Deep Dive: Kyle Anderson's Impact On Jaden McDaniels' Blossoming Game
Minnesota's wily veteran has found his apprentice.
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No matter how this topsy-turvy Minnesota Timberwolves season ends, the rise of Jaden McDaniels from potential-laden, dragon-winged defender into two-way foundational piece shouldn’t go unnoticed. It might have taken a long-term Karl-Anthony Towns injury and a twisted Anthony Edwards ankle to hand the 21-year-old enough leash to showcase himself, but McDaniels’ offensive game has been tinkered and enhanced since the day he arrived in Minnesota.
The organization has shown faith in him from day one, but unlike his draft-mate and instant-hit in Edwards, McDaniels’ ball of clay required more meticulous molding. While Edwards had the help of Ricky Rubio and Patrick Beverley to take him from a high-rise luxury pick to a full-blown penthouse headliner, McDaniels has had to work from the lobby up. And, judging by the way in which their games mirror one another, it’s been Kyle Anderson who has rubbed off most on Minnesota’s other 2020 draft pick.
It feels like an odd comparison to entertain and a weird link to draw. Nobody in the league is a true facsimile of Anderson and his wacky old-man game, especially not a quick-twitch athlete who can lope down a sideline like a gazelle one minute and headbutt the rim the next. However, as McDaniels has deftly revealed the outlines of his future offensive self, it has become more and more apparent that his is a game that relies on herky-jerky movements, weird-yet-feathery touches around the rim, and an intrinsic sense of how to find space where there is none — just like Anderson.
There’s no denying that role, opportunity, maturation and confidence are all ingredients in the cocktail that is Jaden McDaniels, but it’s also no coincidence that it was all shaken, stirred and poured into a pristine glass once Anderson arrived on the scene. Every apprentice needs a master, and the striking similarities between Slo-Mo and Big Mac reinforce that kind of relationship.
McDaniels has always had the ability to knock down catch-and-shoot 3-pointers in his toolbelt — he shot 36.4 percent from deep in his rookie campaign and has increased that to a cool 39.5 percent this season — but he arrived in the Twin Cities limited to those types of shots only. The lanky finishing floated in and out of games, but without the ability to get to the rim himself he was relegated to finishing cuts or bounding transition forays.
This season, and especially in the latter parts of it, we’ve seen the combo wing expand his bag off the dribble and flourish as a nifty finisher around the rim. Although he is more than capable of the odd athletic torpedo, it’s not smashmouth explosions that feed his isolation or off-the-catch scoring. McDaniels befuddles defenders through witchcraft footwork and an exceptional sense of body angles. Just like Anderson.
These are the types of finishes we’ve been seeing out of McDaniels a lot lately — finishes that feel like they ripped clean out of the Anderson handbook of curiosities.
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