The Minnesota Timberwolves have spent a long time trying to make peace with the Karl-Anthony Towns deal. That gets harder when Towns goes out and wins a championship with the highest single-season plus/minus in NBA postseason history.
There’s still a sliver of hope that Joan Beringer’s play could make the trade look better for Minnesota down the line. But right now, the Towns move looks like a loss, and it has to sting for fans who watched him spend nine seasons in Minnesota before breaking through somewhere else.
That’s why the Timberwolves’ next big swing matters so much. Nearly two full years after moving on from Towns, they made another blockbuster move, this time for LaMelo Ball. Julius Randle never really clicked as Anthony Edwards’ co-star and is now with the Brooklyn Nets, but Ball gives Minnesota a fresh chance to reset the conversation.
Ball has the kind of game that can change the feel of an offense fast. Chris Finch has described him as having an “infectious quality,” and that tracks with the way he plays - loose, lively, and almost always looking like he’s enjoying himself. Tim Connelly, the president of basketball operations, believes Ball will "elevate" the team.
For Edwards, the fit is easy to picture. Fans can already see the backcourt working together, with Ant-Man and Ball feeding off each other and giving Minnesota a chance to get the offense humming in a way it simply didn’t with Randle.
Of course, this isn’t a no-brainer. Ball’s availability is the obvious concern.
He played 72 games last season, but in the three years before that, he appeared in just 105 combined contests. If he misses time, Minnesota could once again find itself without a true point guard in the starting five.
Still, the upside is clear. Ball showed just how valuable he can be by how much more the Charlotte Hornets scored when he was on the floor than when he was off it. Edwards is already a dangerous catch-and-shoot 3-point threat, but too often he’s had to do it without a guard who can collapse defenses and create cleaner looks.
With Ball, that should change, and change in a big way. Towns never got Minnesota all the way to the finish line. If Ball can stay on the floor and help push the Timberwolves into contender territory, it would go a long way toward easing the pain of that earlier mistake.
In Other News...
Timberwolves May Be Running Out Of Time With This Core
The Timberwolves have built something worth protecting around Anthony Edwards, LaMelo Ball and Jaden McDaniels, a young core all under contract through 2029. On paper, that should give Minnesota a long runway, but the NBAs second tax apron has a way of turning promising team-building into a math problem, especially once a club starts thinking like a contender instead of a project.
For Minnesota, the tension is no longer about whether the talent is there. It is about how long the front office can keep the group intact while still leaving enough flexibility to chase a title, with Edwards likely waiting until next summer for his next major payday and Balls future cost already pointing upward. The Timberwolves have time, but not unlimited time, and the pressure to make the right calls only gets heavier as the bills come due. [Read more 🡒]
Timberwolves Solved One Problem And Created A Bigger One
The Timberwolves addressed one of their most obvious needs by bringing in LaMelo Ball and Josh Green, a move that gives the roster a very different look at point guard after sending out Naz Reid, Julius Randle and draft capital. It is the kind of swing that can change the way Minnesota plays, and it also reflects how aggressively Tim Connelly has been willing to reshape the roster around the edges and in the middle.
The problem is that solving one spot has left another one exposed, with frontcourt depth and financial flexibility both suddenly in short supply. Connelly has already acknowledged the need for creativity at power forward, and the Wolves are still sorting through ways to get the roster where it needs to be before the season settles in. [Read more 🡒]
Wolves Fans Are Split On What Ayo Dosunmu Will Be Worth
Ayo Dosunmus place in Minnesota has become one of those roster debates that says as much about team-building as it does about the player himself. Once the Timberwolves added LaMelo Ball, Dosunmus value shifted from a more central piece to a complementary one, and now he is being measured less by whether he can carry possessions and more by how cleanly he fits alongside Ball and Anthony Edwards.
That is where the split starts. Some fans see a well-rounded guard whose game resembles the kind of connective talent championship teams lean on, while others look at the price tag and wonder whether Minnesota is paying for an ideal role player at a premium rate. He is projected to sit as the 104th highest-paid player in the league, which only adds to the argument that the Wolves may have found a bargain if the fit works the way they believe it can. [Read more 🡒]