{"id":543783,"date":"2026-01-18T00:26:42","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T00:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/543783\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T00:26:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T00:26:42","slug":"timberwolves-unlikely-to-trade-for-grizzlies-ja-morant-hornets-lamelo-ball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/543783\/","title":{"rendered":"Timberwolves Unlikely To Trade For Grizzlies&#8217; Ja Morant, Hornets&#8217; LaMelo Ball"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Minnesota Timberwolves are unlikely to trade for Memphis Grizzlies guard <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/moranja01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=dallashoopsjournal.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-17_bbr\">Ja Morant<\/a> or Charlotte Hornets guard <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/ballla01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=dallashoopsjournal.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-17_bbr\">LaMelo Ball<\/a>, according to NBA reporter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6975545\/2026\/01\/16\/nba-trade-deadline-ja-morant-grizzlies-news-updates\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>The Timberwolves are in fourth place in the Western Conference standings. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Timberwolves have been combing the trade market for weeks, evaluating possibilities both big and small. At this point, making a major move for a player like Morant or\u00a0LaMelo Ball\u00a0is highly unlikely, team sources told\u00a0The Athletic, for several reasons,\u201d Krawczymski wrote. \u201cThe Wolves are just a few million dollars under the second apron, a threshold they are determined to avoid in 2025-26 so they don\u2019t have to deal with the most severe roster-building penalties for repeat big spenders. They are also concerned about liquidating their depth to match salaries for a star player, sources said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt seems more likely that general manager Tim Connelly will look to add a bench piece, a wing or a ballhandler who can help take some of the pressure off\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/e\/edwaran01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=dallashoopsjournal.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-17_bbr\">Anthony Edwards<\/a>\u00a0late in games. If youngsters\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/berinjo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=dallashoopsjournal.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-17_bbr\">Joan Beringer<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hylanbo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=dallashoopsjournal.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-17_bbr\">Bones Hyland<\/a>\u00a0play like they did in Tuesday night\u2019s surprising blowout win over the Milwaukee Bucks, those needs become less acute. \u2018We don\u2019t need anything,\u2019 one player told\u00a0The Athletic\u00a0in the middle of the party after Tuesday\u2019s win. \u2018We\u2019re a really, really good team.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Timberwolves have made the Western Conference Finals two years in a row. They lost to the Dallas Mavericks in 2024 and fell to the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2025. <\/p>\n<p>Morant is making $39.4 million this season. The two-time All-Star and the Grizzlies have mutual interest in parting ways, sources told DallasHoopsJournal. <\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Ball is making $37.9 million this season. The one-time All-Star hasn\u2019t signaled to anyone that he wants to leave the Hornets, sources said. <\/p>\n<p>The 2026 NBA trade deadline is February 5 at 3 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dallashoopsjournal.com\/p\/category\/nba\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Latest NBA News &amp; Rumors<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Minnesota Timberwolves are unlikely to trade for Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant or Charlotte Hornets guard LaMelo&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3782],"tags":[7,473,178,966,177,307,152,3954,6,3101,6050,308],"class_list":{"0":"post-543783","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-timberwolves","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-charlotte-hornets","10":"tag-ja-morant","11":"tag-lamelo-ball","12":"tag-memphis-grizzlies","13":"tag-minnesota","14":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","15":"tag-minnesotatimberwolves","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-nba-news","18":"tag-nba-rumors","19":"tag-timberwolves"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115913267579151428","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}