Minnesota Timberwolves center Naz Reid will undergo surgery on his fractured left wrist and will be sidelined for six weeks, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Friday.
It’s a blow to the team’s depth during the stretch run of the regular season.
An MRI on Thursday revealed a left scaphoid fracture — between the hand and forearm on the thumb side of the wrist — for Reid. He sustained the injury when he tried to brace himself as he fell to the court after being fouled in the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s 107-100 road loss to the Phoenix Suns.
The fourth-year player has led the team in scoring in six games this season and averaged 11.5 points and 4.9 rebounds per game with 53.7% shooting from the floor – all career bests.
Reid, 23, has become a valuable complement to big men Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns with his two-way skills off the bench. He proved to be particularly viable when Towns missed 52 games with a severely strained right calf muscle.
With five games left in the regular season, the Timberwolves (39-38) enter Friday’s home game against the Los Angeles Lakers in eighth place in the Western Conference. They are one game out of the No. 6 spot, which would avoid the play-in tournament, but two games ahead of the Dallas Mavericks, who currently are outside of the playoff race.
Reid will be a free agent this summer.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: www.espn.com