Chris Finch took time after practice to evaluate Jaden McDaniels‘ offensive performance this season.
“Pretty good, gotta clean up some of his turnovers,” he said. “This happens in our offense, you’ll have these random playmaking situations that come up. Sometimes, they might be less than ideal, and we just got to get used to it. I think he’ll get better as it goes along.”
McDaniels came into the season with high expectations from the team. They hoped he’d help fill some of Karl-Anthony Towns’ offensive void after they traded Towns. However, McDaniels has been inconsistent offensively through four games.
From a playmaking standpoint, Finch is spot on; McDaniels has been pretty good. His assist-to-turnover ratio is 2.0, marking a career-high and blowing past his previous career high of 1.32.
He’s also posting a career-high in assist percentage (possessions ending in a McDaniels assist) at 14.1%, a significant improvement from his previous career high of 8.2%. He’s seen similar growth in his career-high 20.2 assist ratio (the percentage of team assists a player is responsible for while on the floor). Meanwhile, McDaniels has dropped his usage rate from 15.6 to 15.2 while playing fewer minutes (29.2 to 27.9).
That suggests that while McDaniels is playing fewer minutes and spending less time with the ball in his hands, he’s significantly better at making the right reads and finishing plays with an assist versus a turnover or missed shot. McDaniels is averaging 2.5 assists per game, 0.6 better than his previous career high.
Finch mentioned McDaniels’ turnovers, which sit at 1.3 per game, just 0.1 higher than last season. They could decrease and likely will as McDaniels becomes more accustomed to Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo. The trade-off in McDaniels’ growth as a passer and making reads is worth the small increase in turnovers.
Unfortunately, McDaniels’ shooting remains a work in progress. He’s only shooting 18.2% from three on 2.8 attempts per game, which are career lows. McDaniels hasn’t made a corner three this season and is only shooting 2 of 7 from three above the break. As a result, he has a minus-3.5 net rating since his rookie season, albeit in only four games.
Still, there’s reason to believe his shooting will improve. McDaniels is shooting 59.1% on two-point attempts, which is only 0.1% lower than his percentage on twos from last season. McDaniels is also 2 of 2 from the free-throw line this season. Even considering the small sample size, it’s still notable that outside of McDaniels’ three-point shot, his other offensive skills are relatively the same as last year.
That indicates that McDaniels’ three-point shooting average will return to his previous average. Coupled with his success in playmaking and increased role, that could lead to a much different version of McDaniels. Because it’s so early into the season, many of these statistics could change if McDaniels has a good game. Still, the Wolves need everything McDaniels can give them to become bona fide contenders.
