In the heart of his time as head coach at New Jersey prep powerhouse Roselle Catholic, Dave Boff heard the rumors spreading through the community of a 6-foot-8 kid who was not yet in eighth grade but was running point guard for his middle school team.

“There’s no chance that’s true,” Boff said to those who kept coming into his office and yammering excitedly about the next big thing in Jersey hoops.

When the stories didn’t stop, Boff finally had to venture out to see this Asbury Park Middle School team for himself. The skepticism that accompanied him to the gym did not abate when he finally saw Naz Reid for himself. It wasn’t that the stories that he heard were not accurate. It was that it took him about five minutes to fully realize that they were.

“I just really had a hard time wrapping my mind around the collection of things that he had going on,” Boff said. “He had the size. And then you combine the size with the skill level at that age, the way that he moved so fluidly at that age, at that size. I had seen enough very good eighth-grade basketball players at that time to know that there just aren’t a lot of people that move that way.”

When Reid came to Roselle Catholic, he joined a team that had future NBA players and championship expectations. With his nimble feet, slick handle and overall feel for the game, Reid fit in from the first time he set foot on campus. He was the sixth man as a freshman on a team that won the prestigious Tournament of Champions, the event that pitted the state champions from each enrollment group to determine the No. 1 overall team in New Jersey. In that role, he learned how to play off of more established star players, an experience that is serving him well as a professional.

Now in his fifth season in the NBA, Reid is a sixth man again, and he’s making a run at the NBA’s award honoring the top reserve in the league for the Minnesota Timberwolves (54-24). His case was only strengthened on Sunday night in Los Angeles when he scored 31 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in a 127-117 victory over the Lakers that put the Wolves back into first place in the Western Conference.

Reid went 12 of 16 from the field, including 6 of 8 from 3-point range to help the Wolves bounce back from an ugly offensive performance in Phoenix on Friday. Reid was just 3 of 13 in that loss, including 1 of 5 from 3.

He came out firing on Sunday night in Los Angeles to atone. Reid scored 23 points in the first half, 18 of them coming in the 46-point second quarter that helped the Wolves blow the game open.

Everything that Boff saw back in high school, Reid was doing against the Lakers.

There were 3s from well behind the arc.

NAZ REID GOT RANGE. 🏹 pic.twitter.com/0D5n49bbkG

— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) April 8, 2024

He unleashed euro steps with uncommon ease for someone his size.

that Naz eurostep is nice. 🤌 pic.twitter.com/M3zQYwv3ND

— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) April 8, 2024

And once Anthony Davis left the game with an eye injury, Reid attacked the paint relentlessly to power the Wolves to a 20-point lead.

fancy footwork. 😮‍💨 pic.twitter.com/mau2DlTXjG

— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) April 8, 2024

“I’m going out there and competing, doing what I do best, doing what I love,” Reid told Bally Sports North after the game. “I’m going out there just to play hard. I have goals and aspirations I want to accomplish. We all do as well, and that’s to win a ring. We all had that same mindset tonight.”

Anthony Edwards had 26 points, eight assists and only one turnover, Rudy Gobert had 18 points and 16 rebounds and Nickeil Alexander-Walker scored 15 points for the Timberwolves, who improved to 10-5 since Karl-Anthony Towns went down with a torn meniscus. Reid has started 12 of those games, and the Wolves are 9-3 in those contests.

Towns and Reid have known each other going back to their days as high school standouts in Jersey. Their games have some similarities with both players combining a soft shooting touch from the perimeter with craftiness and ingenuity near the basket to fill it up. Few players in the league can mimic Towns’ skill set, but Reid can get close to it.

“It brings back the presence of KAT in Naz’s version, of course,” Alexander-Walker said. “It helps us with spacing, another weapon as a scorer, versatility and more depth.”

Reid topped 30 points for the second time this season. In his first four seasons in the league, he finished with double-digit rebounds nine times. The 11 boards against the Lakers on Sunday night marked the eighth time he has done it this season. It also was the third time in the last eight games that Reid has hit six 3s.

It should come as no surprise that the Wolves’ worst quarter of the game — a 23-point third quarter in which they shot 36 percent — was a quiet one for Reid. While the rest of his team threw up bricks, Reid went 2 of 2 from the field, including one 3, and scored five points in the period.

Edwards closed the third strong, and then Reid came through with a two-way flourish in the fourth to turn back a rally from the Lakers. Los Angeles had gotten as close as four points in the second half, but Reid essentially ended any hope of a comeback without Davis and LeBron James (illness).

The Wolves leading 115-100 in the fourth quarter when Mike Conley turned the ball over and Austin Reaves headed back the other way. But Reid stood his ground as Reaves tried to initiate contact and draw a foul. The verticality earned a stop and Conley hit Gobert with a lob pass. Instead of leading by just 13 points, the Wolves were up 17. On their next possession, Reid grabbed his miss off the glass, was fouled by Jaxson Hayes and converted the three-point play for a 20-point lead.

COUNT IT.

AND ONEEEEEEE. pic.twitter.com/ZVWjP8ZOTO

— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) April 8, 2024

Reid’s defense after switching from center to power forward could be the element that pushes him over the top in the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award race. Sacramento’s Malik Monk and the Los Angeles Clippers’ Norm Powell are the two names more often mentioned with Reid in the race. Monk recently was lost for the rest of the regular season with an injury and neither of those guards are in Reid’s league as a defensive player, while Reid’s offense has been comparable at the very least and better in some areas.

Reid is averaging 13.4 points, 5.3 rebounds and shooting 48.2 percent from the field and 41.8 percent from 3-point range, and he is doing it for a team that is now guaranteed to finish in the top three in the West. Monk is averaging 15.4 points, 5.1 assists and shooting 44.3 percent from the field and 35 percent from deep. Powell is at 14.1 points, 2.6 rebounds and shooting 49 percent from the field and 43.8 percent on 3s.

While Reid’s rise from undrafted free agent to folk hero in Minnesota has come as a surprise to many in the league, it hasn’t fazed Boff one bit. Reid’s exploits as a New Jersey high school are the stuff of legend. In the state championship game as a senior, Roselle Catholic was down by seven points with two minutes to play, and Reid responded with nine straight points, including an alley-oop dunk just before the buzzer to win the game.

“That’s still talked about in New Jersey to this day, and it’ll be talked about, probably, forever,” Boff said.

Boff left Roselle Catholic last spring to build a new boys basketball program at College Achieve Greater Asbury Park Charter School. He won seven state titles at Roselle Catholic, but he said that is not his biggest claim to fame in the community. Boff was with his son at a Dunkin’ on the Jersey Shore this summer when a fan approached them.

“For about the 100th time, somebody came up to me and said, ‘Were you Naz Reid’s high school coach?’ ” Boff said. “And I always very proudly say yes. And my son gets the biggest kick out of it. Everybody knows that I’m Naz Reid’s high school coach.”

(Photo of Naz Reid: Juan Ocampo / NBAE via Getty Images)