T-Wolves take 'calculated risk' on LaMelo Ball as the Hornets 'sell high'
Yahoo Sports senior NBA analyst Kevin O'Connor, and NBA contributor Tom Haberstroh react to Thursday's stunning trade of the Hornets point guard to join Anthony Edwards in Minnesota. Check out the full conversation on "The Kevin O'Connor Show" and subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , YouTube or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
We got a LaMelo Ball trade.
Joining me to discuss, Tom Averstro.
How are you, Tom?
I'm good.
I'm checking in with all my friends here in Charlotte, seeing how they're feeling right now with, with LaMelo gone.
It is a new day in, in Charlotte Hornets history when we're considering how amazing the season was last year, and the city just completely lit up around LaMelo Ball, Kon Knipple, and Brandon Miller.
But now LaMelo Ball is shipped up to Minnesota, and that is a shocking deal considering how much good vibes there were in the city.
I know.
I mean, it was an unbelievable year for Charlotte.
LaMelo played the best basketball of his life in the second half of that year, and now it's over after the trade has been made, sending LaMelo Ball and Josh Green to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Naz Reid, an unprotected first in 20- 2033, three first-round pick swaps, which are a little bit complicated, we'll get into later, in '28, '29, and '30, three second-round picks in '29, '30, and '33.
Let's start out with the Minnesota side of this thing here because, Tom, this is the, the trade for a contending team trying to take the next step after stagnating, falling short in the postseason, and their big bet is LaMelo Ball.
And it's obviously a, a calculated risk here for Minnesota to get somebody who's had as many injuries as LaMelo, somebody who isn't much of a leader, who makes a lot of crazy decisions.
It wasn't a great ending to his tenure in Charlotte either, the way things went in the play-in tournament.
However, he does raise their ceiling, undeniably.
The, the flair he plays with, the pace with which he plays with on the floor.
He's an offense unto himself, and the, the what he brings to this Minnesota team is exactly what they've been missing.
That said though, Tom, this is a risk, and it's a sell high for Charlotte.
And for Minnesota, they're giving up a lot here for a guy who's no guarantee to actually make things work and who knows?
A year from now we could be talking about them blowing things up.
Yeah, Kev, this is, this is sell high.
The, the, the, the way to look at this from the Charlotte Hornets perspective is that they sold high at a peak value for LaMelo Ball.
I'm gonna read to you right now the games played by LaMelo Ball since he became an NBA player at 19 years old.
51 games, 75, 36, 22, 47, and then last season, 72.
And when you look at the way that teams operate in these scenarios, usually they're very conservative.
When they get some, success like this, like what you saw from this, this Charlotte Hornets team last season, the best offensive rating, best net rating, five-man lineup with Moussa Diabate and Miles Bridges along with those other three, and the three-point shooting style led by, Charles Lee and the offensive rebounding that you saw, that they did not make it into the playoffs.
But what you saw was magic on the floor.
The, the whole entire city, the region, was so excited to see LaMelo Ball finally healthy, and here is the front office saying, "This is the time to sell."
