Monday marked the 10th game this season that Jaden McDaniels played with Anthony Edwards out of the lineup. Ideally, the Minnesota Timberwolves want their superstar playing every game, but when he’s out, others need to step up on the offensive end.
Now 25 years old, McDaniels has made sure to be one of those players to do just that. It continued on Monday in their win against the Golden State Warriors. It was a balanced scoring attack from the Wolves on Monday sans Ant-Man. One of the players who chipped in to help put the five-game losing streak to an end is McDaniels. He finished the night with 14 points while connecting on two of his four 3-point tries.
Chris Finch on why Jaden McDaniels is more aggressive in certain games
— Andrew Dukowitz (@adukeMN) January 27, 2026
“The ball comes to him more in the flow easily and I think he trusts it. Yeah, I think it’s just opportunities, when his opportunities go up, even if they’re just touches he knows the ball is going to come,… pic.twitter.com/37YaF5hTWR
In all 10 outings that McDaniels has played that Edwards hasn’t, he has reached double figures in scoring. Altogether in those games, the sixth-year forward has averaged 18.8 points with excellent shooting numbers of 52.6 percent from the field and 45 percent from beyond the arc.
McDaniels' production without Ant proves he can reach another level
In contrast, there have been 36 games by the Timberwolves this season where both Edwards and McDaniels have both been in the lineup. The dip in production from the latter is rather noticeable when they are both active.
Jaden drops to 13.6 points per contest with Edwards in the lineup. In those 36 games, McDaniels sees his shooting accuracy dip to 50.1 percent from the field and 40.7 percent from 3-point distance. He is attempting 13.2 shots per game without Edwards, and 10.3 with him. That isn't a substantial difference, but the large difference in scoring comes from his much better efficiency without him.
Overall, McDaniels is still in the midst of his most impressive year on the offensive end. His 14.8 points per outing are more than 2.5 points greater than he has scored in any other season. McDaniels’ 42.3 percent 3-point accuracy is easily a career-best, as he has never shot over 40% prior. He has continued the momentum from a strong offensive performance in last year's playoff run.
A third or fourth option is always going to put up better numbers when the team’s star is absent from the lineup. However, there is more for McDaniels to unlock offensively in becoming consistently more assertive while sharing the court with Ant-Man. As such, he can be truly considered one of the best two-way players in the game today.
At 25 years old, there is no reason not to believe that McDaniels' growth on the offensive end will continue to occur.