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Stephen A. reacts to Hornets trading LaMelo to Timberwolves & joining Anthony Edwards | First Take
Stephen A. reacts to Hornets trading LaMelo to Timberwolves & joining Anthony Edwards | First Take
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10:56 · Jun 25, 2026
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We have some breaking news out of the NBA.
0:01
Shams, you have the floor.
0:02
What can you tell us?
0:03
What happened this morning?
0:04
>> The Charlotte Hornets traded LaMelo Ball
0:06
and Josh Green for a haul from the Minnesota Timberwolves.
0:10
So, now the Timberwolves have Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball,
0:13
the number one and number three pick in the 2020 NBA draft,
0:15
but they sent Naz Reid, a unprotected first-round pick,
0:18
three first-round pick swaps, and three second-round picks.
0:21
The Hornets didn't go into this offseason saying, "Hey,
0:23
we're going to trade LaMelo Ball."
0:24
He's at the peak of his value though,
0:27
and he had a great end to the season,
0:29
and the sides actually ended up having a good finish
0:32
as far as their relationship.
0:34
But, when teams like Minnesota, Toronto start making offers and bidding,
0:40
you have to listen.
0:41
The The Hornets have always been in the mindset to listen to offers for
0:45
LaMelo Ball,
0:46
and you think about it from the Minnesota perspective.
0:48
This is a massive swing.
0:49
Tim Connelly, the president, is not a stranger for taking risks,
0:54
and the Rudy Gobert deal several years ago was a risk.
0:57
That team ends up going to the conference finals with the Rudy Gobert.
1:00
He's impacted winning at a high level.
1:02
There's obviously not the winning history for LaMelo Ball,
1:05
but now you try to infuse yourself with as much talent as you can.
1:09
They They needed a point guard in the worst way in Minnesota,
1:12
and they knew it.
1:13
They were going out to try to address this need for a star player,
1:17
and I think now, when you spin it forward,
1:20
my understanding is LaMelo Ball is very excited to go play with Anthony Edwards
1:24
to try to win championships.
1:25
He knows the task at hand here,
1:27
the mandate when you have Anthony Edwards is to try to win every single
1:30
year.
1:31
Um those two guys, from my understanding, they're friends.
1:33
They've had communication uh in in in the recent past,
1:36
and when you look at it from the Hornets' perspective though though,
1:39
to get uh the first-round pick unprotected that's far out,
1:43
you get three first-round swaps, you get seconds, and Naz Reid,
1:48
his ability as a two-way three-point shooter, ability to defend,
1:53
play both sides of the floor,
1:54
uh this is a major major hole
1:56
that gets filled for the Hornets front court moving forward.
2:00
>> Okay.
2:00
So, Minnesota now has a very stacked team.
2:03
Stephen A, your reaction to this trade.
2:05
LaMelo Ball now going to play with Anthony Edwards in Minnesota.
2:08
>> Well, number one, you can't dislike it.
2:10
It's an elite backcourt.
2:11
We have to remember that LaMelo averaged 20 this year,
2:15
shooting 37% from three-point range.
2:18
Him and Conk and Nipple were two
2:19
and one respectively in terms of three-point field goals made.
2:22
LaMelo Ball made 272 three-pointers.
2:25
So, the brother can score, but his gift is passing the basketball.
2:28
And look who he's passing it to,
2:30
a superstar if ever there was one in Ant-Man, Anthony Edwards.
2:34
So, certainly from a backcourt perspective,
2:36
knowing how desperately they needed help at the point guard spot,
2:39
you definitely answered that call.
2:40
So, I think it's definitely a huge, huge plus,
2:43
and I give them credit for that.
2:45
But for me, I find myself, Vinnie, Shams, uh Wendy,
2:50
looking at the Minnesota Timberwolves
2:51
and feeling like they got a little bit smaller in a conference where obviously
2:55
size matters because of OKC
2:57
and San Antonio.
2:59
And so, for me, I do find myself looking at them.
3:01
Now, granted, it's a bit offset by the fact
3:04
that Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks won the title,
3:06
and you saw the Knicks being led by a 6-1 guard.
3:09
I get that part.
3:10
But the other side to it is
3:11
that being in the touring Western Conference with the size
3:15
that exists,
3:15
particularly with those two teams we didn't even bring into the equation,
3:19
uh uh a Denver Nuggets squad,
3:21
a Houston Rockets squad once they get VanVleet back, etc.
3:24
You look at the size that exist within the Western Conference,
3:27
and really much all you really, really have is Rudy Gobert,
3:31
at least to a large degree.
3:33
That's how I'm looking at it right now.
3:34
There's nothing to dismiss or be negative about the trade.
