CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — LaMelo Ball is the latest NBA star with a new home.
The Charlotte Hornets agreed to trade Ball, their starting point guard, and Josh Green to the Minnesota Timberwolves for power forward Naz Reid, a 2033 unprotected first-round draft pick, three first-round pick swaps and three future second-round picks, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Thursday.
The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the deal, first reported by ESPN, has yet to be approved by the league.
The three first-round pick swaps will be in 2028, 2029 and 2030. The Hornets also get three second-round picks in 2029, 2032 and 2033.
The 24-year-old Ball, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft, had three years left on a franchise-record five-year, $203.9 million designated rookie contract.
An All-Star in 2022, Ball has struggled with ankle and foot injuries during his career, but he played in 72 games last season and averaged 20.1 points, 7.1 assists and 4.8 rebounds per game, helping the Hornets win 44 games before being blown out in the play-in tournament by the Orlando Magic.
Ball finished second in the league in 3s made last year with 272, one behind rookie teammate Kon Knueppel.
Ball is considered an exceptional offensive player, but his shortcomings on the defensive end were at times a source of irritation for coach Charles Lee.
Still, Ball’s ability to create opportunities for his teammates off the dribble, his exceptional passing and unique knack for getting off 3-pointers — with shots often coming off one foot — via a stepback move, make him one of the league’s most dynamic scoring point guards.
But Ball was never able to get the Hornets to the playoffs in his six seasons with the club, with injuries playing a role. Before this season, Ball missed 141 games over the previous three seasons.
This trade is expected to be included as part of the transaction in which Minnesota agreed to send Julius Randle to Brooklyn in a deal that involved the Chicago Bulls, a second person with knowledge of the agreement told the AP. It will create an NBA-record trade exception of nearly $41 million for the Hornets.
The deals cannot be finalized until July 6, when the league moratorium on such moves is lifted.
It’s another blockbuster for the league, which has seen Giannis Antetokounmpo getting traded by Milwaukee to Miami for a package that includes Tyler Herro, a move that followed the Randle deal before the draft.
The Hornets are expected to re-sign unrestricted free agent Coby White to serve as their starting point guard.
White, the all-time leading scorer in North Carolina high school basketball history, averaged 15.6 points and 3 assists per game while shooting 39.1% from 3-point range last season for the Hornets after being acquired in a trade with the Chicago Bulls.
Reid, 26, has spent all seven of his NBA seasons with the Timberwolves.
After reaching the Western Conference finals in 2024 and 2025, the Timberwolves stagnated at times last season and were ousted in six games in the second round of the playoffs by the runner-up San Antonio Spurs.
President of basketball operations Tim Connelly has never been shy about aggressive pursuit of roster improvement, from the package of draft picks he sent the Utah Jazz in 2022 for defensive ace Rudy Gobert shortly after taking the job in Minnesota, to the stunning trade of franchise cornerstone Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks two years ago.
To make this work, the Timberwolves had to give up one of the most popular players in their history in Reid, the 2023-24 NBA Sixth Man of the Year who would’ve been in line for a starting spot after the departure of Randle.
The 6-foot-11 Reid, who went undrafted out of LSU in 2019, worked his way into an excellent offensive player with a shooter’s touch from the outside who has the quickness to get to the rim. Playing through a painful shoulder injury this season, Reid appeared in 77 regular-season games while averaging 13.6 points and a career-best 6.2 rebounds per game.
Their five-game loss in 2025 to the eventual champion Oklahoma City Thunder and their defeat by the Spurs last month made clear to the Timberwolves that they’re not yet at the championship level they’ve been chasing since building their roster around 2020 first overall pick Anthony Edwards. Now they’ll have the third pick in that draft to play next to Ball, one of the few remaining pure point guards in a league that has evolved toward more volume scorers serving as the primary initiators of the offense.
Timberwolves coach Chris Finch lamented after the season his abrupt decision to make Edwards the starting point guard, a move Finch said last month set the whole team back.
Trusty veteran Mike Conley will be a free agent and is now more of a limited-role player, leaving Minnesota’s front office looking outward for ball-handling options. The agreement to bring back Ayo Dosunmu went a long way toward solidifying the backcourt for the long term, but he’s more of a combo guard who can thrive off the ball.
Connelly even hinted at a move like this on Tuesday night after the first round of the draft.
“We have to ensure that we’re creating as many good shots as possible, specifically for Ant, and whether that’s on our present roster or whether it’s looking outside of our team, it’s something that we certainly have to address,” Connelly said.
Hornets general manager Jeff Peterson is expected to address the deal at a Thursday news conference in which the team is scheduled to introduce first-round draft picks Hannes Steinbach and Christian Anderson Jr.
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AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds in Miami and AP Sports Writer Dave Campbell in Minneapolis contributed to this report.
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba
Steve Reed, The Associated Press
