Jaden McDaniels is coming off the best season of his NBA career. Turning 26 later this month, there are reasons to believe that further improvements, particularly on the offensive end, can still happen for the 2020 first-round pick.
HoopsHype has been posting its top 27 players at each position for the upcoming 2026-27 season. On Thursday, they revealed their top 27 small forwards. McDaniels' low ranking of 17th should surprise most Timberwolves fans, as well as NBA fans in general. Frankly, after what we saw from McDaniels last season, this ranking is disrespectful, and it shows that he's still underrated.
There are a few names it would seem McDaniels should be ahead of
Already one of the best perimeter defenders, McDaniels had a career year on the offensive side in 2025-26. McDaniels averaged 14.8 points per game in what was his sixth season, a career-best by 2.6 points. The 6-foot-9 wing also shot a career-best 41.2 percent from beyond the arc and 83.5 percent from the free-throw line. Seven times last season, McDaniels scored at least 25 points, something he had done just eight times entering the year.
While his 3-point shot abandoned him against the Denver Nuggets in the opening round of the 2026 postseason, he consistently drove to the basket for buckets while also playing hounding defense on All-Star Jamal Murray. Plus, who can forget his 32-point performance in Game 6?
So, for HoopsHype to believe he will be just the 17th-best small forward in 2026-27 is surprising.
Look, the San Antonio Spurs just reached the NBA Finals with Devin Vassell as a full-time starter. While Vassell is a consistently better 3-point shooter than McDaniels (McDaniels was better last season, though by percentage), Vassell isn’t clearly better than McDaniels at anything else.
Norman Powell is 12th, five spots ahead of McDaniels. Yes, Powell was named an All-Star last season, an honor McDaniels has yet to receive in his career. Powell has also seen a large dip in his numbers each of the last two years post-All-Star break, and he’s not in the same vicinity as McDaniels as a defender.
Putting a rookie six spots ahead of McDaniels at 11th is also a bit disrespectful, even if AJ Dybantsa is seen as a future star. He’s also still just 19 (turns 20 on January 29), and the numbers often show that most rookies don’t make their team better with them on the floor, even if the production is there.
Now, McDaniels needs to show that the improved outside shot isn’t just a one-off season if he wants to hit his ceiling. Nonetheless, he is elite on one side of the ball and consistently getting better on the other. 17th is just too low.
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