3:37
LaMelo Ball is a star.
3:39
Ant-Man is a superstar.
3:41
That makes for an elite backcourt in the National Basketball Association.
3:45
I get that part.
3:46
I just got questions about what they're going to do with their front court
3:51
because losing Naz Reid obviously is somewhat of a significant loss.
3:56
>> Okay, of the top 10 scores from the 2020 NBA draft,
3:59
the Minnesota Timberwolves now have three of them on their roster.
4:02
Vinnie, your reaction to the trade?
4:04
>> On paper, it's exciting.
4:07
On paper, you're looking at the most maybe the most dynamic backcourt in the
4:10
NBA.
4:12
I think of LaMelo Ball
4:13
and think of White Chocolate Jason Williams back in the day.
4:17
A player who could do virtually everything on the floor.
4:20
He could make every pass.
4:21
He could take every single shot.
4:24
The thing with him was always the decision-making.
4:26
Like when you look at top usage players,
4:28
I know we got a graphic about that.
4:29
LaMelo Ball's usage is top 10 in the NBA.
4:33
Greater usage than Nikola Jokic and Cade Cunningham,
4:36
guys that we know are one-man engines.
4:39
Can he harness that playing alongside Anthony Edwards?
4:43
Cuz Anthony Edwards one thing Anthony Edwards in the past couple years,
4:45
he had to take a lot of point guard duties on him
4:48
and do a lot of distributing.
4:50
He's going to get off the ball a little bit more,
4:51
a lot more with LaMelo Ball there.
4:53
Will LaMelo Ball be able to take advantage of the open looks
4:56
that Ant is going to give him?
4:57
Will he be able to harness
4:59
that game playing in a more structured system alongside a guy who is the
5:04
defined number one option?
5:06
That's the thing I'm curious to see.
5:08
>> Sounds like you're going to add something.
5:09
Go ahead.
5:10
>> Yeah, this is why the Timberwolves don't make this deal, right?
5:12
Like they they needed an infusion of talent, someone at that point guard slot.
5:16
They want someone to come in
5:17
and take the onus off of Anthony Edwards
5:19
when they needed it.
5:20
And there were two paths
5:21
that the Timberwolves were taking the last 24-48 hours.
5:24
It was seeing can we go get LaMelo Ball
5:26
or can we go get Jaylen Brown?
5:28
They had conversations with the Celtics about Jaylen Brown the last 24 hours,
5:31
but it always comes down to price.
5:33
How much do you have to pay?
5:34
Do you have to give up two, three of your core pieces?
5:37
They're not willing to trade Jaden McDaniels at this point.
5:40
Him and Anthony Edwards, that relationship,
5:42
how much they feel like Jaden McDaniels has taken
5:45
that step to be a star-caliber player.
5:48
So, if you can go get LaMelo Ball, yes,
5:50
you're getting off of Naz Reid.
5:52
Uh he's a high-level rotation player for you.
5:54
He was going to step into the starting role.
5:56
You're getting rid of ton of draft capital,
5:57
but they feel like they're bringing someone in at the right time to take
6:01
the onus and pressure off LaMelo Ball
6:03
and I mean off Anthony Edwards with LaMelo Ball
6:05
and they felt that the point guard need was more significant than trading maybe
6:10
two bigs to fill a need at the wing
6:13
or the or the four.
6:13
>> Well, let's just have real talk here.
6:14
The Timberwolves package that they offered for Giannis Antetokounmpo,
6:17
which they did make an offer, and for Jaylen Brown, were not good enough.
6:20
But, they did have enough to get LaMelo Ball.
6:22
Let's just be honest with that.
6:23
When was the last time we saw Ant Edwards?
6:24
Do you remember what the last time we saw Ant Edwards?
6:26
With 8 minutes on the clock, he was walking down and saying,
6:30
"We're done with this season.
6:31
We're done."
6:31
Okay?
6:32
He very clearly did not have a great season playing alongside Julius Randle.
6:36
Randle had a poor playoffs, okay?
6:38
So, this is what we saw.
6:39
The whole league saw that.
6:40
Then, we didn't see him,
6:41
but you can only imagine what he was thinking
6:43
when he saw his former running mate,
6:45
Karl-Anthony Towns, have a brilliant postseason run
6:48
and hold the trophy at the end.
6:50
As how many times this season, I'm sure the number is available,
6:52
Stat and Info, how many times this season was Ant Edwards double-teamed?
6:56
It was probably approaching a thousand, okay?
6:59
Especially especially in the playoffs.
7:00
And every night, he was faced with having to navigate those double teams to
7:04
be the guy he was,
7:05
all right?
