Along with being the reigning Sixth Man of the Yr and a key a part of a Timberwolves staff that appears like a perennial title contender, Naz Reid has change into considerably of a folks hero in Minnesota, writes Jared Ebanks of Slam On-line. There’s a fan tradition that has sprung up round Reid that features $20 tattoos of his title, a seaside towel giveaway evening and an indication outdoors a pizza parlor in Northeast Minneapolis that encourages drivers to “Honk for those who love Naz Reid.” Reid is accepting the adulation as a part of the reward for the years he spent creating his sport.
“I deal with it as second hand and no matter comes with me placing the work that I put in, I’m excited to have,” Reid stated. “Clearly, I’m really humbled to have all that. I feel as anybody ought to on the skilled degree, take that together with the bumps and bruises. Simply preserve being you and taking part in your sport.”
Reid wasn’t an on the spot success within the NBA, as he went undrafted out of LSU in 2019 amid considerations about his top and pre-draft exercises. He landed a two-way contract with the Wolves and labored his method up from there, however Reid tells Ebanks that the sleights popping out of school offered motivation.
“It simply made me extra hungry. It type of rose, type of modified to the place I used to be the hunted, now I’m searching at that time,” he stated. “In highschool, I used to be a high recruit, five-star, McDonald’s All-American, issues like that, to the place now I needed to grind to be able the place I needed to compete towards others who had been at excessive ranges, who had been drafted and issues of that nature. So [I was] placing myself in that perspective of simply searching.”
There’s extra from the Northwest Division:
- There are indications that Chauncey Billups will not be interested by persevering with because the Path Blazers’ head coach when his contract expires on the finish of the season, Sean Highkin of Rose Backyard Report states in a mailbag column. Based on Highkin, Billups not too long ago appeared on two podcasts hosted by his former teammates, Rasheed Wallace and Carmelo Anthony, and indicated that the state of the group isn’t what he signed up for. Billups was anticipating to teach a contending staff constructed round Damian Lillard, however the Blazers traded Lillard final summer time and have entered a rebuilding stage the place participant growth is prioritized over profitable. Highkin hears that Billups nonetheless has the respect of the locker room and a very good working relationship with common supervisor Joe Cronin, however he’ll enter the season as a lame-duck coach except the entrance workplace picks up his fifth-year choice.
- In the identical piece, Highkin says Path Blazers officers had been “huge followers” of the job Jim Moran was doing as head coach of the staff’s G League affiliate earlier than he left to hitch Mike Brown’s workers in Sacramento. Highkin means that Moran views the job with the Kings as a greater path towards ultimately turning into an NBA head coach.
- The Thunder have upgraded their roster with the additions of Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein, so Rylan Stiles of Sports activities Illustrated examines whether or not they’ve improved sufficient to beat Dallas in a playoff collection.
