Tom Pelissero Reacts to the LaMelo Ball Blockbuster Trade to the Timberwolves

The NBA draft ended, but the bombs kept coming, and the biggest one sent LaMelo Ball to Minnesota. Tom Pelissero broke down a blockbuster stuffed with moving parts: Ball and Josh Green to the Timberwolves, Naz Reid plus an unprotected 2033 first-round pick, three first-round pick swaps in 2028, 2029 and 2030, and three future second-rounders to Charlotte.

The case for Minnesota starts with what Ball is when healthy, which has been the catch over the past three seasons. Pelissero called him one of the league's best creators and passers, a plus scorer at 20 points a game, a plus defender by the advanced numbers, and all of 24 years old. He and Anthony Edwards come from the same 2020 class, the number one and number three picks now sharing a backcourt.

That backcourt was already crowded. Donte DiVincenzo is likely out this season after a torn Achilles, and the Wolves just kept Ayo Dosunmu. But where Ball fits, Pelissero argued, is a real point guard for a team whose offense too often stalls.

"There's nobody creating space for Anthony Edwards," Pelissero said, describing whole halves where Edwards, a top-10 and arguably top-five player, scores two points while getting doubled and the answer is lobs to Rudy Gobert. "What the Timberwolves need LaMelo Ball to be is an elevator. They needed somebody who's going to bring out the best in Anthony Edwards."

He was candid about the supporting cast. Julius Randle was "a flat-out negative asset" after last year's deadline. Gobert remains a plus defender, the man whose long arms expose Nikola Jokic's high dribble out at 20 feet, but he does not lift the offense. Jaden McDaniels comes and goes.

The roster history is dizzying. Minnesota built twin towers around Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns to handle an emerging Denver, then traded Towns to the Knicks for Randle and DiVincenzo. Now Towns has a ring, DiVincenzo is hurt, and Randle was flipped in what Pelissero called a cash dump for a trade exception. With Reid also gone, he wondered aloud who even plays the front court next to Gobert, suggesting one more move is still coming.

Losing Reid is its own story. Pelissero noted the former Sixth Man of the Year is a Minnesota celebrity, complete with Naz Reid tattoos, flags, billboards and crowd chants. Charlotte gets a culture player who can play the four or five and is deadly from the corners.

Then came the skeptic's read. Why would the Hornets, a play-in loss away from ending a long playoff drought, ship out a 20-point, seven-assist player who is efficient on both ends, for a package built on pick swaps?

"The pick swaps are worthless if the Timberwolves aren't worse than the Hornets," Pelissero said. His theory: Charlotte is running a "Trojan horse," betting that Ball does not elevate Minnesota but actually drags it down, handing the Hornets better picks in 2028, 2029 and 2030. It is a bet that trading your best player to a rival makes that rival worse.