The Minnesota Timberwolves suffered a disappointing 127-113 road loss to the Atlanta Hawks. The Wolves looked unstoppable in the first half, moving the ball fluidly to whoever was open to get 18 assists on 79 points scored while shooting 67.4% from the field. Unfortunately, Minnesota’s offense got stagnant in the second half and collapsed, scoring only 34 points as a team, while Dejounte Murray nearly outscored them by himself with 30 points in the half.
However, it’s still early in the season and while the game left many things to be desired, especially a win for the Wolves, there were still several positive takeaways from the game. The biggest one was that Jaden McDaniels is back and playing well.
McDaniels had a classic hyper-efficient night on offense. He scored 12 points on 5 of 6 shooting and did a great job of picking which moments to shoot, drive, pass, and cut to help aid the offense’s fluidity. Early in the game, it seemed like the Hawks didn’t read the scouting report on McDaniels, leaving him wide-open on the perimeter twice. McDaniels made them pay by launching quick-trigger threes, both of which dropped in the net with near pinpoint accuracy.
Jaden also did a good job of facilitating ball movement when he got the ball in the flow of the offense. McDaniels registered two assists in the night, the first of which came early in the second quarter. After grabbing a defensive rebound, Jaden pushed the ball up the court. Rudy Gobert set a screen for him on the perimeter, which got the defense rotating, and McDaniels quickly made a pass to Naz Reid after getting separation. Rudy rolled to the paint and his man followed, which left an open lane for Naz to drive and get a layup.
Jaden’s second assist was even more well executed. In the second quarter, McDaniels made a cut from the left corner toward the rim and got a step on his defender, which got him open for Conley to sling him a pass under the rim. The defender in the right corner guarding Shake Milton collapses to the paint to try to prevent McDaniels from getting an easy dunk. However, in doing so, he leaves Milton wide open in the corner. McDaniels recognizes this immediately. Almost as soon as he has control of the ball, he fires it from the baseline back out to Shake, who drills the three.
McDaniels also did a good job of running the floor during fast breaks, and used his athleticism and length to get some easy buckets. One impressive fast break came after Anthony Edwards got a steal. The dynamic duo raced the Hawks defenders down the court, and when both of Atlanta’s players committed to guarding Edwards, Ant passed the ball to Jaden, who skyed for an incredible one-handed jam.
On another fastbreak score, McDaniels got a defensive rebound and immediately turned up court. He quickly sped ahead of all but two Hawks defenders who tried to meet him at the rim. Jaden did a little SloMo-like change of speed right before going up for the layup, which made just enough room for him to score. It also helped that Murray either made a business decision to not risk being on a poster. Or he chose to give Jaden some Seattle respect. Regardless, he kind of stepped out of the way at the last second.
Jaden also made an extremely impressive mid-range jumper in the 4th quarter. As Conley was driving into the lane, he saw McDaniels get free on the perimeter, and passed him the ball. Saddiq Bey closed out quickly, so McDaniels decided to drive. Bey walled up effectively so McDaniels, with nowhere to go, decided to use his height advantage and shoot over Bey, something McDaniels talked about wanting to do more in the offseason. The ball went up over Bey’s outstretched arms and arced perfectly into the hoop.
The shot above was super impressive and demonstrates some of Jaden’s incredible offensive potential. This iteration of the Wolves may not call upon him to take tough contested shots. However, McDaniels can make them, which reminds me that his offensive game is way further along than he is often able to show. At 6’11” Jaden is approximately Kevin Durant‘s height.
Durant is widely considered one of the best players of all time, partially because of his ability to stop his drive on a dime, pull up, and shoot over almost anyone in the league — including other near-seven-footers. The two players have similar physical tools, so watching Jaden incorporate some of the things that make Durant so effective on offense are incredibly exciting. If Jaden starts nailing contested mid-rangers efficiently, along with already being a great three-point shooter and defender, then the Wolves will have a truly scary two-way star.
McDaniels spent most of the game guarding Trae Young and did a great job of slowing him down. Trae shot only 9 of 22 on the night, including 1 of 7 from three point range. While Trae still scored 24 points, Jaden contributed to him shooting inefficiently, which is what you want to see when playing against one of the best scorers in the league. On the play below, McDaniels smothered Trae on his way into the paint. When Young took a fadeaway to try to create space for himself, Jaden closed the space immediately and swatted the ball out of the air.
McDaniels played just under 24 minutes in his first game back, which is down 6.6 from his average minutes played last season. That suggests to me that the Timberwolves are being cautious after his injury and giving him a runway to ramp up before giving him a full load of minutes. The rest of Minnesota’s starters played at least 28 minutes, while Karl-Anthony Towns played 36 and Ant played just under 38.
Once the coaching staff feels comfortable giving McDaniels his full minutes load again, it should be extremely beneficial to the team’s success. No one on the Wolves was able to stop Murray last night. But Jaden is Minnesota’s best wing defender, and he has the best chance of slowing down an opponent’s star on a hot night. Murray played about 39.5 minutes last night and Trae played 35. That means there were at least 11 minutes of the game where McDaniels was off the floor where one of Dejounte or Trae had a better opportunity to cook the Wolves. If the Wolves had allowed McDaniels to play a full minute load, the coaching staff probably would have kept him on the floor for 35+ minutes to shadow one of Atlanta’s two stars as much as possible.
A larger minute load wouldn’t have stopped Minnesota’s offense from disappearing in the second half. But it could have helped the team maintain a defensive presence that prevented the Hawks from so thoroughly taking the momentum of the game in the third quarter. I’m not making an excuse for why the Timberwolves lost. Rather, I’m offering a reason to be optimistic that they will look better in the near future when they have their best wing defender back to full health. Jaden has been integral to Minnesota’s success over the last two seasons and will continue to be in the future. It’s exciting to have him back in the starting lineup looking healthy, playing well, and showing off a bit of what he added to his bag over the summer.
