Naz Reid agrees to 5-year, $125 million deal to stay with Timberwolves: Report
Naz Reid has signed a five-year, $125 million contract to stay with the Minnesota Timberwolves, according to ESPN's Shams Charania.
Reid could've exercised a $15 million player option to stay with the Timberwolves. Instead, he has agreed to a deal to perhaps keep him with Minnesota for years. Per Charania, the new contract also includes a player option.
After winning the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year award after a breakout 2023-24 campaign, the 6-foot-9, 264-pound Reid authored an impressive encore, averaging 14.2 points, 6 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 27.5 minutes per game, all career highs, as an integral frontcourt contributor for a Wolves team that made its second straight run to the Western Conference finals.
The sixth-year pro has turned into one of the NBA's premier reserves, serving as a high-volume, high-efficiency stretch big who has fit snugly at power forward and center next to a variety of partners over the years — Rudy Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns, Julius Randle, Jaden McDaniels, Kyle Anderson, Taurean Prince, T.J. Warren, et al. When Reid checks into the game, he provides a welcome and immediate injection of 3-point variance, downhill driving and interior finishing — all while helping to space the floor for Minnesota superstar Anthony Edwards.
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Reid can allow a team to play twin-towers lineups built around a screen-and-dive center without sacrificing spacing, or to run five-out small-ball looks without punting on rim protection and defensive rebounding — an unassuming and devastatingly effective Allen key to unlock whichever lineup combination might be most effective on any given night. And while he isn't necessarily thought of as a top-flight rim protector and interior defender on his own, his strength and lateral quickness have made him an effective switch defender on the perimeter; the Wolves have allowed fewer points per possession with him on the floor than off it in five of his six pro seasons, and he's long posted above-average block and steal rates for a big man.
'Defensively, Naz has been outstanding,' Wolves head coach Chris Finch told reporters in the spring of 2024. 'He has taken a lot of different matchups, and in his switching, Naz creates a lot of transition opportunities for us. We don't get a ton of those and he is responsible for a lot of it, whether it is pushing it [via passing and dribbling] or at the end of it [with the finish]. And he is just a ball-mover; he has that dynamic quality for our offense.'
That combination of shooting, complementary frontcourt playmaking and possession-ending defensive work is pretty rare. Last season, only seven players in the NBA made 150 3-pointers, dished 150 assists, blocked 50 shots and snagged 50 steals: three MVPs (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, James Harden, Kevin Durant), a two-time All-NBA selection (Edwards), two universally beloved 3-and-D players on nine-figure contracts (Derrick White and OG Anunoby) … and Reid.
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That's awfully lofty company for Reid — who turns 26 in August, just entering his prime, with plenty more developmental runway still ahead of him — and the kind of heights few anticipated he'd reach when he signed with the Wolves as an undrafted free agent out of LSU in the summer of 2019.
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