Yeah to be honest, at first, i was shocked they made the LaMelo trade. But I think I know why they made it.
LaMelo + Kon + Brandon Miller + Moussa lineups are the blueprint for the 2030 NBA. 3 super high volume 3 point shooters applying massive pressure outside the arc which amplified a monster offensive rebounder to clean up extra misses. Similar to how 24/25 Boston lineups destroyed opponents with 4 high volume 3p shooters + Kornet. Losing LaMelo doesn’t prevent them from continuing with this strategy but LaMelo was shooting the most threes in the league so he was obviously a key part.
The question is how many wins Charlotte is projected to have over the next few years. There is a, newly created, big incentive to be bad enough to not make the playoffs the next few years as the draft lottery odds rules has changed. The absolute worst seed to be is a #7,#6, or #5 seed where you have 0% of first pick. 8-10 has 5%, 11+ has 8%.
Charlotte owns their own picks the next 3 years.
If you think Charlotte with Lamelo was between a 4 and 7 seed the next few years, it makes sense to downgrade the current roster, get some assets for LaMelo, and realize your 5-8% of the top pick the next few years.
I think Charlotte was afraid to peak too early with a team that wouldn’t be able to win the east and they would lose the big benefits of owning their own picks as a weak playoff team the next few years.
What’s frustrating for fans is some of them thought this Charlotte team had enough as is to compete with LaMelo, Brandon, and Kon all still very young. They led the league in net rating for the last 3-4 months of the season.
The other factor is, while LaMelos impact was awesome last year, he hasn’t been very durable for his career. If he was an iron man I doubt they make this trade. That’s just extra risk around building around LaMelo relative to the option they took.
Before the draft odds changes, the absolute worst place to be was was the 6-10 seed where you were bad and had poor draft pick odds. Now it’s changed, 8-10 is a fine place to be. The worst spot is the 5-7 seed.
Breaking: The Charlotte Hornets are trading 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 @ShamsCharania.
@anglefantasybb Can't believe we still have him in the Rockets Hat... Thanks for the flowers, man is a machine. That playoff run was amazing and i can't stop telling everyone about it. Very happy for him!
If Minnesota structures Ayo Dosunmu's 5 year, $112M deal with the standard 8% raises, this would be what Dosunmu's contract looks like by year...
26-27: $19.3M (12% of the cap)
27-28: $20.8M
28-29: $22.3M
29-30: $23.8M
30-31: $25.3M
That would leave $32.5M available below the 1st apron with 5 roster spots to fill. The Wolves would be hard-capped at the 1st apron if they used the $33M Randle trade exception or $15M non-taxpayer MLE.
To add a player in a trade that makes more than $33M (Irving or Morant), the Wolves would need to use Gobert as the matching salary -- and would not be hard-capped at the 1st apron.
At this time, remember there are a few notable grifters who either steal reports or make up lies to get interaction here regarding transactions. Safer to block those people and aggregators.
Shams, stein, Haynes fischer are your guys to pay attention to as well as local beat reporters
I tested these advanced stats to see which most strongly correlate with median rankings across multiple draft boards
- Age
- BPM
- Net Per 100
- OPBM
- Def Per 100
- Off Per 100
- PRPG
- CREATE
- USG
Here's what a top 30 looks like simply based off those correlations
The 2026 NBA Draft is tomorrow, I have 32 scouting reports up on YouTube.
Don't think I've ever worked so hard on a singular project in my entire life. Spent hundreds of hours on it, totaling about 7 hours of actual video.
Shares appreciated.
https://t.co/J1IwMPb5Vr
Swish 2026 Draft Guide: An original design. I set out to create a futurist, vibrant aesthetic while maintaining our brand identity, incorporating customization features, and leaving room for the analysis to breathe.
I am extremely proud of how it came out.
My original design inspiration came from the ongoing album rollout by The Avalanches. I loved the vibrant colors, retro-futurist vibe, and the element of “controlled chaos.”
The end result is actually more tame than what I had in mind originally, but that combination of inspired design and usability/responsiveness, ultimately, makes it land much better.
Thank you to everyone who’s checked it out and shared so far.
If you’re someone who is interested in merging a background in design (graphic, web, video, etc) with a love for basketball, please feel free to reach out!
I’d be happy to share more about what I do, and what kind of opportunities we can offer at Swish. My contact email is in my bio.
