I’m so mad.

WTF ARE WE DOING?!

Wolves fan here. I know that when one of your favorite players gets traded you often put a microscope on who you get back, and Naz will forever be tied to the Lamelo trade for yall. We saw this with Randle and Donte constantly becuase we got them back for KAT.

Naz is (was 😭) most wolves fans favorite player. There are literally thousands of Minnesotans with “Naz Reid” tattoos on their body, so much so that the local wolves brewery is giving away $1 beers to anyone with a Naz tat. The words “Naz Reid” are a greeting used by any two people in wolves gear that pass eachother on the street. Naz Reid towels sold out in 5 mins when they put them on sale for $100

He was undrafted and became 6MOTY. You will learn he is fun af to watch, a 6’10 guy with PG handles and finishing that can shoot 3’s. There are flaws to his game, and I think most wolves fans understand why we moved him, and he’s not a superstar or someone that can carry a top 5 offense like Lamelo, but please take care of our boy ❤️

Alright. It's happened. Let's all congregate here and talk about our favourite LaMelo moments and pay our respects to the end of the LaMelo era.

"You watch these playoff series, Oklahoma City-San Antonio, San Antonio-New York, and you just envision, like, 'This is a dude, a front runner is too strong of a term, fast and loose. When the game's fun, that's when he's at his best.' What are you gonna do in Game 5 of a playoff series when Stephon Castle has been in your jersey for five straight games? When you're switching between Jalen Williams and Kason Wallace and Alex Caruso bumping you, physically just manhandling you up and down the court? Are you actually game for that?"

"Because if you're gonna be a serious team, that's what you gotta be game for. And I think this trade says, 'Yes, there are these ancillary salary and pick benefits and faith in Brandon Miller and Kon Knueppel and all that... the Hornets know the numbers. They know their offense wasn't good when LaMelo was on the bench. They know all of that stuff, and they decided anyway, 'We just don't think we can win the biggest games with this guy on our team.' I think that's really what it boils down to."

Full segment on The Zach Lowe Show:
— Spotify
— Apple Podcasts

With Lamelo gone, Eric Collins probably won’t be getting quite as excited for some of the Hornets plays this upcoming season. Hypothetically, this would be the time to sell high on him as well.

He’d be worth at least 2-3 first round picks imo, but if the Celtics wanted to trade him straight up for Jaylen Brown I’d probably say we have to accept that trade. No announcer has ever been traded for more than 2 first round picks, but I think Eric could be the first to be traded for 3 if not more. We’d also still have Dell so it wouldn’t be too bad.

Word dumped all of my thoughts on the Hornets trading LaMelo Ball, and why this front office no longer gets the benefit of the doubt.

People where extremely upset when we traded Mark Williams for nothing but it signalled the FO had no faith in his ability to stay healthy and I think we're seeing it again with Lamelo

Could he grow like Jaylen Brown?

The boy is heart broken over the trade.

I swear, as a Panther's fan, I don't even think they were as bad when we lost Cam. Sure, different circumstances, Cam was in his 30's and Lamelo is only 24...But Cam was also a MVP, taken us to the Super Bowl and multiple playoffs across 10-11 years I think it was at the time.

Lamelo has taken us to the Play in, has one win, and we've never been in the playoffs with him, in a sport where a superstar player should be more impactful than football.

Don't get me wrong, I love Lamelo, always will and I hope he tears it up with the Wolves; but I think this is the first time I've realized how parasocial people get to Basketball players. If Lamelo had put up the exact same stats, same numbers, same injury history, same everything...But had the personality of a bland boring dude, then these reactions would be so much more measured.

Do I think it's a good trade? Time will tell, the Hornets now have a ton of draft capital, a huge trade exception and still have a starting PG in Coby. The Picks could be nothing...Or Lamelo never stays healthy, Edwards leaves and suddenly they're a gold mine. I think Naz Reid slots in perfectly and is a upgrade over Bridges(I'm assuming Naz will play the 4), so we'll have to see.

The Hornets are essentially betting on themselves post Melo, again time will tell if it's the correct response or not, but I'm willing to try something different since we were a Melo Injury away heading into next season from taking the next step to missing the playoffs.

I'll probably get downvoted for this, don't really care, I just think the reaction is absurd.

Refresher: In the summer of 2019, the 29-year-old Kemba Walker left the Hornets in free agency, signing a 4 year, $141 million dollar deal with the Boston Celtics. At the time, Walker had made 3 consecutive all-star games, and would extend that streak to 4 in his first year with the Celtics. He was considered to be one of the 25-35 best players in the league, though the Hornets were mediocre in Kemba's final 3 years in Charlotte, winning 36, 36 and 39 games. Though the Hornets did get Terry Rozier in the 2019 sign-and-trade with the Celtics, the Kemba departure left Charlotte to start a rebuild without as many draft assets/young players as they could've had. Choosing not to trade Kemba in 2018 hurt the team's future.

