The evolution of Minnesota Timberwolves’ big man Naz Reid

What happens to Naz Reid now that Karl-Anthony Towns is back?

Of course, there is the looming question of what will the Wolves do with Reid now that Towns is back.

For as great as Reid has played, he is obviously not a starting-caliber player as of yet, and he has primarily played center, which is, of course, KAT’s position.

Towns and Reid have played a grand total of 13 minutes together over the course of the last two seasons, and three of those minutes came Wednesday against the Clippers. It doesn’t seem like a combination that head coach Ryan Saunders will play together often, and the emergences of both Jaden McDaniels and Jarred Vanderbilt may make it less necessary to play Towns and Reid at the same time.

Reid does have a nice rapport with some of the bench players for the Wolves in the last few games, specifically Vanderbilt (plus-24.6 net rating), McDaniels (plus-12.7), Jaylen Nowell (plus-10.7), and Ricky Rubio (plus-8.1) so there should be a comfort level there.

He will most likely face a lot of bench bigs instead of going against the likes of Vucevic, Horford, and Nikola Jokic, which will make life easier for him at both ends while already having shown some nice moments against some of the best bigs in the league.

It will also benefit the Wolves and Towns to know they have a reliable, quality rotation big man to fall back on when Towns sits since Ed Davis is obviously not a long-term solution in that role.

There’s no question about whether Reid had the talent coming into the NBA, but he’s put in the work to become a player who can be relied upon, trusted, and make NBA general managers wish they didn’t let slip through the cracks.