When McDaniels Comes Ready to Play, Wolves are Hard to Beat

For the last three years, whispers around Minneapolis have been heard of how Jaden McDaniels is ready to take the next step offensively. This past summer, there were multiple reports that McDaniels had put in a tremendous amount of work over the offseason and Wolves fans should expect a big jump in his offensive capabilities. Yet, he has started this season with some of the worst offensive basketball of his career.

Through 20 games this season, McDaniels was averaging below 30% from three-point range. He has now bumped that up to 31.2%, still significantly below his career 35.1% and well below his career best of 39.8% in 2022-2023. His scoring is down slightly this season, as well, at 10.2 ppg, as is his free-throw percentage at 69%.

Most alarming, to me, has been the type of shots he has missed. So often, McDaniels’ role on offense consists of standing in the corner. With the amount of help defense that Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle demand, McDaniels’ defender is often playing significantly off him. Hence, McDaniels is recieving the most wide-open corner three-pointers on the team. It has to be noted that, in the age of analytics, the corner three has been valued extremely highly, due to the shorter distance from the hoop. So, all this to say, when McDaniels is shooting 31.2% from three, it is unacceptable.

Enough of the negative, though. The purpose of this article is to show how, when McDaniels plays well and with intensity, the Wolves are a significantly better team. When McDaniels scores 10 or more points, the Wolves are 8-4 this season. Defensively, McDaniels is consistent in his on-ball defensive intensity, but many games he is lacking in his off-ball awareness. To be fair, he is generally tasked with guarding the other team’s best player, and Coach Chris Finch and de facto defensive coordinator Elston Turner have talked about how they can’t expect McDaniels to be helping off the supreme scorers he is guarding.

In the Wolves recent 97-87 win on December 13 against the Los Angeles Lakers, Wolves fans got to see McDaniels focus on help-defense. Due to injuries, McDaniels was often matched up with the undersized and slumping Gabe Vincent, or Austin Reaves, who is a fine scorer but far from one of the toughest assignments in the league. McDaniels shone in this role, jumping in passing lanes, reading skip passes, and utilizing all 7 feet of his wingspan en route to tallying 5 steals. He also added 2 blocks.

So, you might ask, what good is it that the Wolves are better when McDaniels can relax off his main assignment if that won’t be the reality against any of the top teams in the league? This is a fair point. However, the Wolves are in the luxurious position of having multiple other top wing defenders on their roster. Nickeil Alexander-Walker was 5th in the NBA last season in defensive rating. Edwards is one of the best on-ball defenders in the league when it matters, and he often demanded the other team’s top player in crunch time in the playoffs. What I want to see is McDaniels viewing those minutes of the game when he is switched off the other team’s top scorer as a prime opportunity to wreak havoc with his help defense, instead of slinking to the corner and reducing his intensity. If he does, the Wolves defense could be even better than last season.

And for McDaniels, so much of his offense is about confidence. He typically isn’t expected to, or given the opportunity, to do much. But in games where he is playing well defensively, you can just see his confidence level rise on the offensive end as well.