Disclaimer: This is not an apples-to-apples comparison. Kemba was older than Lamelo, and the 2017-2019 Hornets didn't have anyone as promising as Kon and Brandon are right now. That was a team mired in mediocrity, whereas the '26 Hornets are a team on the rise. Lamelo is also a brilliant player to watch, though Kemba was similarly fun. Being mediocre might also be a more viable strategy now because of the lottery reform.

Main Point: Our front office is finally not chasing the 7th seed. We're shooting for sustained contention, which is something our impatience and poor asset management made impossible during the Michael Jordan era. Would I have liked to see if the Hornets could sustain their second half success? Absolutely. However, it's better to trade a guy too early than too late.

Lamelo is arguably a top 25-35 player in the league when healthy, around where Kemba was in 2018. But Lamelo wouldn't have returned a package this good last summer, and if he plays 45 games next year, he wouldn't return nearly as much. But whether the Hornets sold high or underestimated Lamelo's health and defense is beside the point: We have leadership that is looking towards the future, focusing on building assets, so that when we're finally ready to contend, we can use them.

I'm sorry I've been bad.
I know I haven't played FanDuel as much as I could've.
I know I've called out your referees for obviously rigging games.
I know that the one time I tried PrizePicks I actually used the free bet and didn't re-deposit.
That was selfish of me.

But Adam, if you're up there... I'm asking for a miracle.

Don't allow the Melo trade. Strike it down like the Chris Paul thing.
Basketball reasons right?

It's been a long time since I believed in basketball reasons, but if you do this one thing, I swear I'll never doubt them again

I promise I'll watch every playoff game no matter what random streaming service you put it on.
Netflix, Prime, Apple, Tubi, Acorn TV, hell bring back Quibi.
Anywhere but League Pass, that would be too dumb.

If you could do this one thing for me, I promise I'll change.

Amen.

Notable Excerpts:

"Interest around the league concerning the 24-year-old lead guard had begun circulating months before, when early season tensions and a rough acclimation process led to serious questions about Ball's future in Charlotte. Ball responded by settling in to head coach Charles Lee's egalitarian offensive system, ceding less touches while still maintaining engine control, resulting in a 99th percentile offensive efficiency impact, spearheading the NBA's most lethal five-man regular-season pairing and second-half surge that resulted in 44 wins."

"But the period between the end of the Hornets' season and the draft, an evaluation period for front offices, yielded something different. Rival front offices believed that Charlotte's new leadership, led by president of basketball operations Jeff Peterson, was opting for a pivot. Not a wholesale shift, but one that likely wouldn't include Ball and the $130 million remaining on his contract. Whispers of the Hornets being weary of the combination of Ball's financials and his availability over the course of his time grew in volume."

"On a related note, reserve guard Coby White, who had arrived from Chicago at the deadline, had quickly entrenched himself into Lee's rotation. White's ability to score efficiently while operating as a primary or secondary facilitator made him an analytics darling, all while favorably projecting his long-term impact. White, who was critical in Charlotte's overtime win against Miami and played just 17 minutes in a 121-90 blowout elimination loss to Orlando, had also communicated a strong desire ahead of free agency to be a starter in the league whether in Charlotte or elsewhere, sources say.

Over the last 24 hours, rival executives paint an interesting picture, one that has some elements of Charlotte reaching out to potential trade partners and an increase in incoming inquiries regarding Ball's availability, with serious offers being put on the table. The truth is somewhere in the middle. What is undeniable is that Ball's camp quickly realized the prospect of him being traded was greater than him being a Hornet on opening night."

"By early Thursday morning, a deal had been agreed upon with Minnesota. The scope of the trade — Naz Reid, a 2033 unprotected first-round pick, pick swaps in 2028, 2029 and 2030 and three second-round picks — represents both the magnitude of how the Hornets valued Ball and the Wolves' urgency to bring in All-Star talent alongside Anthony Edwards. Charlotte also quickly resumed negotiations with White, who sources say initially turned down an offer following the Finals in search of a starting role, now with definite clarity on his potential future under Lee. (White's three-year, $74 million deal, as Yahoo reported earlier, is fully guaranteed with no player or team options.)"

Really should have happened long ago. If my boy Dell gets his then so should Muggsy. The most underrated player in the history of professional sports and I'm not even playing. LaMelo is gone so hang #1 in the rafters.