LaMelo Traded to Minnesota

[Bassman]

I have a suspicion that the front office had been wanting to trade him since around the time we also got rid of Mark Williams. I think that maybe they were a bit tired of the injury prone players and maybe felt that either of those players were doing what was needed to add strength and stay healthy and also may be felt that neither player was going to be able to stay healthy long term due to chronic injuries. I think one of the reasons the Hornets babied him last year was to drive up his trade value. I just don't believe they truly believe in his ability to stay healthy or his ability to add the needed strength. They cashed in now before he got injured again. Purely just a hunch based on zero evidence. But it feels eerily similar to the Mark Williams situation. Where I feel there was a lot more happening behind the scenes and in the medicals than we will ever know about.

A lot of the same language used that was used in that Lakers trade. Where the Hornets didn't want to trade Mark Williams but someone came to them with an offer they couldn't refuse etc

I think you’re exactly right, and I basically agree with their concerns. I’ve been on this site many times, saying there would be a point where Melo was nearly untradeable if his ankles went to crap one more time, or if he had some massive incident or blunder. Ultimately last season was his chance to prove himself, but also became a golden opportunity for the front office to deal from a stronger position.

YES the return for him is nominal…but why are all the experts at ESPN, The Athletic, etc., grading this a win, even a BIG win for the Hornets? It’s because betting on LaMelo to become the kind of player who matures enough, stays healthy enough, and disciplined enough to win playoff series and a championship is a major gamble. Minny decided to place that bet for a reasonable cost. I will miss LaMelo at times, and not miss him at other times. He truly was a talented mixed bag player for this franchise.

But those on here denigrating Naz Reid as if he’s cannon fodder…what?? Naz was always a player many here targeted as desired to help us on our front line. See how he responded in playoff basketball and tell us how woeful he is. I’m very happy to get him.

[fatlever]

I mean it's obviously a huge gamble. If Ball proves to be healthy over the next few years it's going to look like a horrible trade from the Hornet's standpoint. There's no return that will make this OK if he stays healthy and plays 30 minutes a night 70 games a year at the level he showed last year. Especially on a team that is a much better fit to cover his warts as a player. It's like the Mark Williams situation. It will only be a good trade if it proves that Mark Williams has chronic injuries. Too early to tell. If this pans out for Minnesota the Hornets are going to look silly in a few years. And if his ankles blow up then congratulations on the Hornets for selling at the best time possible.

[LofJ]

Plotkin and Schnall should get booed whenever they show their faces in Charlotte.

[fatlever]

Clarity on the 2029 pick swap

CHA didn’t own the least favorable of UTA/MIN/CLE straight up. The 1-5 portion on MIN is protected.

All they added in 2029 was in the slim chance MIN ends up 1-5, CHA can swap their own first with that pick.

In that scenario they then would get the least favorable of UTA/CLE on top.

Read on Twitter

?s=20

[JMAC3]

I mean it's obviously a huge gamble. If Ball proves to be healthy over the next few years it's going to look like a horrible trade from the Hornet's standpoint. There's no return that will make this OK if he stays healthy and plays 30 minutes a night 70 games a year at the level he showed last year. Especially on a team that is a much better fit to cover his warts as a player. It's like the Mark Williams situation. It will only be a good trade if it proves that Mark Williams has chronic injuries. Too early to tell. If this pans out for Minnesota the Hornets are going to look silly in a few years. And if his ankles blow up then congratulations on the Hornets for selling at the best time possible.

Yeah I give it 6 months before the entire Hornets fan base is bad mouthing LaMelo and hoping he gets hurt again. That is basically what our front office is hoping for with taking this dogwater return.

If LaMelo is halfway decent Minnesota is a top 6 team in the West for the next 5 years.

This is like when OKC traded Paul George without SGA, and 4 extra unprotected first rounders. How can we not love it lol

[JMAC3]

Clarity on the 2029 pick swap

CHA didn’t own the least favorable of UTA/MIN/CLE straight up. The 1-5 portion on MIN is protected.

All they added in 2029 was in the slim chance MIN ends up 1-5, CHA can swap their own first with that pick.

In that scenario they then would get the least favorable of UTA/CLE on top.

Read on Twitter

?s=20

The whole trade is designed to look like a lot of stuff on paper when reality it is napkins and a few cold fries at the bottom of the bag.

[tondi123]

Yeah when you first saw the initial tweet it was like "wow look at all that stuff" but then when you actually read it there wasnt much there.

[countryboi]

3 picks swaps are nothing, the nets got 4 first for **** Mikel Bridges but when its our turn suddenly we can only get 1 because this or that

[SWedd523]

I am so baffled by this.

1. It screams of venture capital bro to make this move IN GENERAL.

2. Doing so right now makes zero sense. Why not at the deadline? They spent all last year eating a worse draft pick in a great draft, just to tank(?) the following season.

3. The return is so bad that I have to assume there were some aggravating circumstances in the short term that pushed them to make this happen

4. If there is no framework for an immediate followup move then they're very deservedly going to get resoundingly destroyed by the fanbase


Bad trade, bad timing, bad everything.

