{"id":250013,"date":"2026-06-25T16:17:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T16:17:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/25\/revisiting-anthony-edwards-lamelo-ball-nba-draft-debate-after-blockbuster-trade\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T16:17:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T16:17:04","slug":"revisiting-anthony-edwards-lamelo-ball-nba-draft-debate-after-blockbuster-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/25\/revisiting-anthony-edwards-lamelo-ball-nba-draft-debate-after-blockbuster-trade\/","title":{"rendered":"Revisiting Anthony Edwards-LaMelo Ball NBA Draft debate after blockbuster trade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Guards <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nba\/players\/anthony_edwards\/677939\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Anthony Edwards<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nba\/players\/lamelo_ball\/698366\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">LaMelo Ball<\/a> were once considered <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nba\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NBA<\/a> Draft rivals. They&#8217;ll now be teammates.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nba\/articles\/timberwolves_land_lamelo_ball_in_blockbuster_trade\/s1_13132_43993090\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">On Thursday<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nba\/teams\/charlotte_hornets\/74\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Charlotte Hornets\u00a0<\/a>agreed to trade Ball and guard Josh Green to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nba\/teams\/minnesota_timberwolves\/83\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a> for center Naz Reid, a 2033 unprotected first-round pick, three second-rounders (2029, 2032 and 2033) and three first-round pick swaps (2028, 2029 and 2030).<\/p>\n<p>Edwards (pick No. 1 in 2020) and Ball (pick No. 3) will form a star-studded backcourt aiming to lead the Timberwolves to their first championship. Still, it will feel odd watching them team up after they sparked debates before the 2020 draft.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Anthony Edwards, LaMelo Ball were cast as rivals before 2020 NBA Draft<\/h2>\n<p>Ball and Edwards were both considered potential No. 1 picks in 2020. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/2200224\/2020\/11\/17\/nba-draft-big-board\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Athletic&#8217;s Mike Vorkunov<\/a> rated Ball No. 1 and Edwards No. 2 on his final big board before the draft.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/plain\" class=\"optanon-category-C0004\">\n    !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n    {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n    n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n    if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n    n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n    t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n    s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n    'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n    fbq('init', '1324276914788316');\n    fbq('track', 'PageView');\n  <\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nba\/articles\/revisiting_anthony_edwards_lamelo_ball_nba_draft_debate_after_blockbuster_trade\/s1_13132_43993162\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Guards Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball were once considered NBA Draft rivals. They&#8217;ll now be teammates. On Thursday, the Charlotte Hornets\u00a0agreed to trade Ball and guard Josh Green to the Minnesota Timberwolves for center Naz Reid, a 2033 unprotected first-round pick, three second-rounders (2029, 2032 and 2033) and three first-round pick swaps (2028, 2029 and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":250014,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6806],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-250013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gossip"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}