Jaden McDaniels is known as one of the best defenders of the competition. However, he has a growing offensive game and is quietly the best Finisher in Minnesota Timberwolves.
While he appears in a recent episode of The Dane Moore NBA PodcastJon Krawczynski said he believes that McDaniels is the best finisher of the wolves. I heartily agree with the recording of Krawczynski, and there is important evidence to support it.
Anthony Edwards would be the easy player to point out. While Ant is the better athlete and on-ball maker, McDaniels is the more efficient Finisher. McDaniels even shot a higher percentage on the edge than Edwards in every season of his career. Although Edwards makes more shots on the edge and is the better athlete, it is worth mentioning that he only had three Dunks than McDaniels.
McDaniels took steps as Finisher and Maker last season
McDaniels shot 68.4 percent on the edge, which was higher than anyone else in the team other than Rudy Gobert. Edwards in particular shot 61.9 percent on the edge. In the play-offs, McDaniels shot a team-best 73.2 percent on the edge. Julius Randle’s 64.1 percent on the edge was the next highest among the Rotation Players of Wolves. Edwards only shot 56.1 percent on the edge.
During the play-offs, McDaniels was more comfortable as a self-creator. He has done an excellent job by attacking close -outs and mismatches. McDaniels on average 14.7 points in the play -offs, which was a career high. At the age of 25 it is reasonable to expect that this aggressive version of McDaniels about attack is the new standard.
We have not only seen this growth of McDaniels in the play -offs. During the 2025 part of the regular season, McDaniels showed more aggression on the ball and an average of 13.9 points. Moreover, he shot 72.5 percent on the edge during this piece. Impressive, 38.3 percent of the shots of McDaniels on the outskirts were not -supported in the regular season, a number that increased to 39 percent in the play -offs. This should serve as more evidence that McDaniels will produce at this level in the 2025-26 season.
Even without this level of self-creation, McDaniels was largely a high-level finisher because of his off-ball skills. McDaniels has long been an elite cutter and uses his crowds to collect points on wellbacks. His off-ball skills have always made him an efficient source of attack, and now, with a growing on-ball game, McDaniels could clearly use his claim as the best Finisher of the Wolves.
The wolves should make McDaniels a central point of the attack. He only shot 3.4 attempts on the edge in the regular season and 3.7 in the play -offs. If McDaniels itself is more aggressive, this will of course help his volume go up. Nevertheless, the wolves could power him more. It is clear that McDaniels score on the edge, of the ball or as a maker, one of the best sources of the wolves.
McDaniels still has to work on drawing more contact, because last season he only had 1.6 free throw attempts per game. Anyway, the finishing of McDaniels is an essential skill for the wolves, and it is fair to predict that he will be authorized more in the violation.
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