The Minnesota Timberwolves are betting the house on LaMelo Ball and Anthony Edwards playing together. It is either genius or a disaster. There is no middle ground.
The blockbuster trade officially closed this week. LaMelo and Josh Green come to Minnesota. Naz Reid, a 2033 unprotected first-round pick, three first-round pick swaps in 2028, 2029 and 2030, and three second-round picks in 2029, 2032 and 2033 go to Charlotte. The deal expanded to include Chicago and Brooklyn, with Julius Randle going to the Nets and Nic Claxton going to the Bulls.
Charlotte gets what it needed. Draft capital, financial flexibility, and permission to fully commit to the Brandon Miller and Mark Williams core they have been trying to build around. Trading LaMelo, who averaged 20 and 7 last season, felt like the moment when the Hornets finally admitted the LaMelo era was not working.
Minnesota gets the interesting piece. LaMelo Ball is a legitimate superstar when healthy. He is a top-10 passer in the league. He can pull up from 30 feet. He is a matchup nightmare for smaller guards and too crafty for bigger guards to stay in front of. Pair him with Anthony Edwards, and the Wolves have arguably the most exciting backcourt in basketball.
The words “when healthy” are doing a lot of work in that paragraph. LaMelo has missed 130 games over the last four seasons. Ankles. Wrists. Multiple different soft tissue problems. He has never played more than 58 games in a season. Betting the future on a player who has an established injury history is a legitimate risk.
Minnesota’s rationale is that Ant needed a co-star. Edwards has been carrying the Wolves as a solo superstar for two seasons now, and while he has grown into that role, it caps their ceiling. Adding another elite scorer takes pressure off him and creates the kind of dynamic offensive backcourt that modern NBA basketball is built around.
The fit questions are real. Both Ant and LaMelo like the ball. Both are best on the drive. Both want the shots that matter. Can they share a backcourt without stepping on each other’s toes? That is what training camp will need to figure out.
Coach Chris Finch has plenty of experience integrating stars. He built the pick-and-roll system that took the Wolves to the Western Conference Finals in 2024. He knows how to use elite offensive talent. LaMelo and Ant together should be a matchup problem in the regular season.
The frontcourt is where Minnesota now has real concerns. Losing Naz Reid means they need another rotation big alongside Rudy Gobert and Julius Randle’s replacement. The Wolves are going to have to figure out who provides that shot-making from the four spot, and they do not have a lot of cap room to fix it.
Julius Randle to Brooklyn is the piece that got lost in the coverage. Randle had a strong 2025-26 season with the Wolves, and moving him created the flexibility to bring in LaMelo. But now Minnesota has a hole at the four, and their frontcourt depth is essentially Rudy Gobert plus prayer.
The Western Conference is going to be a war. Oklahoma City is the defending West champion. Denver still has Jokic. Los Angeles is still Los Angeles. Golden State is still Curry and Draymond. Portland just got Ja Morant. Nobody is falling off. The Wolves have to prove that adding LaMelo makes them better, not just different.
If LaMelo plays 65 games, Minnesota is a legitimate top-four seed in the West. If LaMelo plays 40 games, the Wolves are back in the play-in. That is the reality.
Ant and LaMelo. Buy your League Pass now.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
