There’s no universal opinion on the Minnesota Timberwolves’ trade for LaMelo Ball. Some look at the dynamic backcourt of Ball and Anthony Edwards and wonder how they will be stopped on offense. Others point to Ball’s injury history and his zero career postseason games as reasons to be skeptical.
The NBA’s annual GM survey came out on Thursday. Looking at the results, most GMs clearly believe Ball will be an excellent fit with his new club. When asked to list the best teams in the Western Conference, the Timberwolves placed third, and I think this assessment makes a lot of sense.
A third-place finish would mean the trade worked out well this season
Unsurprisingly, the San Antonio Spurs (first) and Oklahoma City Thunder (second) lead the way. Nearly everyone agrees, and those two clubs have the best chances of winning the 2027 NBA Finals in every sportsbook’s championship odds.
Seen as the best team in the tier below the Spurs and Thunder is Minnesota. Fifty-three percent of the GMs ranked them third, and 13 percent ranked them fourth.
More GMs see the Denver Nuggets as a top-four team in the conference, with three-quarters of them placing them at least fourth, compared with two-thirds for Minnesota. The Timberwolves rank ahead of Denver because exactly half of the GMs placed Denver fourth.
While Minnesota is far behind the Spurs and Thunder in the survey, coming in third shows how much belief GMs have in Ball.
The upside is evident, as the Timberwolves often played last season without a true point guard on the court. Now, they have added one of the league’s star players who can raise his team’s offensive ceiling like few others. His on/off splits with the Charlotte Hornets in recent years prove that. Notably, the Hornets' offense was 11.6 points per 100 possessions better with Ball on the court.
It's easy to see why the Ball trade is viewed as a ceiling-raising move by GMs. Sure, Ball is far from an unflawed player, but the fit in Minnesota is obvious. Not only is Ball teaming with Edwards, but he should also provide easy transition buckets for players like Jaden McDaniels and Ayo Dosunmu while also providing lobs for Rudy Gobert.
Ball is a threat to shoot from 3-point range every time down the court, so the defense can't ease up. He can help out on the glass as a taller point guard who has averaged 6.6 rebounds per 36 minutes in his career. This will be necessary now that the team no longer rosters Naz Reid or Julius Randle.
The rankings aren’t necessarily a prediction of where the teams will finish in the regular season standings. Minnesota has rarely finished as a top-three seed, though. The Timberwolves have finished as a top-three seed just twice in franchise history: third in 2023–24 and first in 2003–04.
There probably wasn’t a move Minnesota could have made that would have had the GMs, NBA fans, basketball analysts, etc., to see the Timberwolves as better than the Spurs or Thunder—including a trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo. Being seen as the third-best team in the West indicates a belief that Ball was a wise acquisition.
Without question, Ball raises their ceiling, and evidently, most GMs recognize that. Things could go wrong, but the same could also happen for the other 29 NBA teams.
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