Report: Muhammad reaches buyout agreement with Timberwolves

The Minnesota Timberwolves have bought out forward Shabazz Muhammad, who hopes to sign with a playoff contender, sources told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.

Thursday is the deadline for players to be bought out and retain playoff eligibility for another team.

Muhammad, who had his qualifying offer pulled before re-signing with Minnesota for the minimum last summer, has fallen out of the Wolves rotation this season. It says something about how they value him that they bought out his contract even after losing their best wing for four-to-six weeks.

Muhammad has never been much of a defender and is a notorious black hole offensively (he's recorded just seven total assists this season), but he was at least a productive scorer once. Prior to this season, the 25-year-old had never averaged fewer than 17.8 points per 36 minutes. He's down to 14.4 this year, on appalling 44.6 percent true shooting.

He's played just 301 minutes this season, but that has been enough to drag the Wolves' net rating down from 5.8 to 3.2. The Wolves have 26.3 fewer points per 100 possessions with him on the floor.

If another team is willing to bet on his previous body of work, a change of scenery will probably do him some good.