Minnesota Timberwolves: What to watch for at Las Vegas Summer League

Minnesota Timberwolves Summer League: Watch Jaden McDaniels be aggressive

The number-one thing that we’ve heard Chris Finch talk about in media availability over the past few weeks is his expectation that second-year forward Jaden McDaniels will be more aggressive in Summer League than fans got used to seeing him in his rookie season.

Finch noted that McDaniels will be the “focal point” of the Summer Wolves and reiterated that point during Friday’s event at Target Center.

During McDaniels’ rookie season, we saw the lanky forward function almost exclusively as a spot-up shooter, catching and shooting on the perimeter when the team’s facilitators drove into traffic or swung the ball to the corner.

That was the role that the coaches undoubtedly asked the rookie to play; with some combination of D’Angelo Russell, Karl-Anthony Towns, Anthony Edwards, and Malik Beasley always on the court with McDaniels, he was never asked to be the primary, or even secondary, offensive option.

But the Wolves are looking for that to change moving forward as they look for a permanent solution next to Towns at the 4, as well as a bigger option at the 3. They’re also searching for versatile, switchable defenders, and McDaniels is exactly that.

If McDaniels can prove that he could be relied upon to be a top scoring option with the bench unit, perhaps we’ll see him start next to Towns at the 4 but earn a steady diet of minutes as the 3 with the bench unit. Such a role would give him the latitude to be more aggressive, and in turn would prove him to be a threat with the starting unit as well. Ultimately, that could limit the number of double-teams that Towns sees.

It would be a surprise to see McDaniels handle the ball in the half-court offense a great deal in Summer League, but expect Summer Wolves head coach Joseph Blair to call McDaniels’ number early and often, either in the high-post, similar to where Towns is often used in Finch’s offense or perhaps as the trigger-man in dribble hand-off actions.

It’s going to be a blast to watch McDaniels go to work this summer, and hopefully, we’ll see glimpses of just how high his ceiling may truly be for the young forward.