The Minnesota Timberwolves and New York Knicks have a lot in common, other than the whole winning the NBA Championship thing. Still, there’s something Jaden McDaniels can take away from OG Anunoby‘s game to help take the Wolves to the next level.
Both franchises have found recent success after spending the previous two decades embarrassing themselves. Karl-Anthony Towns and Tom Thibodeau played major roles in the turnaround of both franchises. And both teams have won 154 regular-season games over the last three seasons. The Knicks and Wolves have bona fide 1A superstars in Jalen Brunson and Anthony Edwards. But there’s a reason why the Knicks paraded down the Canyon of Heroes on Thursday morning, and the Timberwolves have yet to celebrate in the streets of downtown Minneapolis.
In his ninth season in the NBA, OG Anunoby put together another solid regular season. The 28-year-old from London averaged 16.7 points, 5.2 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 1.6 steals in 67 games. He shot 48.4 percent from the floor, 38.6 percent from three, and 82.8 percent from the free-throw line. Anunoby was 10th in voting for the Defensive Player of the Year award and named to the All-Defensive Second Team. It was a really good season for the third-best player on a 53-win team. But something happened in the playoffs that helped propel the Knicks to their first championship in 53 years. He turned into freaking Kawhi Leonard.
In 17 playoff games, OG averaged 20.1 points, 6.3 rebounds, 1.5 steals, and 1.1 blocks on a ridiculous 56.1/50/85.4 shooting split. He scored 28 points in Game 3 of the Finals and 33 points, including the game-winning tip-in in Game 4, capping the greatest comeback in NBA Finals history. He was a Jalen Brunson 45-point closeout game away from winning Finals MVP in Game 5. Anunoby turned into a star before our eyes and can make a case for being one of the league’s best two-way players.
To follow in the Knicks’ footsteps and go from second-tier contender to a magical run to lift the Larry O’Brien trophy, the Timberwolves will need their wing stopper to level up. Jaden McDaniels, 25, is a few years younger than Anunoby, 28. He has only been in the league for six years, compared to OG’s nine. And Anunoby has 55 pounds on McDaniels (240 to 185).
Still, McDaniels and Anunoby essentially perform the same role for the Knicks and Timberwolves. They are both the best wing defenders on their respective teams. They knock down threes. And both Jaden and OG are secondary and tertiary scoring options.
McDaniels, like Anunoby, had a really good regular season. In his sixth season, McDaniels scored a career-high 14.8 points per game and had a career-best season from deep, hitting 41.2 percent of his threes. After five years of hoping, McDaniels finally proved he can be a reliable offensive hub next to Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle, and especially when Edwards was out with various injuries. McDaniels even turned up the heat in the playoffs just like Anunoby.
In 12 playoff games, McDaniels averaged 16.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 2.4 assists. He scored 32 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, had three assists, two steals, and a block to close out the Denver Nuggets in Game 6 in the first round. McDaniels stepped up to lead the Wolves over their biggest rival when Anthony Edwards hyperextended his knee, and Donte DiVincenzo tore his Achilles tendon in Game 4. He got into the heads of the Nuggets’ best players and became enemy No. 1 for Denver sports fans everywhere by, gasp, daring to shoot a layup with time on the clock.
He fell back to his regular-season output in the six-game second-round loss to the San Antonio Spurs, which is to say he was good but not great. Edwards was back from his injury way faster than anyone had expected. Julius Randle cratered. Rudy Gobert was a Monstar against the Nuggets and then turned into a Nerdluck against Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs. And Jaden McDaniels, like he so often does, disappeared into the background.
Jaden’s Achilles heel in the playoffs, like it so often is, was his inability to stay out of foul trouble. He committed five fouls in three of the six games against Denver and had four fouls in two more. He had five fouls in Games 1, 2, 5, and 6 against the Spurs, and four fouls in Games 4 and 5.
You’re always going to pick up some fouls when you play as aggressively as McDaniels does on defense. It’s part of what frustrates guys like Jamal Murray and Devin Booker so much. When McDaniels has the scent, he will never drop the intensity. But his foul trouble causes him to miss significant portions of the season’s most important games.
Anunoby plays hard-nosed defense like McDaniels, but rarely fouls. McDaniels averaged 4.4 fouls per game in the playoffs. Anunoby averaged 2.6. Anunoby was only truly in foul trouble in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, when the Extender — I mean Scott Foster — officiated the game. McDaniels has to find a way to play relentless defense without fouling.
Jaden McDaniels also had the best three-point shooting season of his career, but couldn’t buy a three-pointer during the playoffs. He shot 41.2 percent from distance in the regular season and 23.8 percent during the playoff run. OG, on the other hand, a career 37.7 three-point shooter, hit 38.6 percent of his deep balls in the regular season and 48.9 percent in the playoffs.
The Timberwolves are entering a pivotal offseason. Things can go any number of ways for a franchise that is a tier below title contention. The good news is this is exactly where the Knicks were last season after Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers sent them home in the conference finals, and New York fired Thibodeau. The Wolves have a similar makeup to the New York Knicks. If we all want to meet at a parade down Nicollet Mall, Jaden McDaniels has to find his inner OG Anunoby and become an unbridled star in the playoffs.
