Charlotte Hornets are trading star guard LaMelo Ball and Josh Green to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Naz Reid, a 2033 unprotected first-round pick

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GophersInIowa said:
I'm hardly a great NBA mind but it seems having two high volume shooters that like to have the ball in their hands a lot in the same backcourt could be a problem, no?
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nope.......ball has 9 assists per game in limited minutes.

Ant will get easier looks.

Does anyone know how Lamelo looked against the spurs and okc?

Huge injury risk, though.

Screw it...........roll the dice!
 

bonin21 said:
Is this dude even that good? Seems like it won't move the needle to actually compete for titles.
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Framing in Bonin terms: It’s like the Wild acquiring that Center they need. He can do the face offs (ball handling) as well almost anyone. He can finish. Except his finishing ability helps space things out.

Most of all he can set up teammates.

He will make Ant substantially better because teams cannot focus on Ant or they’re torched.

He also increases the value of the Bigs. As he draws people out, he can put the ball wherever he wants. He sees that like Adam Oates would in the early 90s.
 

I must say Connelly got balls. A year from now either we are having a parade or some combination of Ant, Rudy, LaMelo and Connelly are out the door and we'll have a bunch of new draft picks. We'll also be starting over and won't see the playoffs for a while, quite a while.

It's going to be a fascinating year with the most dynamic back court in the NBA.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I think a lot of our defensive metrics are skewed because of Rudy and Jaden.

I agree he is a better defender than Randle. Randle is a better offensive player and we had to pay someone to take his salary. We turned Naz's into a flawed but talented 24 year old.

The backlash to everything the Wolves do is just off to me. We all came out of the SAS series this year and the OKC series last year and commented on the talent difference between those teams and us. We then trade role players for a young star and that's somehow a bad move? I just don't get it.

I think this could go terribly but we had to swing at a big move. If Lamelo stays healthy and we can add a depth piece to the front court, we're good. I just can't squint and see how running it back with Naz was going to do anything for us.
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Then why wouldn't they be skewed in favor of Randle and Garza as well? Garza's defensive statistics were much better in Boston last season than they ever were in Minnesota.

Naz is a much better fit offensively between Rudy and Jaden than Randle was. Naz has started 77 games in his career and averaged 16/7 in those games. I think he's a starting PF on a good team and will have a good season this year.

I'm not saying this is a bad move at all. I've also been saying this team was talented enough to win a championship the last 3 years and I still believe that. The thought that talent difference between us, OKC, and SAS is so huge is nonsense. OKC will have to move Williams or Chet soon, possibly before next season.

LaMelo is elite offensively and takes a lot of pressure off Ant. He's also been bad on D so far in his career. Now they are guard heavy and have to find 2 more PFs. Hopefully they can move Green and DD to fill that gap.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Then why wouldn't they be skewed in favor of Randle and Garza as well? Garza's defensive statistics were much better in Boston last season than they ever were in Minnesota.

Naz is a much better fit offensively between Rudy and Jaden than Randle was. Naz has started 77 games in his career and averaged 16/7 in those games. I think he's a starting PF on a good team and will have a good season this year.

I'm not saying this is a bad move at all. I've also been saying this team was talented enough to win a championship the last 3 years and I still believe that. The thought that talent difference between us, OKC, and SAS is so huge is nonsense. OKC will have to move Williams or Chet soon, possibly before next season.

LaMelo is elite offensively and takes a lot of pressure off Ant. He's also been bad on D so far in his career. Now they are guard heavy and have to find 2 more PFs. Hopefully they can move Green and DD to fill that gap.
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I'm saying that advanced defensive analytics are skewed for everyone - including Randle and Garza. I agree with you that Naz is a better defender than them. I am just saying that if we replaced Naz's minutes with Garza that would have less of an impact than replacing Conley/Clark/Hyland's minutes with Ball.

I agree with you. I don't dislike Naz. I just think he is more replaceable than other types of players. You're right though, for that type of player, Naz is much better than Garza and better than Randle.
 


GopherGuy82 said:
Interested to see the next move to get front court help.
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Keep an eye on Kuzma.

Milwaukee has no need for him. He is a stretch 4. He also used to date Tyler Herro's current baby mama. It's an awkward fit for Milwaukee now.

Myles Turner might also be available - he was bad last year but he probably wouldn't cost a lot.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Keep an eye on Kuzma.

Milwaukee has no need for him. He is a stretch 4. He also used to date Tyler Herro's current baby mama. It's an awkward fit for Milwaukee now.

