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

[kg21]

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?

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!

 

[atsgopher]

Is this dude even that good? Seems like it won't move the needle to actually compete for titles.

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.

 

[jamiche]

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.

 

[GopherWeatherGuy]

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.

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.