Shams just reported the Hornets are discussing a Lamelo trade with multiple teams

[SameOldNudityDrew]

Watching video of him, it's clear he has an incredibly high degree of athletic body control and balance. You watch him move out there and it seriously looks like he's dancing.


There's a lot of crappy videos about LaMelo out there, but here's one by the Thinking Basketball guy, who I think is usually pretty fair and accurate. This is from one year ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL7G8ubQalo

He also mentions there was untapped potential in LaMelo cutting off the ball.

Listen especially to the points he makes at the end. He speculates LaMelo might need a team with a more mature system.

Overall, he calls Ball a talent amplifier and stresses his creativity.

[Lipoli390]

There are definitely reasons to be optimistic, especially if we can get a PF and LaMelo stays healthy.

At the same time, every team has a collective personality, and I'm less excited about the personality of this team than I was just before this trade.

After the Brooklyn trade, with Randle out and Naz elevated, I was feeling better about the personality of the team. Naz has been a little whiny, but his authentic awkwardness and sense of humor, his very relatable emotional range, made it easy to cheer for the guy. I was also imagining adding a guy like Jrue Holiday, a hard working, serious, careful, thoughtful, defense-oriented guy who everybody respected.

And then we traded Naz for LaMelo . . . and when it comes to the personality of the team I was expecting/hoping for . . . I'm having this gut feeling like I thought I was cutting into a perfectly ripe avocado and now I'm worried it might be rotten.

My thinking aligns with yours. My preference would have been adding a serious, hard-nosed defensive PG who can also shoot like Derrick White, Suggs or Holiday. But i find myself far more excited by the Melo move. Melo is a more dynamic, better PG than any of those three with a level of upside that none of those three have right now. Moreover, Holiday is 35 and White 31 or 32. This move makes the Wolves a dynamic team with even more upside and a better chance of sustainable success over a period of years.

If I could go back in time to before the Gobert deal and take charge of the Wolves I would not make that deal even knowing what Rudy has done to help the team. I remain certain that there were other more sustainable and potentially more successful paths although I respect the opposing and likely majority view on the other side. But if I were to go back in time before last Thursday when I was pining for Suggs or White, I would now take LaMelo Ball. Of course this thing could go south. If neither LeMelo nor Edwards commits fully to the defensive end, we’re not going to the NBA finals. If LaMelo doesn’t reduce the number of silly decisions he makes on the offensive end, we’re not going to the NBA finals. But if he just becomes an average defender and plays a little smarter on the offensive end, and if he and Edwards stay healthy, this Wolves team will have a great chance of getting over the hump. And one thing for sure is that they’ll be a lot of fun to watch along the way.

[Lipoli390]

Watching video of him, it's clear he has an incredibly high degree of athletic body control and balance. You watch him move out there and it seriously looks like he's dancing.


There's a lot of crappy videos about LaMelo out there, but here's one by the Thinking Basketball guy, who I think is usually pretty fair and accurate. This is from one year ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL7G8ubQalo

He also mentions there was untapped potential in LaMelo cutting off the ball.

Listen especially to the points he makes at the end. He speculates LaMelo might need a team with a more mature system.

Overall, he calls Ball a talent amplifier and stresses his creativity.

Thanks for posting, Drew. I thought that was an informative and balanced video analysis.

[TheGrey08]

Can the Jalen Brown trade that’s being worked on get worked into our Charlotte/brooklyn/Chicago deal?

Jaylen goes to Charlotte, picks back to MN, miles bridges to jail, I dunno just spitballing.

It could be a great avenue to pull a PF off one of those squads or a 5th or 6th squad that gets roped in. We could toss Josh green in…

Pipe dream.. trade rework with Naz staying, Brown to CHA, Green going to BOS, DDV gets traded twice and cut so he can re-sign back with the Wolves.

Thinking about the best realistic 4 to start with the projected starters, I keep thinking about how fun the lineup would be with Naz at the 4 lol.. man I wish

In all seriousness though, I'm really curious how all these trades end up and how big the Wolves trade gets.

[AussieWolf3]

Can the Jalen Brown trade that’s being worked on get worked into our Charlotte/brooklyn/Chicago deal?

Jaylen goes to Charlotte, picks back to MN, miles bridges to jail, I dunno just spitballing.

It could be a great avenue to pull a PF off one of those squads or a 5th or 6th squad that gets roped in. We could toss Josh green in…

Pipe dream.. trade rework with Naz staying, Brown to CHA, Green going to BOS, DDV gets traded twice and cut so he can re-sign back with the Wolves.

Thinking about the best realistic 4 to start with the projected starters, I keep thinking about how fun the lineup would be with Naz at the 4 lol.. man I wish

In all seriousness though, I'm really curious how all these trades end up and how big the Wolves trade gets.

It's legit hilarious how perfect Naz would be on this roster with Ball

[TheGrey08]

It's legit hilarious how perfect Naz would be on this roster with Ball

It really is lol

[ItsJustSoSab]

Im cautiously excited. Ball is, well, a baller. I really am not a fan of injury prone players however. Doent matter the sport, if they can't play, it doesn't matter how great they are. I think I might be one of the only guys on this board and in the entire state of MN that wanted NAW over Naz (and Randle I guess in a way). To me, Naz was a worse version of KAT. While I liked Naz, I never saw him as a needle mover especially come the playoffs. Maybe Ball does.

I'll say this. This board dating back to the ESPN days was mostly doom and gloom during the season. Followed by crazy hypothetical trades ("we trade all our crap 20 win players for a superstar!") and then excitement for our next draft bust. It is nice we can argue about if this trade is awful or not and why. Sure beats being in the cellar

[SameOldNudityDrew]

Watching video of him, it's clear he has an incredibly high degree of athletic body control and balance. You watch him move out there and it seriously looks like he's dancing.


There's a lot of crappy videos about LaMelo out there, but here's one by the Thinking Basketball guy, who I think is usually pretty fair and accurate. This is from one year ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL7G8ubQalo

He also mentions there was untapped potential in LaMelo cutting off the ball.

Listen especially to the points he makes at the end. He speculates LaMelo might need a team with a more mature system.

Overall, he calls Ball a talent amplifier and stresses his creativity.

Thanks for posting, Drew. I thought that was an informative and balanced video analysis.

They did a follow-up pod that touches on LaMelo again, starting at about 13:10. Best to watch the earlier video before this one, but it also works on its own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eblJBcPbN3Q

Again, it's good, nuanced analysis of LaMelo from the Thinking Basketball guys. Stresses his high-level talent but they also describe some highly questionable decision-making.

At one point, a little after the 17 minute mark, Ben Taylor, the main guy (left), muses again about the idea of LaMelo playing more of a secondary role.

The section on LaMelo isn't as long here as in the other video, but still interesting.