One Timberwolves player who can surprise everyone this season

Heading into next season, there’s a lot of reason to be optimistic about the Minnesota Timberwolves. They’re a young and talented group who just added one of the most dominant centers in the NBA to their roster. With a deep and well-rounded rotation, they’re ready to take the league by storm.

Of course, a lot of the excitement for next season revolves around the aforementioned Rudy Gobert, as well as face-of-the-franchise Karl-Anthony Towns, and budding superstar Anthony Edwards. But there’s another crucial piece to the roster that’s poised to surprise everyone this season, and that’s Jaden McDaniels.

McDaniels Can Be A Two-Way Star

While most fans will be excited to see more high-flying dunks from Edwards and the versatile inside-out game of Towns, McDaniels brings something a little different to the table. He’ll be entering his third year in the league, and it could be the season he finally blossoms into a star.

After participating in the 2022 Rising Stars game at NBA All-Star weekend, McDaniels’ talent is no secret anymore. He’s a physically gifted forward with high capability on both sides of the ball. The fact that the Timberwolves were able to retain him in the Rudy Gobert trade is a huge win.

McDaniels ended the 2021-22 campaign on a high note, putting up a career-best 24 points against the Memphis Grizzlies in game six of their first round series. He showed flashes of excellence throughout the year with his well-rounded and versatile game.

With the physical tools to affect the game in multiple ways, McDaniels is coming onto the scene as one of the best young two-way players in the league. As he continues to get better, he’ll be filling up the stat sheet on a nightly basis. He already put up game-highs of seven assists, four steals, and five blocks this past season.

Timberwolves fans can be excited about Jaden’s development because there are several other two-way stars who followed a similar path to the one he’s on. Kawhi Leonard and Jimmy Butler were both less important role players for their first few years in the NBA, until they hit their stride and reached a new level. McDaniels has exhibited some of the same traits and habits as those stars did in his first two seasons as a pro.

For example, he is an excellent screener and roller. He has a good understanding of fundamentals and where he needs to be to make things work. That’s a trait that will always be paramount to development.

McDaniels has also become smarter at understanding his role offensively, and recognizing what is and isn’t a good shot for him. In his second year, he shot nearly two percentage points higher from the floor, while taking his shots 2.2 feet closer to the basket than his rookie year, on average.

Not only that, but he’s also becoming very efficient in the mid-range. When shooting anywhere from 10 feet out until the three-point line, he made 54.8% of his attempts last year. As he figures out what he can do to punish defenses, it could be key to him taking a leap.

With the strides he’s already made and with such a talented group around him, I think it’s likely Jaden McDaniels surprises a lot of us this year.