Naz Reid signs three-year, $42 million extension with Timberwolves

Naz Reid signs three-year, $42 million extension with Timberwolves

Days ahead of officially becoming an unrestricted free agent, Naz Reid has inked a three-year, $42 million extension with the Minnesota Timberwolves, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski was first to report Sunday.

Timberwolves center Naz Reid has agreed on a new three-year, $42 million deal with a player option, his agents Sean Kennedy and Jeff Schwartz of @excelbasketball tell ESPN. Undrafted out of LSU, Reid had his best season with 11.5 points and 4.9 rebounds. pic.twitter.com/YtBjdggxMa

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 25, 2023

As a rookie in 2019-20, Reid, an undrafted free agent, signed a four-year, $6.1 million partially-guaranteed deal using Minnesota’s mid-level exception–a standard practice for teams looking to ink their non-first-round rookies to longer deals.

It’s fair to say Reid significantly outplayed his contract. He averaged 10.1 points, 4.4 rebounds and 0.9 blocks on 50.5 percent shooting, including 34.4 percent from deep, over the duration of his rookie deal.

He was expected to garner a bigger role last season before Minnesota shockingly lofted their future for Rudy Gobert. Reid still posted 11.5 points, 4.9 rebounds and 0.8 blocks in 68 games, but averaged 16.5 points and 7.0 rebounds on 57.8 percent true-shooting in his 11 starts.

The 23-year-old was expected to be one of the best free agent big men this offseason–along with Brook Lopez, Nikola Vucevic, Jakob Poeltl and Christian Wood.

The full breakdown of his contract has yet to be released, but his average annual value of $14 million will make him the highest-paid backup center and 14th-highest-paid center across the entire NBA, sandwiched between Mitchell Robinson and Daniel Gafford, per Spotrac.

Under the previous CBA, this deal would not have been able to be complete, though the new CBA allows for teams to negotiate with their own free agents one day after the NBA Finals. Reid’s deal is the first “big” signed leaguewide, and it will be how this impacts the market with less than a week away from the start of the 2023 NBA Free Agency.

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