Last week, ESPN unveiled their 2025 NBA Rank in which they revealed who they believe will be the top 100 players for the 2025-26 season. Many Timberwolves fans were displeased with what they believed to be a disrespectful ranking for Naz Reid, as he came in at #90. On Friday, the website HoopsHype also came up with its top 100 players of 2025-26 list, and Reid was given a ranking that won't rankle Wolves fans nearly as much.
Naz Reid gets more love from HoopsHype than ESPN
About to enter his seventh NBA season (all with Minnesota), the 26-year-old Reid likely would be a starter on the majority of NBA teams. On the Timberwolves though, that isn’t his role. Minnesota rosters All-Star players in the frontcourt (Julius Randle and Rudy Gobert) and previously had Karl-Anthony Towns in Reid’s first 5 NBA seasons.
Still, Reid gets his fair share of minutes and averaged a career-high 27.5 in 2024-25. A 6-foot-9 power forward/center, Reid certainly has a case of being the most productive reserve in the entire league, particularly over the last two seasons. HoopsHype seems to appreciate that much more than ESPN does.
HoopsHype placed Reid 22 spots higher than ESPN did at #68. In their blurb on Reid, HoopsHype writes,
"Mobile big man Naz Reid is another modern center who plays more like a wing; he’s got a great face-up game, can shoot it very well from the outside and has a quick first step, so when opponents bite on pump-fakes, he can get to the basket in a heartbeat for easy finishes. Reid also has a crafty post-up game when tasked with backing down smaller defenders. Reid can also swat some shots, averaging nearly one block per game over the past couple of seasons, but his area of expertise is on the offensive end as a scorer, where he makes a big nightly impact."
Close to a league average 3-point shooter over his first 4 seasons, Reid has shown improvement in the last two seasons, shooting at a 39.5% clip from beyond the arc. In 2024-25, slightly more than half of his field goal attempts came from 3-point territory (50.1%).
Reid has also been a reliable player on a Timberwolves team that has reached back-to-back conference finals. He has appeared in 161 of a possible 164 outings in the last two seasons. After winning Sixth Man of the Year in 2023-24, he finished fifth in voting in 2024-25.
Entering free agency after last season, Minnesota quickly brought back Reid on a five-year deal worth $125 million.
Other Timberwolves to make the list
Four other Timberwolves players made HoopsHype’s list. Unsurprisingly, the highest-ranked Wolves player is Anthony Edwards at #5. The only 4 who were ahead of the Ant-Man are Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
The other Minnesota players on HoopsHype top 100 are Julius Randle (#34), Rudy Gobert (#47), and Jaden McDaniels (#73).