It wasn’t that long ago when Tim Connelly was building the Timberwolves with Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets in mind. And two playoff wins over the Nuggets later, the Wolves are very clearly moving in a different direction to get over another hurdle. On Thursday morning, they traded Naz Reid and a haul of draft assets to snag LaMelo Ball from the Hornets.
BREAKING: The Charlotte Hornets are trading star guard LaMelo Ball and Josh Green to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Naz Reid, a 2033 unprotected first-round pick, three first-round pick swaps (2028, 2029, 2030) and three second-round picks (2029, 2032, 2033), sources tell ESPN. pic.twitter.com/lkhXBWHCrA
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 25, 2026
The Wolves became vaunted with all of their size, and it clearly helped stifle Jokic, but the Wolves have lost to the Thunder and Spurs in back-to-back years, and they’ve clearly decided they need to prioritize ballhandling, playmaking, and scoring on the perimeter next to Anthony Edwards.
So, in the last handful of days, they’ve now traded away Julius Randle and Naz Reid, two of their three big men, leaving just Rudy Gobert to patrol the paint. The days of jumbo-ball and battering Denver with their size are over, and barring other moves, the Nuggets’ rivals are likely about to roll with a three-guard lineup of Ant-Man, LaMelo, and Ayo Dosunmu, along with Jaden McDaniels in a de facto power forward role, and Rudy Gobert being the only guy resembling a big man.
They have a promising youngster in Joan Beringer, but he’s not the kind of win-now player the rest of this lineup commands. It’s not hard to read between the lines here; the Wolves are over their rivalry with the Nuggets. They’ve gotten over that hurdle, and it still hasn’t brought them to the Finals.
Timberwolves more focused on beating Thunder and Spurs
There are now bigger fish to fry in Oklahoma City and San Antonio, and those teams are loaded with guards and wing players. So, Connelly made the bold move to dismantle the team that took down the Nuggets, with the hope that this would help them beat the likes of the Thunder and Spurs.
It’s a desperate plea to appease Edwards and give him a true co-star and someone who can take some of the weight off his shoulders. It may ultimately make them a better team, but this is great news for the Nuggets. Denver has lost in the playoffs to the Wolves in two of the past three seasons, with the only other loss coming in Game 7 to the Thunder last year in a hard-fought series.
This Minnesota team has had Denver’s number, and now? They may not any longer. They took apart the front line that has seen Karl-Anthony Towns, Julius Randle, and Naz Reid walk out the door in the last couple of years. Gobert is still there, and he gave Jokic the business in the playoffs a couple of months ago, but this is now a much smaller, completely different team, and they may have lost whatever edge they had over the Nuggets.
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