Timberwolves, center Naz Reid agree on 3-year, $42M deal

Minnesota Timberwolves center Naz Reid has agreed on a new three-year, $42 million contract that includes a player option, his agents, Sean Kennedy and Jeff Schwartz of Excel Sports Management, told ESPN on Sunday.

The deal keeps Reid out of free agency and secures him to the franchise where he arrived as an undrafted one-and-done player and developed into an indispensable frontline performer.

The player option for the 2025-26 season gives Reid an opportunity to get another new contract in two years. Reid had his best season — 11.5 points and 4.9 rebounds in 18 minutes per game — before a season-ending wrist fracture kept him out of the final weeks of the regular season, the play-in tournament and Western Conference playoffs.

The Timberwolves clearly missed his presence in their opening-round loss to the eventual NBA champion Denver Nuggets.

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The Timberwolves risked losing Reid in free agency starting next week, but Kennedy and Schwartz had spent several months negotiating with Timberwolves president Tim Connelly and finally reached a deal on Sunday.

After arriving from LSU in 2019, his emergence as a bench player behind Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert in the Timberwolves’ frontcourt made him an attractive target throughout the league. He also shot 53.7 percent and made 34.6 percent of his 3-point attempts.

After the All-Star break in February, Reid scored 242 points in 312 minutes of playing time; only MVP Joel Embiid of Philadelphia averaged more points per minute over that span, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. NBA Finals MVP Nikola Jokic was third.

Reid, who turns 24 in August, would’ve become an unrestricted free agent despite his age because he signed a four-year deal with Minnesota entering his rookie year — just as Jalen Brunson had done with Dallas before leaving for the New York Knicks last summer.

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