It’s foolproof. Immediately after a win, Anthony Edwards will deflect the credit to his teammates. It doesn’t matter if Edwards put the team on his back down the stretch, scored 40-plus points, or hit the game-winner — you would think he had nothing to do with the victory.
“I don’t know, shout out to my teammates, man,” Edwards told FanDuel Sports minutes after he hit a game-winning three against the Houston Rockets on Dec. 27. “I couldn’t have done it without them. Julius, Donte, Nickel, Naz came through in the clutch, and Jaden. Everybody, man. Shoutout to everybody.”
Edwards was right; Minnesota’s improbable 113-112 comeback in Houston was a full-team effort. Until he scored six points in the final 1:31, the Rockets held Ant, who finished with 24 points on 9 of 17 from the floor, to one point in the second half. However, he was ultimately the hero after drilling a side-step 3 with 23 seconds left to complete a 16-point comeback in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter.
Still, Julius Randle led all scorers with 27 points, Donte DiVincenzo had 22 points on 6 of 10 from deep, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker tacked on 11 points and five assists. Naz Reid scored nine of his 14 points with under five minutes left to kickstart Minnesota’s comeback.
Jaden McDaniels scored only two points on 1 of 6 from the floor. He was a minus-5 in 20 minutes, racking up four fouls. Still, Edwards mentioned him in his postgame acknowledgments. McDaniels held Jalen Green to three points on three shot attempts in 19.3 partial possessions while defending him. Still, it was another underwhelming offensive performance from McDaniels in a season full of such games, regardless of what Edwards may tell you.
Edwards will always go out of his way to make his fellow 2020 draftee look good off the court. At some point, McDaniels must do the same for his 23-year-old counterpart on the court to be a fixture next to Edwards on a championship team.
If not, the door on their long-term partnership could slam shut.
“Coming out of the playoffs, my confidence is super high,” McDaniels said during media day. “Going in, it was still high. But doing those things in the playoffs shows you what you can do and the work you put in. I would just say to work at the level I was working at before the playoffs.”
Chris Finch has often called McDaniels the barometer for Minnesota’s offensive success. McDaniels has been a tertiary scoring option. However, when he plays well, so does the team. Finch constantly searches for ways to generate more offense for McDaniels. Still, he fills Minnesota’s 3-and-D role in the starting lineup. Even though Jaden has never been a prolific shooter or isolation threat, his defense and the hope of blossoming into Edwards’ right-hand man has given fans reasons to be excited.
McDaniels appeared to take the first step in manifesting that hope in his first real taste of the playoffs last season, where he averaged 12.2 points on 51.4% from the floor and 42.9% from deep in 16 games. Jaden had four games with 20 or more points, three of which came in succession of one another. The Washington native gave the Wolves a somewhat unexpected offensive outlet, which opened up the floor for Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns.
However, trading Towns to the New York Knicks in the offseason created a new long-term core around Edwards, Reid and McDaniels.The Wolves had offensive reinforcements coming in to replace the 21.8 points Towns averaged by obtaining Randle and DiVincenzo, who together averaged 39.5 points for the Knicks last season. However, KAT’s absence pressured Minnesota’s supporting cast to perform even better than last season.
The Wolves needed McDaniels to morph that 16-game playoff stretch into a season of consistency this year after Minnesota lost its most reliable floor spacer next to Edwards. The front office also needed to see meaningful growth from McDaniels to give them tangible results that prove Jaden can be a reliable scoring option.
Instead, McDaniels is averaging 9.7 points this season on 43.6% from the floor and 32.6% from deep, all of which are down from last season. He still hasn’t taken the necessary leap in one particular category, and it is hurting Edwards.
The Timberwolves are shooting 38.5% from deep when the closest defender is 6-plus feet away, which the league describes as a “wide-open” shot. That ranks 17th league-wide and is noticeably worse than last season when Minnesota shot a fourth-best 40.8% on wide-open threes. Because McDaniels is a prototypical 3-and-D wing, he shoulders much of the blame for Minnesota’s sub-par open three-point making.
McDaniels is shooting 34.9% on wide-open threes, the second-worst among Minnesota players who have played over 30 games. He also shoots a team-low 17.4% when the closest defender is between four and six feet away, which qualifies as an “open” shot. That’s also the fifth-worst open three-point percentage league-wide of players with at least 20 attempts.
Minnesota’s inability to make open shots fed into Edwards’ recent slump. He averaged 20.5 points on 42.7% from the floor and 38% from deep in 13 December games. Opposing teams have doubled or even tripled-teamed Edwards for years. He has been able to break down the blitzing defense in the past, but the attention he’s faced this year has frustrated Ant in a way it never has before.
“It’s not how I want to play, of course,” Edwards told the media after he put up 15 points on 5 of 16 shooting against the Boston Celtics on Jan. 2. “I am only 23. I don’t want to just be passing the ball all night, but the way they are guarding me, I think I have to.”
Edwards has broken out of that slump, averaging 40.7 points on 49.4% from the floor and 59% from deep over the last three games. However, his hot streak started with Ant dropping 53 points and scoring 50.5% of his team’s points in a 119-105 loss to the Detroit Pistons.
That loss was an egregious example of inconsistent shot-making, which has plagued the Wolves all season. Edwards had issues staying engaged during his December slump. He wasn’t an active off-ball scorer and didn’t have the same speed in his scoring moves. He looked defeated, but it was hard to blame him.
Opposing defenses have tilted to Edwards’ side of the floor. They send multiple defenders to Ant on every possession and sit in the gaps – taking away Edwards’ ability to regularly get downhill. Some of that was because Ant wasn’t aggressively seeking ways to exploit the defense and holding onto the ball for too long. However, the defense primarily loaded up on Edwards because none of his teammates could make them pay when Ant passed to an open teammate.
McDaniels isn’t the only player to blame for that. Mike Conley is shooting 36.5% from 3 this season, noticeably worse than his 44.2% last year. Randle is shooting 35.8% from deep, his highest 3-point percentage since 2020-21. However, he isn’t the same spot-up threat as KAT.
The Wolves have less reliable shooting around Ant this season. Finch switched the starting lineup last week, replacing Conley with DiVincenzo, who’s shooting 41.5% from 3 over the last six games. That helps space the floor around Edwards. Still, the Wolves must pair more than one reliable shooter next to Ant to get the most out of him.
Finch may never need McDaniels to blossom into a 15-point per-game scorer, especially if he continues to attempt a low volume of shots. However, if Jaden can’t shoot above or close to 40% from three, it is hard to justify paying him north of $110 million over the next four seasons, regardless of how well he plays defensively.
McDaniels and Edwards have always been close. Ant wants to see his teammates succeed, especially Jaden, and always goes out of his way to make them look good. However, McDaniels’ future with the Wolves ultimately depends on his ability to make open shots. Jaden’s ceiling has always been much higher, but we can only judge him on how he plays.
McDaniels must prioritize making Edwards look good.