ready to play.

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Maybe there is one more move for the Wolves to make, but they don’t have the financial flexibility to make it. They mortgaged what little draft capital they had to put this roster together. Other than that, it seems fine.

Grade: D+

Charlotte acquiring Naz Reid, three first-round pick swaps, a 2033 first-round pick and three second-round picks

The Hornets saw their most successful season with Ball as their franchise guy, $130 million committed to him over the next three years and an extension of about $120 million over two years likely coming his way this summer. They decided his run in Charlotte was over, and they needed to build on last season’s success in a very different way.

Remember, the Hornets were one of the best stories in the NBA, completely turning their season around by going 28-10 in the final couple of months while playing excellent basketball on both ends of the floor. They’d rather have Reid as a big man and control of Minnesota’s draft in most of the next seven seasons while building around Kon Knueppel and Brandon Miller.

I … can’t blame them?

Ball wasn’t a reliable player, even when he was on the court. He was constantly trying to hit home runs in a 48-minute game. As noted above, he missed a ton of time, too. Charlotte now maintains greater financial flexibility, getting Reid on a very good contract for a starting big man.

Reid has some defensive issues, but he can score, and he can really shoot the ball from the outside. That’s something the Hornets will definitely welcome into their lineup. He can play next to Moussa Diabate, who emerged as a very important starter for them last season. The Hornets also drafted Hannes Steinbach, a big man who can eventually start and brought in Christian Anderson Jr., whom Sam Vecenie has called the best shooter in the draft class.

Charles Lee will use Miller and Knueppel in even more of a playmaking role, and we’ll see how the Hornets adjust to life without Ball. He’s been such a major focal point of everything they do. For all of Ball’s faults, they did struggle offensively when he wasn’t on the floor. During their 28-10 turnaround, they put up a ridiculous 126.3 offensive rating with Ball on the floor, and it plummeted to 109.5 with him on the bench. However, their defense went from 112.0 to an unreal 102.2 when he left the floor. Obviously, they’ll look for better balance than that.

This is a shrewd move by the Hornets, and they may be getting out of the Ball business at the right time. They didn’t want to extend him, and now they’ll try to see if they can build without him. For a team that hasn’t been to the playoffs since 2016, it’s not a bad direction to go.

Grade: A-

LaMelo Ball trade grades: What are the Timberwolves and Hornets doing?

Minnesota acquiring LaMelo Ball, Josh Green

Charlotte acquiring Naz Reid, three first-round pick swaps, a 2033 first-round pick and three second-round picks

Analyse

2026-06-27 01:49:25