Myles Turner might also be available - he was bad last year but he probably wouldn't cost a lot.
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Good call on Kuzma as player to watch. He's a poor man's Michael Porter Jr. and can certainly fit the mold as a stretch 4. I didn't know about the Herro love triangle but that explains why there are a ton of rumors about MIL sending him to DET.

It sounds like the Knicks are going to let Mitch Robinson walk as they try to avoid the 2nd Apron. He seems to get injured frequently and wasn't a factor in the Playoffs but is a very good defender and rebounder. He also can't play PF which is probably a deal breaker. I expect the Lakers to make a run at him.
 

jamiche said:
I must say Connelly got balls.
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From the Jon K article linked below -

“Risk is all self-induced pressure,” Connelly said on Tuesday. “If you don’t win, what’s the risk? I’d rather get fired for trying than sit here and just do the job in survival mode.”
jamiche said:
A year from now either we are having a parade
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Maybe more like a three year window?
Also from the article -

Ball and Edwards both turn 25 in August. Gobert (34) and DiVincenzo (29) are the only players on the roster older than 26. Beringer, Terrence Shannon Jr. and newly re-signed Ayo Dosunmu are all raring to go. Ball has three years left on his contract, as do Edwards and McDaniels.

“Our roster is stacked for the next three years,” one team source said. “And probably longer.”


jamiche said:
or some combination of Ant, Rudy, LaMelo and Connelly are out the door and we'll have a bunch of new draft picks. We'll also be starting over and won't see the playoffs for a while, quite a while.

It's going to be a fascinating year with the most dynamic back court in the NBA.
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www.nytimes.com

Why the Timberwolves embraced risk and went all-in on the LaMelo Ball trade

Minnesota hasn't been afraid to swing for the fences under Tim Connelly. This looks like their biggest one yet.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
The analysis is spot on. The grading is strange to me.

He admits we are adding talent at the cost of losing front court depth. That seems like a very strange D+.
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The grading is low because they view it as we have no money left to sign anyone worth anything in the front court and therefore are going to get run over by teams with size, making us a fatally flawed team with no real cap space to address that issue.

I don’t know if I fully agree, but yes balls contract in itself does make things harder at a place we have a lot of players (we have many guards rostered).

I agree with you looking at this trade in isolation isn’t really going to be a fair assessment. All depends what they do with the front court issue that they’ve created
 



upnorthkid said:
The grading is low because they view it as we have no money left to sign anyone worth anything in the front court and therefore are going to get run over by teams with size, making us a fatally flawed team with no real cap space to address that issue.

I don’t know if I fully agree, but yes balls contract in itself does make things harder at a place we have a lot of players (we have many guards rostered).

I agree with you looking at this trade in isolation isn’t really going to be a fair assessment. All depends what they do with the front court issue that they’ve created
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Per the article, I linked above, they’re not done yet

They do not have a traditional power forward on the roster, and league sources say the Wolves are looking at several options for help at the four. They are also in the market to add more shooting around Ball and Edwards. The work continues, but the magnitude of the Ball trade means the major deals are now done.
 

upnorthkid said:
The grading is low because they view it as we have no money left to sign anyone worth anything in the front court and therefore are going to get run over by teams with size, making us a fatally flawed team with no real cap space to address that issue.

I don’t know if I fully agree, but yes balls contract in itself does make things harder at a place we have a lot of players (we have many guards rostered).

I agree with you looking at this trade in isolation isn’t really going to be a fair assessment. All depends what they do with the front court issue that they’ve created
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If that's how they view it, it's an even worse assessment than I originally thought.

If he thinks we are done shaping our roster, he is naive. If he doesn't think we have the pieces to add front court depth, he doesn't understand the NBA.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
If that's how they view it, it's an even worse assessment than I originally thought.

If he thinks we are done shaping our roster, he is naive. If he doesn't think we have the pieces to add front court depth, he doesn't understand the NBA.
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That’s what he says if you read the grading. Idk 🤷🏻‍♂️
 

GophersInIowa said:
I'm hardly a great NBA mind but it seems having two high volume shooters that like to have the ball in their hands a lot in the same backcourt could be a problem, no?
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Champagne problems, this gives the other team defensive nightmares. We're going to count on shooting a lot of threes, which is fine by me.
 





Full Speed Ahead said:
Kessler is available - bring 'em back.
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We have three centers on the roster already, including the two we drafted last year.

The front court help we need is at PF, as we traded our starter (Randle) and Naz who was the primary backup, at that position.

Kessler is a center and was traded for our starting center Gobert😉
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
We have three centers on the roster already, including the two we drafted last year.

The front court help we need is at PF, as we traded our starter (Randle) and Naz who was the primary backup, at that position.

Kessler is a center and was traded for our starting center Gobert😉
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And my post went right over your head...

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