Jaden McDaniels’ early career has been a tale of turbulent impact. When McDaniels is at his best, he is one of the league’s most effective role players. He can offer an All-Defense impact and vital tertiary scoring abilities. However, when McDaniels struggles to find his rhythm defensively, it negatively affects his offensive aggression and output, stunting the Minnesota Timberwolves’ ceiling.
McDaniels is a fantastic perimeter defender, earning second-team All-Defense honors last season. Still, he has weaknesses. McDaniels struggles to guard strength creators, specifically Luka Dončić, who’s now with the Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota’s first-round playoff matchup.
The Lakers present a daunting first-round defensive matchup for McDaniels
In last year’s Western Conference Finals, Dončić consistently dominated offensively despite McDaniels’ best defensive efforts. Dončić frequently forced McDaniels to trail and gained control of possessions. He held McDaniels in jail on his backside through his sheer strength, continuously creating advantages for the Mavericks.
Dončić’s complete command of the game gave Dallas persistent offense. He constantly scored against McDaniels and broke Minnesota’s defense.
However, life moves fast in the NBA, and the Lakers are a completely different matchup from the Mavericks.
The Timberwolves and Chris Finch would be foolish to continue leaving McDaniels on an island with Dončić. Still, LA’s personnel makes this a difficult matchup for the Wolves and McDaniels.
If they move McDaniels off Dončić, they likely move him onto another strength creator, LeBron James, or the rising Austin Reaves, who may be the best individual matchup for McDaniels. Still, Reaves is not an easy matchup and is a crafty scorer, further complicating Minnesota’s defensive strategy.
Finding McDaniels’ defensive fit will be crucial to maximizing his skill set
The Wolves have been experimenting with McDaniels’ defensive roles all season, and there are many ways to deploy him.
Minnesota’s growing perimeter defensive personnel has given McDaniels more freedom throughout the regular season. When Nickeil Alexander-Walker or Jaylen Clark share the floor with McDaniels, they can take on the point-of-attack defensive duties, allowing McDaniels to conserve his defensive energy.
The easiest way to give McDaniels freedom is to match him up with secondary creators or as the low-help defender, enabling him to operate as a roamer away from the ball. McDaniels’ frame and agility allow him to cover an immense amount of space on the court. Therefore, McDaniels can still be a game-breaker for the Timberwolves while not focusing on defending one opposing player.
McDaniels likely will still see time on Dončić. LA’s offensive personnel with Dončić, James, and Reaves makes it difficult to match up. However, rotating McDaniels across the three top scoring threats and giving him defensive freedom as a roamer will maximize his potential impact.
We still don’t know if Finch will play nine players in his rotation and give Jaylen Clark an opportunity in the first-round series. Clark’s stocky body type should match up well with Dončić, opening defensive opportunities with McDaniels. Subbing in Clark for spot minutes should be, at minimum, Minnesota’s first adjustment to make if Dončić continues to dominate his matchup with McDaniels.
The right defensive matchup gives McDaniels more energy to translate into offensive aggression
A lot of McDaniels’ all-around game is complementary. McDaniels becomes more confident offensively when he can defend at an elite level. When McDaniels struggles against a matchup like Dončic or becomes fatigued, his offensive impact is often halted.
The regular season adjustments with McDaniels’ role can serve as a valuable blueprint for how the Timberwolves and Chris Finch can deploy McDaniels against the Lakers. With how the Lakers are expected to guard Anthony Edwards, McDaniels’ play-finishing ability is crucial.
The Timberwolves have only played the Lakers once since they acquired Dončić: a 111-102 win on February 27. However, it’s unwise to read too much into that result.
Minnesota was without Julius Randle and Rudy Gobert due to injuries, and Anthony Edwards was ejected in the 3rd quarter. Dončić was still ramping back up into playing shape. Despite the added context and the small sample size of minutes, much of LA’s game plan remained the same.
Force anyone but Anthony Edwards to beat them
The Lakers were aggressive, putting two on the ball in any screening action, playing heavy gap help in the passing lanes, and sliding the low-man defender onto Edwards’ side of the paint when he was on the sidelines.
McDaniels will be a pivot point for LA’s defense.
This season, McDaniels shot 33.2% on catch-and-shoot three-point jumpers. No matter where McDaniels stands offensively in Minnesota’s half-court offense, the Lakers will likely sag off. Sending help to more important three-point shooting threats such as Donte DiVincenzo, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and Naz Reid, or completely selling out on Edwards.
If McDaniels is in the corners, defenders would rather collapse onto drives and tag the roll aggressively. The Lakers will be comfortable having one defender guard two players on the opposite side of Edwards.
McDaniels doesn’t need to knock down 3-point jump shots to be effective. If he can attack closeouts and rotating defenders off the dribble, he can give Edwards an outlet and take advantage of his opportunities.
There were plenty of opportunities for McDaniels in Minnesota’s only matchup against the new-look Lakers. He just must finish possessions.
If the Timberwolves cannot find the proper defensive role for McDaniels, it will truncate Edwards’ vital offensive output. The Lakers matchup is difficult for McDaniels. However, given Minnesota’s extensive lineup versatility, they can make many adjustments to maximize his potential impact.
