LaMelo Ball almost got a chance to play with his fellow 2020 draftee … Anthony Edwards.
The Minnesota Timberwolves attempted to trade for the Charlotte Hornets star guard Ball ahead of Thursday’s NBA deadline, Chris Haynes of NBA TV reports. Haynes notes however that Hornets GM Jeff Peterson effectively stiff-armed the Timberwolves’ overtures for Ball.
A former All-Star at 24 years old, Ball is in his sixth career season with the Hornets. He is having a down individual year (19.1 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 7.5 assists per game), but Charlotte is looking far better than they have in past seasons at 23-28. That puts the Hornets at 11th in the Eastern Conference and just one game out of the play-in tournament.
There was some chatter last month that Ball was supposedly not seeing eye-to-eye with Charlotte head coach Charles Lee. Ball was even linked to three notable teams in trade rumors earlier this season.
As for the Timberwolves, they made a couple of interesting clear-out moves at the trade deadline that had fans thinking they were priming themselves to trade for Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo. But Antetokounmpo ended up staying put with the Bucks, and now it appears that Minnesota tried to use some of those same assets in order to make a run at Ball.
For now, Ball remains a part of a strong young core in Charlotte that also features Kon Knueppel, Brandon Miller, and Moussa Diabate. But if the Hornets end up going nowhere again this year, there appears to be a strong chance that Ball could once more become a trade candidate in the summer.
