LaVar Ball isn’t hard to track down when one of his sons is involved in a trade. And he didn’t disappoint this time.
The Timberwolves pulled off a blockbuster deal to land LaMelo Ball and Josh Green from the Hornets. It cost them Naz Reid, an unprotected 2033 first-round pick, three first-round pick swaps, and three second-rounders. Big price. But for LaVar, it was simple math.
“Anybody who gets my son is a grade A,” he said when asked to grade Minnesota’s side of the trade.
And Charlotte? LaVar kept that answer real short.
“F.”
That’s vintage LaVar. He doesn’t do nuance. He never has. Whether it was calling out Luke Walton during Lonzo’s Lakers days or predicting LaMelo would be better than Steph Curry, the guy operates on one gear: full-throated support for his bloodline. The trade gave him a fresh stage, and he stepped right onto it.
What the trade actually looks like for both sides
For Minnesota, this is about pairing LaMelo with Anthony Edwards. Those two went first and third in the 2020 draft. LaMelo won Rookie of the Year. Edwards has turned into a 30-point-a-night scorer. Now they share a backcourt, and the Timberwolves are betting that combo can push them past the second round after last season’s early exit.
LaMelo just put up 20.1 points and 7.1 assists a night. He’s 24. So the fit makes sense on paper, even if the price tag was steep.
Charlotte’s end is more about the long view. The Hornets are building around Kon Knueppel and Brandon Miller, and they just added a pile of draft capital to go with it. Reid gives them a scoring option in the frontcourt right now, but really this move is about flexibility down the road. The 2033 pick especially could be huge, depending on what happens with Minnesota over the next decade.
LaVar’s grades aren’t going to change anyone’s mind. But if you expected him to say anything other than an A for the Wolves and an F for the team that let his son go, you haven’t been paying attention.
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