Naz Reid Ain't Going Anywhere! (re-upped for 3 years $42 mil)

[kekgeek]

For lux tax this year a couple of things.

Wolves have about 21 million to spend before Naz.

We don’t know the breakdown of Naz contract he could be making less this year and it increases next year.

Wolves don’t need to be under the tax when the season starts.

Wolves can save 300k by cutting Jmac and signing a vet Min.

This contract increases the chances of Miller and Clark getting NBA contracts and not 2 ways because it’s cost saving. Wolves will probably have about 4-5 million to use on Naw annually. Without going over the tax line.

Bottom line is, this move more than likely means Prince will be gone and probably takes the Morris/Tyus trade speculation away. This is what the assumption the wolves ownership does not want to go over the lux tax

[Lipoli390]

Yes!!!

That’s $14 million per year. I’m now accepting mea culpas from all those who questioned my market valuation of Naz. . Seriously, I’m thrilled he’s back. By my calculation with the slightly increased luxury tax threshold projection, $14M for Naz will allow us to pay NAW $5M and stay just under the luxury tax threshold with 14 players. I really like how TC has handled this off season so far. He got far more out of the draft than any of use could have reasonably expected without trading KAT, Rudy, Ant or Jaden. He’s bringing Naz back consistent with what he said he wanted to do and did so at a number that should allow us to run it back without exceeding the luxury tax threshold.

Given the luxury tax situation, any further moves by the Wolves this off season would have to involve a trade that sends out at least as much salary as it brings in.

[60WinTim]

So here are some interesting tidbits on the Naz contract:

If Naz went into free agency, he would be able to sign a contract for a team starting at up to 25% of the cap, which is 35.75 mil. But to sign an extension with the Wolves before free agency begins, the maximum the Wolves could offer is 12.95 mil (120% of estimated average salary, according to Bobby marks).

So the Wolves offered the highest they could for an extension. Naz had to weigh whether he could get more on the open market. Maybe he could? But we also know he wanted to return to Minnesota. And if Naz did enter the open market, it may have changed the Wolves' plans as they enter free agency. So it helps TC prepare for what he can do in free agency at the opening bell.

[Lipoli390]

For lux tax this year a couple of things.

Wolves have about 21 million to spend before Naz.

We don’t know the breakdown of Naz contract he could be making less this year and it increases next year.

Wolves don’t need to be under the tax when the season starts.

Wolves can save 300k by cutting Jmac and signing a vet Min.

This contract increases the chances of Miller and Clark getting NBA contracts and not 2 ways because it’s cost saving. Wolves will probably have about 4-5 million to use on Naw annually. Without going over the tax line.

Bottom line is, this move more than likely means Prince will be gone and probably takes the Morris/Tyus trade speculation away. This is what the assumption the wolves ownership does not want to go over the lux tax

Good breakdown, kek. But I don’t think it means Prince will be gone. By my calculation, even if Naz gets the full $14M this year, we can still re-sign NAW at around $5 and keep Prince as one of 14 players on our roster. My calculation assumes we sign Clark at the League Minimum $1.2M for next season and Miller at $1.8M, which is $2M less than the rookie scale salary for the 30th pick. My projection also assumes a luxury tax threshold of $165M. Assuming our current 10 roster players (including Prince) plus the two rookies, we’re $20M under the luxury tax threshold. Add Naz Reid’s $14M and we have $6M left to sign NAW. Assuming we sign NAW starting at $5M, we’ll have a 14-player roster with about $1M of breathing room under the luxury tax. If we have $1.2M left over (which is possible) then we’ll have enough to sign another vet for the 15th roster spot.

[60WinTim]

Good news, Lip! Naz's first year is 12.95 mil.

Although your $s seem kind of high. Did you already waive Knight?!?

[Lipoli390]

Good news, Lip! Naz's first year is 12.95 mil.

Although your $s seem kind of high. Did you already waive Knight?!?

Yep. My calculation assumes we don’t pick up Knight’s option. I don’t see any reason to pick up his option. Instead, one of our remaining priorities should be signing Garza. I was assuming we’d sign Garza to a two-way, which wouldn’t count under the cap. But your good news about Naz starting at $12.95M indicates that we’ll have room under the luxury tax threshold to re-sign NAW at $5M and sign Garza at the League Minimum $1.2M.

[SameOldNudityDrew]

Nice! Big Jelly!

Bottom line: unless his production somehow falls off a cliff, this is at least a pretty good value contract, especially with the cap rising.

This has to make the money tighter going forward (I'm not going to pretend to know how to calculate when we start paying the tax, etc.). But if and when we do have financial troubles going into the 2024-25 season, if we can't/don't have a Rudy or KAT trade, we can certainly move Naz and probably get a decent asset back. In the meantime, we get his production. That's better than letting him walk and spreading out a little more money on end-of-bench guys next year.

If we were going to trade Naz, it would likely be next offseason because that player option realistically kind of makes this just a two-year deal, assuming he's playing well. We could theoretically wait until midway through the 24-25 season to move him, but his value would likely be down at that point because he'd clearly just be an end-of-season rental for a lot of teams.

Alternately, if we were to trade KAT or Rudy, presumably, he'd stick with us for a couple years, opt out of the third year, then likely re-sign with us if he's etched out a starting role for himself.

It is some roster imbalance. Ideally we'd have a guy with Naz's talent at guard waiting to take the reins from Conley, but that just didn't turn out to be the case with JMac or Nowell. In the meantime, we know we can roll with those 3 bigs because KAT and Naz can space the floor, so we can always play one of them with another big.

