He hasn't been awful, but former beloved Minnesota Timberwolves member Naz Reid is off to a relatively slow start in his first preseason with a new team. Reid and Julius Randle were the two main departures from last year's roster in an offseason designed to build a much better-fitting roster around Anthony Edwards.
With the Hornets, Reid will get the ability to do something that there was never a chance for in Minnesota: be a starter every night. For his entire career, he was always behind either Randle or Karl-Anthony Towns, and while he certainly was bought into the sixth-man role, even winning the award in the 2023-24 season, no doubt he would have rather been a starter.
But so far as the starting power forward in Charlotte, albeit a small sample size of three preseason games, it hasn't gone as well as many have thought.
So far, despite a bigger role than he had in Minnesota, Reid's numbers are down across the board. He's averaging 13.7 points, four rebounds, and 1.3 assists on 37.8/27.8/88.9 splits. Obviously, given the circumstances, you take these performances with a grain of salt. Regardless, some of the numbers certainly aren't encouraging so far. Since he's an erratic player, these growing pains could carry into the regular season.
Naz Reid has struggled with efficiency so far this preseason
The Hornets aren't the most stacked roster in the world by any means, but one thing they do possess is a ton of spacing. Granted, Coby White and Kon Knueppel, two of their most prolific 3-point shooters, have yet to suit up during the preseason. Still, guys like Brandon Miller, Royce O'Neale, and Grayson Allen aren't afraid at all to get 3s up in volume.
This spacing might be better than the spacing Reid dealt with in Minnesota, which is why shooting only 27.8 percent from deep on six attempts per game isn't the greatest look. It's highly unlikely that his regular season will consist of this much of a shooting slump, but all Wolves fans are aware of how streaky he is. And since he's taking on a bigger role, this streakiness could be a challenge.
There are times when he looks like he can rival Towns as the best shooting big in the league, but then he seems to go through at least one month-long stretch per season where he can't buy a bucket from the outside.
It's way too early to overreact to a few preseason games, and Reid will be someone I'll extensively watch during his time with a new team. However, it's noteworthy that the Hornets traded an All-Star point guard, LaMelo Ball, for Reid, who just hasn't looked like himself so far.
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