7:06
So, so so the whole league, as soon as Giannis gets traded,
7:09
they're thinking Jaylen Brown, they're thinking Ant Edwards.
7:11
What how long till Ant is there?
7:14
Obviously, the Timberwolves were stressed about this, okay?
7:17
We know they were stressed about this, Shay,
7:19
because they tried to trade for Giannis and they looked into Jaylen Brown.
7:22
And so, this move, yes, it's a vote of confidence in in LaMelo Ball.
7:27
Yes, it's a vote of confidence in everything he can bring to a team.
7:30
This is a move to keep Ant Edwards engaged in being in Minnesota
7:34
because you're entering the the segment of his career where it's a danger zone.
7:38
You had this great success going to the conference finals 2-0.
7:41
Uh you go down a little bit, What do they do?
7:43
This is a gutsy move to protect their franchise star in Minnesota.
7:47
>> Makes sense.
7:48
>> You're 1,000% right and I would that's where I was going.
7:50
Remember LaMelo Ball is eligible for a 2-year 190 $119 million extension come July
7:57
6th if I remember correctly.
7:58
So obviously, you know, acquiring him at this particular moment in time,
8:01
they understand the kind of investment that they're making.
8:04
But you don't make
8:04
that investment unless you know it's something
8:06
that Ant-Man is going to completely dis- support.
8:09
And Ant-Man definitely wants to support that.
8:11
I think Ant-Man and this needs to be said, this dude got hurt.
8:16
We didn't know if he was going to come back for the remainder of
8:19
the playoffs after sustaining
8:20
that knee injury that he did.
8:22
But sure enough, he came back, you know, against the Spurs in that series.
8:26
And despite like you said being double-teamed night more than 90% of the time,
8:29
not just throughout the season
8:30
but in the playoffs
8:31
and being hobbled and not 100%,
8:33
we still saw some greatness from him.
8:36
So just imagine if he's 100% healthy and he doesn't have to be healthy.
8:40
I think that that's an interesting bring thing to bring up
8:42
because it goes back,
8:43
guys, to Enchay, to what I said
8:46
when Jalen Brunson was leading the Knicks to the title.
8:49
I said if he wins,
8:50
there's going to be a lot of teams
8:52
that recalibrate and they're going to say,
8:54
"Well, maybe we don't necessarily have to go big with everything we do to
8:58
answer Wemby or Chet Holmgren
9:00
and Alperen Şengün and the size
9:01
that exists in OKC.
9:03
Maybe with elite guard play,
9:06
we could still win in this league
9:07
because we just saw the New York Knicks do it."
9:10
And if your Ant-Man is great as Jalen Brunson has been,
9:13
you're looking at Jalen Brunson and you're saying, "If he could do it,
9:17
I should be able to do it,
9:18
particularly if we got the right pieces around me."
9:21
And LaMelo Ball definitely qualifies as a right piece.
9:24
>> B, you know what distresses people in Minnesota right now?
9:28
If you went out and got Giannis.
9:30
If you went out and got Jalen Brunson.
9:31
If you went out and got LaMelo Ball.
9:32
A star-caliber player.
9:34
Someone that's box office.
9:35
Someone that you can put next to Anthony Edwards and give him hope,
9:38
give this franchise hope because listen, when you trade Julius Randle for nothing,
9:43
what appeared to be nothing a couple days ago,
9:46
there were there was talk of all around the league.
9:48
I know you spoke about it,
9:49
about cutting costs and them getting getting getting significant salary off the books.
9:54
Where is this organization going?
9:56
Their direction.
9:57
And what do you see a couple days later here?
9:59
Mark Lori and Alex Rodriguez are co-owners.
10:01
They're now a luxury tax team for the third straight year.
10:04
They have stamp that hey, we're not only going to de-stress Anthony Edwards,
10:08
we're going to de-stress our fan base and everyone around here.
10:10
They they're committed.
10:12
They're paying the price to to not only keep Anthony Edwards happy,
10:16
but to just win
10:17
and and try to give yourself a chance
10:19
and give yourself hope.
10:20
>> Last word, do you want to chime in on that, Windy,
10:21
or are you good?
10:22
>> I also want to say this from Charlotte's perspective, okay?
10:25
Charlotte is here.
10:26
They got Kon Knipple.
10:27
He had a brilliant rookie year.
10:28
They have Brandon Miller.
10:30
They drafted two guys in the in the teens the other night.
10:33
They I think saw an opportunity I I don't think they were like,
10:35
we got to get rid of LaMelo Ball.
10:37
He missed 95 games the previous 2 years.
10:39
I think they were like,
10:40
if we're going to do what we have to do it now,
10:42
build around the 21-year-old, that's their move.
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