SI:AM | NBA Offseason Heats Up as LaMelo Ball Traded

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’m glad the LaMelo Ball news broke when it did, instead of right after I sent this email.

In today’s SI:AM:
👋 LaMelo Ball traded
☘️ Jaylen Brown next?
⚾ MLB’s best young stars

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NBA offseason kicks into high gear

The NBA’s Western Conference just got even tougher.

The Timberwolves have agreed to acquire LaMelo Ball from the Hornets, ESPN’s Shams Charania reports. Minnesota will receive Ball and Josh Green in exchange for Naz Reid, a 2033 unprotected first-round pick, three second-round picks and three first-round pick swaps.

The deal comes just hours after Charania first said during ESPN’s draft coverage that multiple teams were in talks with Charlotte to acquire Ball. The Bucks and Raptors were among the other teams interested in trading for him, according to multiple reports.

Ball won the Rookie of the Year in 2020–21 and was named to the All-Star team the following season, but injuries limited him to just 105 games between the ’22–23 and ’24–25 seasons. He finally had a fully healthy season this year, playing in 72 games as he led the Hornets on a late-season surge to finish with their best record in a decade and reach the play-in tournament.

In Ball, the Timberwolves are adding a quality point guard who’s equally comfortable as a distributor and as a lead scoring option. He’ll help relieve Anthony Edwards of some of the burden of being Minnesota’s primary ballhandler and fill a hole in the backcourt resulting from Donte DiVincenzo’s torn Achilles tendon. It’s the second major trade the Timberwolves have agreed to this week. They also sent Julius Randle to the Nets in a three-team deal involving the Bulls. The Randle trade was a salary dump designed to clear up cap space so Minnesota could re-sign Ayo Dosunmu after his breakout postseason.

Ball might not be the only All-Star to get traded in the coming days. The Celtics are reportedly entertaining offers for Jaylen Brown after they already tried to trade him earlier this week for Giannis Antetokounmpo.

A Brown trade would be even more of a blockbuster. He’s coming off the best season of his career, assuming a lead role for the Celtics while Jayson Tatum missed the first four months of the season. Brown averaged a career-best 28.7 points per game and received MVP votes for the first time.

Brown and Tatum are one of the league’s longest-tenured star duos and have enjoyed tremendous success together. Since Tatum was drafted in 2017, Boston has the best record in the NBA (477–241). But Boston’s current roster is incomplete, and the team evidently sees an opportunity to swap Brown for a player that better fits its needs. Between Tatum, Brown, Derrick White and Sam Hauser, the Celtics have plenty of good wing players. Payton Pritchard is a solid point guard, and has Tatum and Brown to help him facilitate the offense. What the Celtics lack is a quality big man. They don’t have a paint presence like they did when Al Horford and Kristaps Porzingis helped them win the Finals in 2024. Neemias Queta, Luka Garza and Nikola Vučević aren’t cutting it.

“They are hunting a big man,” a rival executive told Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix. “And they are willing to trade [Brown] to get it.”

The Celtics better hope they can find a suitable offer, because the public nature of the negotiations risks souring Brown’s relationship with the franchise. Brown has always been seen as Tatum’s sidekick. He finally had an opportunity to be the main guy, capitalized on it and lead the Celtics to an unexpectedly strong regular season, and then the team tries to trade him? Imagine how that must feel. It wasn’t just the Giannis trade, either. Mannix reports that after Milwaukee turned down Boston’s offer on Monday, the Celtics “continued to discuss Brown trades on Tuesday”—in some cases fielding calls from other teams, but in other cases initiating the conversations.

If the Celtics are going to trade Brown, it would be best for everyone involved if it happens relatively quickly. Teams can begin negotiating with free agents at 6 p.m. ET on Tuesday and can officially sign those players on July 6.

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The top five…

… things I saw yesterday:
5. Mr. and Mrs. Met doing the Norway row with a bunch of soccer fans at Citi Field.
4. Mexico goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa’s moment on the field with his kids after coming on as a substitute to appear in his sixth career World Cup. Ochoa was also mobbed by his teammates after the final whistle.
3. Paul Goldschmidt’s two home runs off of Tarik Skubal. The 38-year-old Goldschmidt is having his best season at the plate in years, and he’s been especially great against lefties like Skubal. He’s batting .408/.489/.816 with eight homers in 88 plate appearances against lefties this season.
2. Mateo Chávez’s great run for Mexico’s first goal.
1. Thapelo Maseko’s goal that gave South Africa an upset win over South Korea. South Africa will advance to the knockout stage for the first time in its history.

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