If Naz can just take another step forward like he has the past couple of years, especially if it's on defense (please, please, please), then we're cooking.

Last thought: I don't know what this means for Prince. Dude was solid for us last year. We really needed his shooting and ballhandling. If they don't resign him, it'll probably be because they are confident that Minott/Moore/Miller are ready to step into minutes and maybe have some real potential. If that happens, I hope they're right.

Conley/JMAC/Moore
Ant/NAW/Clark (eventually)
Jaden/Prince(?)/Minott
KAT/SloMo/Miller
Rudy/Naz

Just looking at that possible depth chart, it's interesting that with Naz, SloMo, and now Miller, we've got 3 bigs who can handle the ball pretty well. SloMo can basically run point at times, and Naz (and it looks like Miller) can at least grab a rebound and bring it up the court safely and you can trust Naz to dribble in the half court (maybe Miller too?). KAT can put it on the deck a bit as well, especially when going to the basket. None of this really replaces having a good backup PG (although SloMo comes close), but it does make it somewhat easier to stomach not having one. Still, if we lost Prince, I fear we'll miss that ball handling somewhat.

[Lipoli390]

Nice! Big Jelly!

Bottom line: unless his production somehow falls off a cliff, this is at least a pretty good value contract, especially with the cap rising.

This has to make the money tighter going forward (I'm not going to pretend to know how to calculate when we start paying the tax, etc.). But if and when we do have financial troubles going into the 2024-25 season, if we can't/don't have a Rudy or KAT trade, we can certainly move Naz and probably get a decent asset back. In the meantime, we get his production. That's better than letting him walk and spreading out a little more money on end-of-bench guys next year.

If we were going to trade Naz, it would likely be next offseason because that player option realistically kind of makes this just a two-year deal, assuming he's playing well. We could theoretically wait until midway through the 24-25 season to move him, but his value would likely be down at that point because he'd clearly just be an end-of-season rental for a lot of teams.

Alternately, if we were to trade KAT or Rudy, presumably, he'd stick with us for a couple years, opt out of the third year, then likely re-sign with us if he's etched out a starting role for himself.

It is some roster imbalance. Ideally we'd have a guy with Naz's talent at guard waiting to take the reins from Conley, but that just didn't turn out to be the case with JMac or Nowell. In the meantime, we know we can roll with those 3 bigs because KAT and Naz can space the floor, so we can always play one of them with another big.

If Naz can just take another step forward like he has the past couple of years, especially if it's on defense (please, please, please), then we're cooking.

Last thought: I don't know what this means for Prince. Dude was solid for us last year. We really needed his shooting and ballhandling. If they don't resign him, it'll probably be because they are confident that Minott/Moore/Miller are ready to step into minutes and maybe have some real potential. If that happens, I hope they're right.

Conley/JMAC/Moore
Ant/NAW/Clark (eventually)
Jaden/Prince(?)/Minott
KAT/SloMo/Miller
Rudy/Naz

Just looking at that possible depth chart, it's interesting that with Naz, SloMo, and now Miller, we've got 3 bigs who can handle the ball pretty well. SloMo can basically run point at times, and Naz (and it looks like Miller) can at least grab a rebound and bring it up the court safely and you can trust Naz to dribble in the half court (maybe Miller too?). KAT can put it on the deck a bit as well, especially when going to the basket. None of this really replaces having a good backup PG (although SloMo comes close), but it does make it somewhat easier to stomach not having one. Still, if we lost Prince, I fear we'll miss that ball handling somewhat.

All good points, Drew. I think the Wolves will keep Prince unless they can swap him in a package for a high quality young PG who could eventually succeed Conley. Prince has only one year left on his deal and the money works next season to keep him and re-sign NAW while staying under the luxury tax threshold. TC is obviously serious about going for it next season and that probably means keeping Prince. TC has also made clear that he’s prioritizing maturity, IQ and character. Price exemplifies those three qualities. He’s also one of the few good 3-point shooters on the team and he’s still in his prime. As for backup PG, Anderson is a natural PG so it’s not a stretch at all to view him as our primary backup PG. If JMac regains his pre-injury form the Anderson would be third in line at PG and spend more minutes at the wing or PF position.

[KG4Ever]

Well, if we can sign and trade Naz this is great news! If it means Kat is traded, it will depend on the return whether this move is good. If it means we do nothing more than sign NAW and don't upgrade with another guard in free agency or via trade, I probably dislike this move. Time will tell.

[Monster]

I’m really happy Naz is back.

Sportrac has the mid level at 12.4 million so it looks like the Wolves gave Naz just a little more than that to keep him (Tim said this was the max they could offer in an extension) along with the player option. I do think there was a solid chance some team offered him the mid-level or more. The other thing to consider is that he could have gone out done some FA visits and decided another spot was better for him and taken that more or even less to go there. It’s clear Naz wanted to be back but…something could change. It seems like a very fair deal all around and sometimes it’s nice to reward your players. This doesn’t feel like some ridiculous overpay. Lip does not get to take a victory lap.

I’ll add that one of the things I was concerned about (was alone) even before the Gobert trade was retaining Naz. Adding Gobert made it harder to imagine keeping him. In the end the Wolves were able to keep him because of number of factors including Naz really wanting to stay. It’s nice to have Naz stick around.

Does anyone know what the most the Wolves can offer Naz Reid at the end ne of his deal whether he opts out or at the end of 3 years?