[Walt Cronkite]

The whole trade is designed to look like a lot of stuff on paper when reality it is napkins and a few cold fries at the bottom of the bag.

Oof, this was a scathing quip.

[fatlever]

Yes the pick swaps are absolutely useless especially the 2029 and 2030 ones. Like those are so useless they shouldn't even be mentioned as an asset. And I don't see a world where the Hornets have a better record than the Wolves in 2028 even if Melo gets hurt. So it really is just an unprotected first round pick in 2033 which is absurd. Are the AI overlord robots even going to let us have professional basketball by 2033? lol. So if I'm in the front office I'm only doing this deal if I am about 95% certain that his Ankles are toast.

[JMAC3]

Not to mention that NIL is zapping even more value from the 2nd round. The whole 2nd day of the draft was terrible.

[Liver_Pooty]

Everyone seems to love the trade for us, except us. It’s beginning to grow on me depending on what we do.

[SWedd523]

Everyone seems to love the trade for us, except us. It’s beginning to grow on me depending on what we do.

Because everyone hates Melo and have no idea just how important he is to the team.

Minnesota now has a dynamite backcourt and we're a bottom 3 team

[JDR720]

I think we carefully managed LaMelo's minutes and tried recoup some trade value last season, while simultaneously seeing what the healthy core of Melo/Brandon/Kon could do. They did excellent in the RS and then there was a fork in the road: the play in tournament.

We won the game against Miami... but Melo didn't play very well.

And then we got man handled vs Orlando.

I think at that point, Jeff/Lee decided to trade LaMelo. If we would've won that Orlando game, we would've kept Melo and ran the core back to see if it progressed more.

Jeff/Lee have mentioned several times that we need more physicality, and Melo is obviously not that. And we've all talked about the potential long-term issues of a Melo/Miller/Kon core. Melo (for injury + contract + maturity reasons) ended up being 3rd on that totem pole, so we've pivoted to Kon/Brandon as the core.

I think Jeff/Lee saw the writing on the wall in the division too. With Giannis/Bam in Miami, AD/Sarr in DC, Orlando being bruisers, and Atlanta there too, I think they saw the obvious fact that we're easily the least physically dynamic team in the division. Even with LaMelo, we've theorized that we may be the worst team in the division next season. Sure, if healthy, we'd score a bunch in the RS and win probably 45-ish games, but we'd run into a brick wall in the playoff or play-in again.

So, overall, I think we traded Melo after gaming out what the core of Melo/Kon/Miller could be in the division, and more generally in the East. Either way, this is a very ballsy move which will either prove Jeff/Lee are geniuses or idiots.

[JMAC3]

Everyone seems to love the trade for us, except us. It’s beginning to grow on me depending on what we do.

Because everyone hates Melo and have no idea just how important he is to the team.

Minnesota now has a dynamite backcourt and we're a bottom 3 team

Exactly, half the people talking about it think LaMelo is a bad player because of fg% and social media clips.
The other half are just excited to see Ant and LaMelo play together.

[tondi123]

Yes the pick swaps are absolutely useless especially the 2029 and 2030 ones. Like those are so useless they shouldn't even be mentioned as an asset. And I don't see a world where the Hornets have a better record than the Wolves in 2028 even if Melo gets hurt. So it really is just an unprotected first round pick in 2033 which is absurd. Are the AI overlord robots even going to let us have professional basketball by 2033? lol. So if I'm in the front office I'm only doing this deal if I am about 95% certain that his Ankles are toast.

And odds are Peterson wont even be the GM in seven years. How many GMs last that long in the NBA? So he traded our best player for a pick he isn't likely to even get to use. That's either extreme confidence or extreme delusion.

[Natural_Bridge]

yeah its hard to gauge anything off social media reactions because there is a huge chunk of people that would have said we would have won trading LaMelo for a bag of chips (and many of these guys are somehow professional sports reporters) and huge chunk of people that would say we lost if we traded LaMelo for Wemby on social media.

[yosemiteben]

More half baked thoughts. I loved last season, and it was so fun to watch us win. With that said, I 100% will not miss entire seasons being derailed in December / January because of issues with Melo's ankles.

I think it would have been a massive mistake to trade Melo last offseason because I don't think we would have gotten a meaningful asset back. If we were going to move him, this summer was probably the best time to do it, and I'm more willing to accept it now for a productive piece and meaningful draft capital then I would have last summer for would likely would have been negative value. That doesn't mean I'm happy with it, but just kind of realized as I was processing the trade that I'm not as upset as I would have been trading him last summer for worse value.

[Trey24]

Peterson betting on Lamelo getting hurt is so stupid. Lamelo had HORRIBLE injury luck for 3 straight seasons where people were stepping on his feet, ankles etc AND we held him out of the end of multiple seasons for tanking purposes. We benched him, limited his minutes which hurt his stats (and cost him an all star bid) just to totally give up on him for the world to see, all while getting the worst return for a 24 year old all NBA talent that I personally have ever seen.

I am a Lamelo believer and I know he will shine in Minny and make Jeff Peterson look like a dumbass. I would have rathered let him walk in 3 years for nothing....