On March 22, 2024, Target Center exploded. The Minnesota Timberwolves had the infamous Naz Reid beach towel promotion. Almost two years later, the towels still show up at every game. It’s something Reid says he will never take for granted.
“No, never. I want more, actually,” Reid said. “I want to get more in there. I appreciate all the love. It’s crazy, what was it last year?”
Two years, and they’re still there, I mentioned.
“That’s what I’m saying. We get more,” Reid responded. “I’ll be grateful, obviously, I’m grateful now.”
They should bring back the towels, though. With the Wolves’ rebrand, it immediately sparked thoughts of throwback tree Naz Reid and Prince Naz Reid towels. The mere thought immediately got fans clambering and tagging the great Jeff Munneke, the Timberwolves’ VP of fan experience, on Twitter to get the ball rolling, especially as Reid is putting together a phenomenal stretch of basketball.
After a slow start to the season, Reid has been sensational over the past 10 games for the Wolves. He’s averaging 14.9 points per game on 47.6% shooting from the field and 38.1% from three. Reid’s 6.4 rebounds per game would be a career high. Perhaps most importantly, his 111.1 defensive rating improved drastically from his 115.0 season average.
What’s been especially encouraging is that Reid has been stringing together good games without the typical ups and downs he has displayed throughout his career. In eight of the last ten games, Reid has shot 40% or better from the floor. In seven of the ten games, he’s had a positive net rating and a positive plus-minus.
Consistency is key for Reid, and he has talked about how hard he is on himself when having a bad game. He calls himself a perfectionist who can get down and frustrated when he isn’t performing up to his standards. Reid spoke to me about this after a 125-112 victory over the San Antonio Spurs, a game in which Reid shot 1 of 5 in the third quarter before scoring 8 points on four shots in the fourth.
“It’s been a journey, there’s times and situations when I’m frustrated with myself,” he said. “But if I get frustrated with myself, then I take myself out of the game, so I kind of learned from experience.”
The perfectionist nature of his own personality is something he also mentioned earlier in the year.
“Just trying to be a perfectionist. Like, I tried to make sure I’m perfect, and that’s not the way to be like at this level,” he said. “In my seventh year, I kind of got away from that, but like in the fourth, fifth, sixth year, I was like, I got to be perfect. I got to be perfect, and now it’s where I’m like, ‘you know it’s good.’”
Interestingly, Reid’s key to his consistency seems to be his growing acceptance that he can’t be perfect, and this acceptance seems to come from a place of leadership. In teaching younger players on the roster to avoid being perfect, Reid appears to be embracing the message that he’s preaching. In turn, that’s showing up in the last ten games and fueling Minnesota’s bench unit to become a weapon for the team to deploy.
It’s admittedly hard to see Reid as a veteran. An undrafted player out of LSU, he scrapped his way to a roster spot, then a rotation spot. He has been a driving force behind the love he receives from the fans.
Now in his seventh season, Reid appears to be on track to become a fan favorite and a model of consistency both in his play and as a leader. In my humble opinion, that merits another towel giveaway.