Jaden McDaniels is well-known for being one of the league's best defenders. However, he has a growing offensive game and is quietly already the Minnesota Timberwolves' best finisher.
While appearing on a recent episode of The Dane Moore NBA Podcast, Jon Krawczynski mentioned that he believes that McDaniels is the Wolves' best finisher. I wholeheartedly agree with Krawczynski's take, and there is significant evidence to back it up.
The easy player to point to would be Anthony Edwards. While Ant is the better athlete and on-ball creator, McDaniels is the more efficient finisher. In fact, McDaniels has shot a higher percentage at the rim than Edwards in every season of his career. Despite Edwards taking more shots at the rim and being the better athlete, it's worth noting that he had just three more dunks than McDaniels.
McDaniels took strides as a finisher and creator last season
McDaniels shot 68.4 percent at the rim, which was higher than anyone on the team other than Rudy Gobert. Notably, Edwards shot 61.9 percent at the rim. In the playoffs, McDaniels shot a team-best 73.2 percent at the rim. Julius Randle's 64.1 percent at the rim was the next highest among Wolves' rotation players. Edwards shot just 56.1 percent at the rim.
During the playoffs, McDaniels was more comfortable as a self-creator. He did an excellent job of attacking closeouts and mismatches. McDaniels averaged 14.7 points in the playoffs, which was a career high. At 25, it's reasonable to expect that this aggressive version of McDaniels on offense being the new norm.
We didn't just see this growth from McDaniels in the playoffs. During the 2025 portion of the regular season, McDaniels displayed more aggression on the ball and averaged 13.9 points. Additionally, he shot 72.5 percent at the rim during this stretch. Impressively, 38.3 percent of McDaniels' shots at the rim were unassisted in the regular season, a number that increased to 39 percent in the playoffs. This should serve as more evidence that McDaniels will produce at this level in the 2025-26 season.
Even without this level of self-creation, McDaniels was a high-level finisher in large part due to his off-ball abilities. McDaniels has long been an elite cutter and uses his hustle to rack up points on putbacks. His off-ball abilities have always made him an efficient source of offense, and now, with a growing on-ball game, McDaniels could clearly stake his claim as the Wolves' best finisher.
The Wolves need to make McDaniels more of a focal point of the offense. He shot just 3.4 attempts at the rim in the regular season and 3.7 in the playoffs. If McDaniels is more aggressive himself, this will, of course, help his volume go up. Nevertheless, the Wolves could empower him more. It's clear that McDaniels' scoring at the rim, either off the ball or as a creator, is one of the Wolves' best sources of offense.
McDaniels still needs to work on drawing contact more, as he only had 1.6 free throw attempts per game last season. Regardless, McDaniels' finishing is a vital skill for the Wolves, and it's fair to predict that he'll be empowered more in the offense.