April 9, 2023. Game 82. The Minnesota Timberwolves and New Orleans Pelicans faced off in a vital game for playoff seeding. Both teams attempted to secure the 8th seed and a more comfortable play-in pathway. The Wolves overcame an early Pelicans lead, with Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns carrying them to victory with a combined 56 points. But it was not all smooth sailing for the Timberwolves.
With 44 seconds remaining in the first quarter, Jaden McDaniels committed a loose ball foul on Larry Nance Jr. as they fought for a rebound. Chris Finch subsequently subbed him out. While walking off the court, visibly frustrated, through the arena tunnel. He swung his fist at what he thought was a canvas tunnel covering. But just behind that protective temporary cover sat a wall. McDaniels broke his hand, ending his season.
As the Wolves moved through the play-in and into the first round of the playoffs, they missed their point-of-attack defensive mastermind. Nickeil Alexander-Walker shined in Jaden’s role. But McDaniels hindered their defensive versatility, and you could only think about how much better they could have competed if he had been healthy.
Nothing beats a chance at redemption, though.
Minnesota swept the Phoenix Suns in the first round, and the Denver Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Lakers in five games. A Nuggets rematch is officially on the table for the Wolves and Jaden McDaniels.
Jaden is in a significantly better scenario coming off the Phoenix sweep, where he shined on both sides of the floor.
McDaniels was always going to be a massive part of Minnesota’s playoff outcome against Phoenix, and his individual role drives so much of what they do defensively. He had to be at his best with the looming pressure of world-class scorers Devin Booker and Kevin Durant. Additionally, people were focused on McDaniels’ performance because of Ant’s trending social media clip from last season, where he said, “They got KD, but we got Jaden McDaniels.”
And we got every bit of that Jaden McDaniels that Ant was hyping.
While Jaden didn’t match up with KD for most of the season, he did an elite job tracking Devin Booker, his primary matchup. McDaniels limited him from getting any sort of open-shot opportunities. He forced the ball out of Booker’s hands on many of Phoenix’s half-court sets. When the Suns brought over help with a screen or handoff, McDaniels properly navigated around it, limiting Booker from creating space but also limiting his foul trouble.
By putting immense pressure on Booker, Jaden made it easier on the rest of his teammates. Booker couldn’t put together an efficient scoring output until Game 4 of the sweep. Per NBA.com’s matchup tracking data, when the Wolves had Jaden matched up on Booker, he limited him to only 18 points on 4 of 12 FG shooting throughout the series.
Jaden’s offensive output was equally impressive. He scored a career-high 25 points in Game 2. He averaged 15 points in the series, shooting 50% from the field and 27.3% from three, adding 5.8 rebounds per game and 3 offensive rebounds per game. While his three-point shot was not falling, the drives and putbacks on offensive rebounds popped. He effectively attacked closeouts off the dribble and found angles to use his size advantage to extend possessions.
Jaden’s two-way performance against Phoenix will only build momentum. It also laid out his blueprint for success for the Nuggets series. His ability to be a secondary scoring option for the Wolves while simultaneously guarding the special playoff talent that is Jamal Murray is a big ask. Murray is fresh off two-game winners in the Lakers series, but McDaniels is more than capable of guarding him.
In an interview with Shams Charania in The Athletic last season, Shams asked Jaden about his favorite individual matchup.
His answer was Jamal Murray.
I feel like I did a great job on Jamal Murray. During a game, I had blocked like 3 or 4 of his jumpers and he gave me a comment, ‘Bro you gotta stop blocking my jumpers.’ I think I did a great job with the scout and just making it hard for him.
McDaniels had success guarding Murray in the regular season. Still, Jaden hasn’t faced this supercharged playoff version of Murray due to his injury last year. Murray currently has the largest scoring average increase from the regular season to the playoffs in NBA history at +7.4 points.
If anyone can slow him down, it’s Jaden. The Lakers’ lack of perimeter defense hurt them in the first round, but the Wolves have more options outside Jaden to throw at Jamal.
The scoring punch will be just as important. When Jaden can effectively find niche ways to impact the game offensively for the Wolves, he has plenty of opportunities to make his presence known in any game. For example, he can knock down catch-and-shoot corner threes, attack lesser defenders off the dribble, get to his 10-foot dribble pull-up jumper, or attack the glass as a corner crasher for offensive rebounds.
In this series, people will focus on stars like Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns, Jamal Murray, and Nikola Jokic. But the supporting cast will be just as vital. In the Suns series, the Wolves showcased that they can use this to their advantage on their opponents, even if Denver can limit their stars. However, Denver touts a much more competitive tertiary core, with Michael Porter Jr, Aaron Gordon, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Therefore, if Jaden can outshine his opponents, he has a golden opportunity to exorcize his past demons and use his momentum moving into this series to prove himself again.