🚨CONTENT DROP🚨
My FINAL predraft piece of the 2026 NBA Draft Cycle covers the changes from my 1.0 Big Board & my latest rankings‼️
▫️Detailed Top 4⃣ Explanations
▫️Analysis on the Top 30 prospects
▫️Resources on ALL 60 prospects
READ over at @NoCeilingsNBA
⬇️(LINK BELOW)⬇️
My 3rd annual NBA Draft Guide.
For the 2026 draft class, I have
60 single-page scouting reports
elevator pitches on the 61-75th players on my board
4 takes on the class
my draft philosophy
where I stand among the consensus.
Here's a preview with my full top-75 big board and with 2 scouting reports for a preview:
It's been amazing to see how this project and process has grown since I started this in 2024. Whether you read 1 profile, a few, a dozen, or all of them — I appreciate your time. Open to all feedback.
Can't wait to see this class in the league, it can be special
Link below 👇
can’t believe I’m forced to defend a fkn Spur but the narratives around Wemby rn are just flat out stupid. the truth should matter.
first, the run he just took the Spurs on was awesome.
35pt debut (franchise record), a 40/24 game. 3.5 stocks/gm. +21.6 on/off differential (hilarious)
led one of youngest teams ever to the Finals.
took down the defending champs.
led for 75% of the Finals & blew it - meaning more than anything they controlled their own destiny & capped themselves.
this narrative that he’s now a permanently scarred failure who’s legacy is cooked is hilarious.
22 yrs old. He, along w Castle & Harper, will only get better. They’ll absolutely be back.
Second & imo most important - in no world is Wemby a ‘dirty’ or immoral player. he had bad moments & lost composure, yeah. but if you think some shoves or elbows somehow makes him this unethical rotten thug of a player - *you* are soft (& delusional)
Nothing done by Wemby was anything different than moments we’ve seen from Jokic or Giannis. not even sniffing the depths of Draymond’s greatest hits.
the man is an 8ft 150lbs slinky being thrown around by earth’s greatest athletes. a body thrown at him every moment to counter his length (if you’ve played even JV level ball you’d understand).
Freedom of movement restricted. a man in your jock every step down the floor. that constant contact builds, frustration simmers, you go to make a basic play like set a screen, you flail, frustration pops, elbows thrown. it happens man it’s the nature of the sport. almost every Wemby flagrant was some run of the mill elbow or shove, called or not called - & fans act like he’s out there drop kicking knee caps or hammer fisting groins (wut). it’s a contact sport man tighten up.
I’d actually love for someone to clip together some Wemby footage showing how defenses are guarding him, the amount of contact he deals w on avg plays, how frequent & constant he’s fighting for position. at least give some context to what he’s battling against every time down the floor.
and last, his quotes & off court behavior. He’s a bit arrogant, likes to wax poetic & give genuine answers vs canned responses. I personally don’t mind it. I’ll take that vs chatgpt script responses all day. most of the stuff ppl crying about is heavily misquoted or out of context anyway. but what is it ppl want? we ask for confident, “real” Superstars & when we get it we cry that it’s all performative. listen to the full answer, stop letting the one sentence posted out of context in the caption form reality.
i’m gonna go throw up now for spending this much effort defending a Spur. but it had to be done. anyway you want to argue it, Wemby has been great for the league. he’s everything these ‘bring back the 90s’ advocates could dream for & if no one wants to defend him, I’ll take a minute to. what he just did these playoffs was genuinely incredible & he deserves the fair credit.
The 2026 NBA Draft Guide is here.
-My top-100 prospect rankings.
-The most in-depth breakdowns of all top-60 prospects that you will find anywhere.
-Videos breaking down the top-10.
-A wonderful, new design that is easily navigated from the folks at @TheAthletic.
(link below)
Next week, our Dizzle Crew will host a Discord-exclusive Mock Draft Challenge! Everyone who joins the Dizzle Dynasty Discord will get the chance to submit a mock draft to win some cool prizes.
Come join the Dizzleverse and get in on the action! ⬇️
https://t.co/hlHNrlYcNM
THE 2026 @NoCeilingsNBA DRAFT GUIDE IS OFFICIALLY LIVE FOR SALE!!!! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!! I promise this is the best, most polished, aesthetically pleasing draft guide I've ever seen in all my time in basketball. 100+ players covered in depth, LINK BELOW TO PURCHASE!