The Minnesota Timberwolves have had a lot of chaos over the last month, but the Wolves can maintain a sense of normalcy by continuing to develop their young stars. Third-year forward Jaden McDaniels is a crucial player to keep an eye on. One of the most prominent coinciding storylines with the Rudy Gobert acquisition was that the Utah Jazz wanted Jaden, but the Timberwolves did not budge.
Retaining McDaniels was massive for the Timberwolves. They got to hold onto their rising 3-and-D forward, who had an impact as the season progressed. McDaniels showed that he is incredibly valuable when he can put it together. The Wolves will need him after they gave up two of their best point-of-attack perimeter defenders in Jarred Vanderbilt and Patrick Beverley. They were more than comfortable adding more draft assets into the deal to ensure Jaden remained with the core. That puts a lot of pressure on Jaden. While he has had a lot of early success in his role, he now has to fill the shoes as the team’s best perimeter defender and continue his upward trajectory.
McDaniels has some room to improve. However, if he wants to be a consistent cog in Minnesota’s defensive scheme, he must find ways to stay on the court throughout games. Jaden was primarily a bench player last season but occasionally started depending on opposing teams’ personnel matchups. Chris Finch limited McDaniels to 25 minutes per game, but that doesn’t give it enough context. If he was playing and out of foul trouble, he could see an extensive fourth-quarter run. On the other hand, McDaniels would see considerably limited minutes if he was in foul trouble. For example, he only played 10 minutes in the Game 4 win over the Memphis Grizzlies after picking up five fouls.
Jaden’s counting stats sum up why it’s so crucial for him to become more disciplined. He ranked seventh in the league with 3.2 fouls per game. That translates into advanced stats as well.
Foul percentage measures how many defensive fouls are committed per team possession, while block percentage does the same for blocks. Both stats indicate that Jaden adds a lot of defensive value when he is on the floor. However, the actual impact varied a lot because he couldn’t consistently stay on the floor.
Minnesota’s personnel changes should do a lot for Jaden, though. Fortunately, he has Gobert, a three-time DPOY, to work with him. Gobert will offer protection from behind. Therefore, Jaden can attack closeouts more aggressively, go over ball screens, and not have to play catchup chasing down rim attacks as often.
McDaniels often would wildly contest to help Karl-Anthony Towns out around the rim. He would have a lot of success, but he would often turn into touchy fouls quickly. Jaden is much more likely to stay on the top of the arc on defense instead of being in the paint, where he was much more likely to get those fouls. Many of these seemed to come against him regardless of contact due to him being an incredibly lanky player. Therefore, it wouldn’t hurt for him to work on the fundamentals of consistent walling up.
McDaniels’ defense will be vital, even with Gobert assisting him. Utah had a lot of issues with their point-of-attack defense in the playoffs against the Dallas Mavericks. Their best perimeter defender, Royce O’Neale, was consistently switched with another player like Donovan Mitchell or Bojan Bogdanovic to create a mismatch for the opposition offensively. That caused easy dribble penetration, and the defense could not switch and rotate quickly enough. As a result, Maxi Kleber and Reggie Bullock got a lot of open looks.
The Wolves will be more situated defensively after the Gobert trade. Anthony Edwards will be able to use his athleticism in passing lanes, Taurean Prince will use his IQ, and Rudy will be underneath protecting the paint. It will offer Jaden to be more unleashed to free roam around rather than being pigeonholed to the areas in the paint that were troublesome at times.
Tim Connelly gave up draft capital to keep McDaniels on the roster. Therefore, Jaden must continue to prove himself as a versatile defender and essential contributor to a Timberwolves team that (hopefully) regularly makes the playoffs.
