LaMelo Ball trade is perfect proof Hawks made right call with Trae Young

I never thought I'd utter these words, even 24 hours ago - LaMelo Ball is a Minnesota Timberwolf.

In a trade that materialized under the shroud of darkness in the immediate moments following the 2nd round of the 2026 NBA Draft, Ball (with Josh Green tagging along) was shipped off to Minnesota in exchange for Naz Reid, one unprotected first, three pick swaps, and three second rounders.

Following such a bizarre deal, Hawks fans should be rest assured of one thing: trading their former franchise cornerstone away is seeming more and more like the right call.

LaMelo's astronomical on-court impact vs. contract and health concerns

At his best, LaMelo Ball is a complete offensive engine.

LaMelo played undeniably his best season ever in 2025-2026, leading the Hornets to 44-38, and just one win shy of their first playoff berth in a decade. Ball's on-court offensive impact was simply absurd; without LaMelo, the Hornets were a league-average 112.7 offensive rating, but with Ball, they posted a ludicrous 125.8 offensive rating.

In total, Ball was a +7.5 swing for the Hornets, factoring in the other end of the floor.

In addition, Ball harmonized perfectly - and I mean, perfectly - with rookie sensation and 2026 ROY runner-up Kon Knueppel, long-range assassin Brandon Miller, Miles Bridges, and the eye-popping two-way athlete Moussa Diabate. In their 471 on-court minutes together, they posted a jaw-dropping +24.3 net rating.

To call this lineup anything short of a "death lineup" would be doing it a disservice. Atlanta rivaled this fivesome with their own death lineup towards the end of the year, but even the Hawks failed to meet the mark the Hornets set.

At his worst, however, Ball is a money pit with injury concerns out the wazoo.

Prior to last season's 72 games, Ball had only managed to appear in 42.6% of games the three seasons prior. That's a whopping 141 games missed to only 105 healthy outings. For a team paying Ball top dollar ($41M and rising through 2028-2029), dealing the youngster at his peak doesn't seem too farfetched after all.

Perhaps the Hornets also saw the familial writing on the wall - LaMelo's older brother, Lonzo, famously led the DeRozan-Lavine-Vucevic Chicago Bulls to the 1 seed (temporarily) in 2021-2022 before injury shattered the remainder of his career.

With Ball being dealt for far less than expected (even at his peak value), it makes the Trae Young deal look even better than ever before, since its inception on January 7th of this year.

Hawks' cap flexibility is the envy of the entire league

Amidst superstars making big money all across the NBA, it seems as though the Atlanta Hawks stand alone as the one competitive organization bereft of a huge contract in their ranks.

While there are certainly outliers (Denver, Atlanta, Boston), amongst true contenders last year (teams that made the 2nd round or better), let's have a look at their largest cap hits:

Bearing in mind that many of these are much worse than just one player (Knicks have OG, Brunson, Bridges all making $33M+, Spurs have a Wemby extension looming, Thunder have Shai earning $60M+ two seasons from now, Sixers have Paul Geoerge making $54M, Timberwolves have Gobert and Ball making $36M+), it makes the Hawks look even more genius - no player exceeds $30M, which Jalen Johnson is earning at a flat rate through 2029-2030.

Without the CJ for Trae Young deal - who, by the way, happened to sign a gargantuan 4-year, $212M deal with the Washington Wizards earlier this week - the Hawks would be stuck in cap purgatory along with the rest of the league's best.

Now? Atlanta is more flexible than ever, paving the road for a potential blockbuster deal to land a star earning any dollar amount from their current team. Better yet, the Hawks could simply sign notable free agents (Isaiah Hartenstein, Rui Hachimura, John Collins) without worrying about their pocketbooks catching fire.

Thanks to Onsi Saleh's shrewd strategies, the Hawks are primed to dominate the league for years to come - let's just hope his future moves are as prudent as they've unilaterally been to date.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow