Jaden McDaniels has spent extra time at practice working on all aspects of his game. However, he’s focused on mid-range shots, three-pointers, and his touch around the basket. Or, in other words, he’s trying to become a reliable three-level scorer.
“A little bit of everything,” he said after scoring 20 points on 8 of 13 shooting against the Utah Jazz on Sunday. “Really, my whole game.”
It’s easy to overlook McDaniels’ intensity, given he’s nearly expressionless on the court. However, he’s become a contracted killer defensively, a $131 million eraser who eliminates opponents without a trace.
Still, McDaniels wanted to do more offensively than shoot corner threes. He’s a hooper in every sense of the word, a throwback player who drives to the basket with herky-jerky motions. However, whatever McDaniels lacks in polish, he makes up in doggedness. In the same way that he hounds players on defense, he has a nose for the basket and finds creative ways to score.
“I gotta play defense every night because I guard the tough matchups,” he said. “I already know that’s my role, just focusing on that and just staying aggressive on offense. I feel like I just play like this all the time.”
McDaniels is an integral part of the Minnesota Timberwolves core, but the Wolves have other primary scorers. Anthony Edwards, Julius Randle, and Naz Reid drive Minnesota’s offense. Mike Conley orchestrates it, and Donte DiVincenzo and Nickeil Alexander-Walker provide outside shooting.
As a defense-first player, McDaniels isn’t one of Minnesota’s primary scorers. He expends much of his energy locking down one of the opponents’ best players. However, that also means McDaniels doesn’t have the creative freedom to play like Edwards and Randle. Or, at least, he didn’t until recently.
“We’ve used him as a handler. We used him as a roller, [off ball, and] as a screener,” Conley said after McDaniels had 29 points against the Charlotte Hornets on March 5. “I think he’s grown into that for us more and more.”
That freedom has unlocked something in McDaniels. He hadn’t averaged more than 12.5 points through the season’s first four months. However, in February, he started to look like Edwards’ sidekick again. He averaged 18.5 points per game in February and is averaging 16.9 in March.
“He’s everything we need,” said Edwards. “I tell him, ‘Don’t stop being aggressive.’
“We play one-on-one, man, he’s the best player in the gym. So yeah, he’s everything we need.”
Before Minnesota’s 121-113 win over the Phoenix Suns on Jan. 29, Finch highlighted that McDaniels could reach another level offensively by tapping into his varied offensive skill set.
“I think he puts so much pressure on himself over the last couple of years to make shots…that he forgot he could do a lot of other things,” Finch said. “He has got back to doing those things.”
Finch has also given McDaniels more defensive freedom. He coached Jrue Holiday in New Orleans and learned that good coaches allow good defenders to freelance off the game plan without breaking it.
“You got to give them freedom because they’re the ones out there in the heat of the battle,” Finch said Sunday after Minnesota beat Utah 128-102.
“He does a really good job of choosing right choosing the right way more often than not, and the few times he doesn’t, he hears about it. But that’s just being extra hard on him, which he’s is already on himself.”
Finch is still coaching McDaniels hard, but he knows McDaniels is already self-critical. We’ve seen McDaniels give in to his frustration, like when he injured his hand punching a wall two years ago. However, it’s easy to overlook that his passion drives his defense and scoring.
Give a driven, experienced player freedom, and he typically will respond productively. McDaniels says he’s capitalized on the opportunity Finch presented him.
“If I’m guarding the chase guy, I got the license to shoot the gap,” he said. “Because I’m so tall, if I go under, I still can contest from behind the screen or even through the screen. He gives me the leeway to do what I want sometimes, so I respect it.”
Earlier in the season, McDaniels looked like a prototypical 3-and-D player. He defended the opposing team’s best wing defender and shot corner threes. Some players must adhere to a strict role to stay in the league. However, McDaniels is more than a corner-three shooter. He’s a creative defender and scorer.
McDaniels has elevated his game to the next level with his newfound freedom, awakening something deep within him.