Jaden McDaniels Becomes Timberwolves’ Sixth-Man Off-The-Bench

Jaden McDaniels enters the league as a rookie with possibly the most upside and potential in this draft class. The sky’s the limit for what Jaden McDaniels can achieve and a lot of it is because of his athleticism for his size.

McDaniels stands about 6’10” and at only 200 lbs, is an extremely elusive and versatile forward. He is somewhat of a positionless player on the court as he is comfortable with or without the ball in his hands and does a lot of his damage in the open court.

Although he is not known for being much of a perimeter shooter, Jaden McDaniels shot 33.9% at Washington last year and has a very smooth shooting stroke. With how high he releases his shot, it is almost impossible to block and his fundamentals look very on point. McDaniels fell a little bit in the draft because of how he was under-utilized at Washington, thus affecting his playing stats, but has all the potential of a Top 10 pick.

With the Timberwolves, Jaden McDaniels will likely play both on the wing and in the post at power-forward as a result of his athleticism and length. On the wing, he definitely has a shot to work his way into the starting lineup near the middle/end of the season, but nonetheless, he will establish himself as a key role player off-the-bench early on in the year. 

Given how quick he is and the fact that he stands above 6’10” with shoes, Jaden McDaniels is an extreme mismatch for almost anyone who is tasked with guarding him and will be a nightmare for smaller opponents that have to guard him and he has the ability to post them up from the perimeter and work his way into the low-post. 

McDaniels’ overall potential and offensive skill-set is what makes him such an interesting rookie prospect this season and if he is given the chance, it will be hard for the Timberwolves to keep him off the court