Timberwolves beat reporter gives fans Jaden McDaniels hope they desperately need

Jaden McDaniels is clearly one of the best perimeter defenders in the NBA. The recently turned 25-year-old was named to the All-Defensive Second Team in 2023-24 and just missed repeating that feat last season. It’s on the other side of the floor where McDaniels has shown flashes of breakouts, but also inconsistencies. Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic believes there’s even more to come from McDaniels’ offensive game as he enters his sixth season in the league.

Jaden McDaniels excels at the rim

On the Athletic NBA Daily podcast, Dave DuFour spoke with Krawczynski and asked him who he thinks could see their play for the Timberwolves this season. The first name Krawczynski brought up was McDaniels.

“I really think he’s entering year six. He’s already established himself as an elite defender in this league, but I think there’s a belief that there’s more to his offensive game,” Krawczynski said. He’s not a catch-and-shoot 3-point shooter, but I think you’ll see him put the ball on the floor a little bit more, make plays, run pick-and-rolls with Rudy Gobert. I think they’re going to try to be a little bit more creative with him offensively… I think he’s their best finisher at the rim, especially in transition.”

Now McDaniels did not play again after apparently hurting his left ankle in the third quarter during Minnesota’s preseason game with the Knicks on Thursday. The hope is that he doesn’t return as a precaution as it is only a preseason game, but more information will be provided soon.

It’s not a stretch to call McDaniels the team’s best finisher at the rim. The 6-foot-1 forward shot an impressive 70.7% at the rim last season. Believe it or not, that’s actually worse than his career accuracy of 74.6%. In 2024-25, and throughout his career, about a quarter of his field goal attempts came at the rim.

It would behoove Chris Finch to find more opportunities to push McDaniels to the limit. As good as Minnesota has been the past two seasons, they finished in the bottom half in two-point accuracy in both seasons.

McDaniels is coming off a career-high scoring season

In 2024-25, McDaniels averaged a career-high 12.2 points while appearing in all 82 appearances. He wasn’t used enough on offense in many of the Timberwolves games. In 28 games, McDaniels finished with a single-digit point total.

Perhaps his playoff run, which saw his scoring average rise to 14.7, can become a springboard to greater offensive impact this season. With the Timberwolves not adding an outside free agent to a standard deal, they are counting on improvement from their younger players. While many focus on players like Terrence Shannon Jr., Rob Dillingham and Jaylen Clark, McDaniels is young enough that we probably haven’t seen him at his peak either.