{"id":725334,"date":"2026-06-25T15:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T15:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/725334\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T15:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T15:05:09","slug":"hornets-to-trade-lamelo-ball-to-timberwolves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/725334\/","title":{"rendered":"Hornets To Trade LaMelo Ball To Timberwolves"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hornets star LaMelo Ball<\/a> is headed to Minnesota, according to Shams Charania of ESPN, who reports (via Twitter<\/a>) that Charlotte has reached an agreement to trade Ball and wing Josh Green<\/a> to the Timberwolves.<\/p>\n

\"\"In return, the Hornets will acquire big man Naz Reid<\/a>, the Timberwolves\u2019 unprotected 2033 first-round pick, three first-round pick swaps (2028, 2029, and 2030), and three second-round picks (Minnesota\u2019s own in 2029, 2032, and 2033), sources tell Charania.<\/p>\n

The deal figures to be folded into the Timberwolves\u2019 Julius Randle<\/a> trade<\/a> involving the Nets and Bulls for salary-matching purposes, in which case it will be completed after the new league year begins in July.<\/p>\n

Ball, the NBA\u2019s 2021 Rookie of the Year and an All-Star in 2022, had trouble staying on the court from 2022-25 \u2014 he appeared in just 105 total regular season games across those three seasons as he dealt with recurring ankle injuries. However, he stayed healthy in 2025\/26, appearing in 72 games and averaging 20.1 points, 7.1 assists, 4.8 rebounds, and 1.2 steals in 28.0 minutes per contest as he led Charlotte to a 28-10 finish and a play-in berth.<\/p>\n

Based on Ball\u2019s strong season and the Hornets\u2019 return to competitiveness, it came as a bit of a surprise when multiple reports indicated late on Wednesday night that the team was engaged in trade talks<\/a> involving the 24-year-old point guard and might make a deal as soon as this week. Those reports indicated that Ball was happy in Charlotte and that the Hornets hadn\u2019t been actively shopping him, but multiple teams \u2013 including Minnesota and the Raptors \u2013 were said to be aggressively pursuing him.<\/p>\n

Between sending out Randle along with fan favorite Reid and acquiring Ball, Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly, who has a reputation for star hunting and being willing to take big swings, is massively overhauling his roster following a disappointing second-round playoff exit this spring.<\/p>\n

According to Jon Krawczynski and Sam Amick of The Athletic<\/a>, both Connelly and head coach Chris Finch have \u201clong admired\u201d Ball\u2019s game and think that his passing ability and his high-volume three-point shooting will make him a natural fit next to Edwards.<\/p>\n

In acquiring Ball, the Timberwolves will be pairing the first and third overall picks from the 2020 draft and will be addressing a point guard position that was somewhat problematic during the 2025\/26 season. With 38-year-old Mike Conley<\/a> taking on a reduced role and 2024 lottery pick Rob Dillingham<\/a> not developing like the Wolves had hoped, Donte DiVincenzo<\/a> was the club\u2019s starting point guard for most of the season, despite it not being his natural position. DiVincenzo suffered a torn Achilles during the playoffs and is expected to miss most or all of 2026\/27.<\/p>\n

While they\u2019re losing some frontcourt depth by trading Randle and Reid, the Timberwolves will have a loaded backcourt headlined by Ball, Edwards, and Ayo Dosunmu<\/a>, who agreed earlier this week<\/a> to a five-year, $112MM deal to remain in Minnesota. They\u2019ll also still have center Rudy Gobert<\/a> anchoring their defense, with wing Jaden McDaniels<\/a>, who was reportedly considered off limits in the Ball trade talks, poised to take on a larger role.<\/p>\n

The Wolves will technically save a little money by swapping out Randle and Reid, who will earn a combined $56.6MM in 2026\/27, for Ball and Green ($55.9MM, assuming Ball doesn\u2019t waive his trade kicker), but re-signing Dosunmu should ensure that they\u2019re once again operating in luxury-tax territory. It\u2019ll be the third straight year that Minnesota is in the tax, notes Charania (Twitter link<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Aggregating Randle and Reid to acquire Ball means that the Wolves will face a second-apron hard cap in 2026\/27 and won\u2019t generate the $33.3MM traded player exception they were expected to in the previous version of their Randle deal.<\/p>\n

Reid has four seasons and $103.4MM left on the five-year contract he signed with the Timberwolves last summer, while Ball has three seasons and $130.7MM left on his five-year, maximum-salary deal. Green will be on an expiring $14.7MM contract.<\/p>\n

\"\"As for the Hornets, they\u2019ll create significant cap savings in the trade by sending out $55.4MM in salaries and only taking back Reid and his $23.3MM cap hit. Assuming no additional pieces get added to the deal by the time it\u2019s officially finalized, Charlotte will create a monster $40.8MM traded player exception, the largest TPE in league history, notes ESPN\u2019s Bobby Marks (Twitter link<\/a>).<\/p>\n

That extra cap flexibility will be useful as the team looks to re-sign free agent guard Coby White<\/a>, who is among the Pistons\u2018 targets, per Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Twitter link<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The Hornets are now poised to build around Brandon Miller<\/a> and Kon Knueppel<\/a> going forward. Both players are still on their rookie scale contracts, though Miller becomes extension-eligible in July. Reid will join the core and give Charlotte an element of frontcourt shooting that last season\u2019s roster lacked.<\/p>\n

A career 37.1% three-point shooter, Reid has made at least 2.1 threes per game in each of the past three seasons. That figure would have placed him fourth on the 2025\/26 Hornets behind only Ball, Knueppel, and Miller.<\/p>\n

The Hornets used one of their two first-round picks on Tuesday to select point guard Christian Anderson Jr.<\/a> out of Texas Tech, and they\u2019re now well positioned to re-sign White. However, Anderson is a rookie and White is more of a combo guard, so adding another point guard to the roster before the 2026\/27 season tips off will likely be a goal for Charlotte.<\/p>\n

Regarding the first-round pick swaps headed to Charlotte in the deal, both teams control their own 2028 picks, so the Hornets would have the opportunity to swap their own first-rounder for Minnesota\u2019s. The Timberwolves have already traded away their 2029 first-rounder with top-five protection, so Charlotte would presumably only be able to exercise the \u201929 swap if Minnesota\u2019s pick lands in the top five and the Wolves keep it.<\/p>\n

In 2030, the Wolves are supposed to receive the most favorable of their own pick (top-one protected) or the lesser of Dallas\u2019 and San Antonio\u2019s first-rounders. The Hornets figure to be able to swap their own first-rounder for whichever pick Minnesota ends up with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hornets star LaMelo Ball is headed to Minnesota, according to Shams Charania of ESPN, who reports (via Twitter)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":725335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[19802,73407,25179,78366,99],"class_list":["post-725334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-coby-white","tag-josh-green","tag-lamelo-ball","tag-naz-reid","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=725334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/725335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}