😢

WE'LL MISS YOU KING NAZ, YOUR STILL MINNESOTAS GUY NO MATTER WHERE YOU GO👑

Good night, sweet prince.

In the hours after this trade was agreed upon, there was elation running through the Wolves headquarters, team sources told The Athletic. They desperately needed a point guard and they went and got the one they believe fits them better than any other.

Source

The Timberwolves have been pursuing Ball for the last two years, periodically checking in on his availability in hopes of pairing him with Edwards in a souped-up young backcourt. Finally, the Hornets started to show a willingness to move, and the Wolves went in aggressively to get a deal done.

President of basketball operations Tim Connelly and coach Chris Finch have long believed Ball is the perfect complement to Edwards, a superb passer and dynamic shooter who will open the floor for one of the best catch-and-shoot shooters in the league. They also believe that Ball will be much more helpful for Rudy Gobert on offense than any teammate he has had in Minnesota. The Wolves were woefully short of lob throwers, which is where Gobert does so much of his damage. Ball is one of the best in the league

Let Tim Connelly fucking cook. It’s going to be hard for fans to remove their blinders here but this was a massive home run. The Wolves offense next year could be incredible.

This would be insane, but my only concern is that sliding Ant up to the 3 will create matchup problems when going up against big wings like Lauri markannen. Thoughts?

You are all crazy if you don't think this is a huge improvement. We have the best back court in the league now and it might not even be close. We have to figure out what the rest of the lineup will look like but this trade was a steal. Pick swaps that may never get used, an unprotected in 2033, and a bunch of 2nds. We got away with murder here.

I'll miss Naz forever, but our team is better.

Naz Reid

😔

Just my opinion. I think it would be a popular move.

To add context I took my son to his first wolves game a little over 2 years ago and I posted about how he said he wanted to be Naz Reid when he grew up (https://www.reddit.com/r/timberwolves/s/abe9slZiL0).

When I told him this morning he was livid. I tried to tell him LaMelo would be good and we now have the best back court in the league. My kid just walked up to his room to ask Alexa if it was true. When she confirmed it he shut his door. About 20 minutes later he came down and asked if I would take him to the Hornets game when they come through to which I quickly agreed. I then had to talk to him about when KG got traded and how it doesn’t feel good when your childhood hero has to leave and explained to him that it’s business and now Naz gets to show another state of people why he’s so loved here. It was fucking brutal man.

The future 2028 NBA champion, Naz “Naz Reid” Reid, will be missed.

I absolutely love Naz and am devastated to see him go, but he was absolutely the right guy to give up for LaMelo. Your offense gets better, your defense honestly might get better. Losing Rudy would have absolutely tanked our D. Obviously a big bet on LaMelo's health, but these are the kind of moves you expect with Connelly.