Jaden McDaniels spoke on being a new father during media day.
“Sometimes I just stare at him,” McDaniels said, smiling ear to ear. “It’s just a blessing.”
McDaniels has had a busy summer. Welcoming a son into the world may have been most impactful for him, but the Minnesota Timberwolves opened a large role for McDaniels when they traded Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks. McDaniels hopes to fill that void after staying in the Twin Cities for most of the offseason for the first time.
“Catch and shoot, playing off the ball,” said McDaniels, describing what he worked on. “Locking in the gym and working on handling the ball.”
Jaden expanded on his offseason focus by explaining his focus on being a ball-handler.
“Learning different reads, from the low man or the tag guy,” he said. “I’m an unselfish player.”
The Wolves expect McDaniels to become more of a playmaker and focal point of the offense this season. They also trust him to foul less. However, McDaniels would have to grow significantly as a player to fill Towns’ offensive production, given McDaniels’ issues shooting the ball last year.
On the positive side, McDaniels has shown us he can grow as a distributor. Last season, he had 1.4 assists per 0.8 turnovers, resulting in a 1.75 assist-to-turnover ratio, up from his 1.4 career average.
Unfortunately, that’s where the positives end, statistically. McDaniels’ 11.6 % turnover percentage is nearly double his 6.8% assist percentage. That means although he averages more assists than turnovers, the percentage of team possessions that end specifically with McDaniels assisting is significantly less than those that end with a turnover.
That may be confusing and sound conflicting. However, it’s vital to understand what that difference represents. Since last season, the Wolves have had significantly better options that gave them a better chance of registering an assist.
McDaniels’s assist percentage ranks 16th out of a possible 20th among players who logged any minutes with the Wolves, despite McDaniels logging the fourth-most minutes. His turnover percentage was 9th out of 20, suggesting again that he was about average in protecting the ball.
The easy explanation for this discrepancy is that the Wolves didn’t put Jaden in many positions to make plays. Therefore, he didn’t have the opportunity to register assists, resulting in a lower assist percentage. However, given his minutes and being 16th on the team, that seems unlikely to be the sole reason.
McDaniels’ usage percentage indicates that his turnover issues aren’t solely a result of opportunity. He had a 15.7% usage, meaning 15.7% of possessions when McDaniels had the ball ended with him either scoring, missing, or turning the ball over.
Troy Brown Jr. had the exact same usage of 15.7%, and his assist percentage was 5.9% better than that of McDaniels. To use the extreme to prove the example, Mike Conley had a 16.0% usage. His assist percentage was 21.6% better than McDaniels’, at a team-high 28.4%.
Extrapolating from there, we can conclude that McDaniels’ turnover percentage has led to his lack of opportunities. McDaniels’ 11.6% TOV% is only slightly better than Brown’s 12.4%. That shows that Brown Jr. accounted for 5.9% more assists while on the floor and only 0.8% more turnovers. Data like this explains why a player like Brown would have more opportunities. He’s more likely to make a positive play than a negative one.
The tape seems to match the stats. McDaniels was often perched in the corner waiting for a pass, and the Wolves only relied on him to swing the ball as a playmaker. When McDaniels took the ball from the corner or wing, he rarely looked to make a pass. Instead, he used his size to score.
Knowing the data indicates that the Wolves shouldn’t use him as a playmaker, McDaniels’s play style was likely schemed so that he would not have to focus on as many options when receiving the ball. It essentially amounted to swinging the ball to the next player or driving to score.
McDaniels has been an enigma in the first four years of his career. He rarely shows emotion and has earned a reputation as a staunch defender. Every year around September, though, rumors start to trickle through that McDaniels is poised for a leap in production. However, that never seems to be fully realized during the season.
Still, McDaniels welcomed his first child over the offseason. With that life-changing experience, we may finally see McDaniels’s new Dad Mode as he capitalizes on the opportunities.
