Jaden McDaniels is a polarizing player. On one night, he can look like a Scottie Pippen reincarnate, locking up the opposing team's best player and giving the Timberwolves an efficient 20 points. But on other nights, he can be the most invisible player in the Timberwolves' rotation, forcing people in the fanbase to question how valuable he is.
There's one player in the Eastern Conference that mirrors these traits to a tee: Mikal Bridges on the New York Knicks. There are some nights where he's putting opposing stars in "Mikal Jail," but there are equally as many nights where he's doing virtually nothing on both ends of the court.
Why are Jaden's inconsistencies magnified?
Every player, except for a few, has moments of inconsistency, but for McDaniels, there is a key reason it is being zoomed in on. For McDaniels, it is because he has garnered the "untouchable" label from many people in the fan base and by the front office, unless it was for a star such as Giannis Antetokounmpo.
While he's a great player, his production isn't always consistent enough to be in untouchable conversations.
Some of it is just the lack of touches within an offense with a lot of mouths to feed, but other times it seems like more of a confidence thing; if he misses his first few shots, you'll rarely see him keep shooting; he's more likely to end the game shooting 1-for-4 than 3-for-12.
Why is Mikal in an identical situation
For Bridges, the situation is a little different, but the inconsistencies are so similar it's eerie. The Knicks paid an extremely steep price for Bridges when they acquired him from the Brooklyn Nets. It cost them five first-round picks (four of them unprotected) and a pick swap. While he's had a lot of big moments, lots would now say the Knicks overpaid.
In Brooklyn, he showed real flashes of being a 20-point scorer in the league. While last year he still managed to put up 17 a game, this year he's down to under 15. The situation is similar to McDaniels -- the Knicks' offense has lots of people who can score, therefore limiting Bridges' touches on some nights.
But there are also a lot of nights where they need the 20-point scorer they traded for, and he's nowhere to be found. Bridges and McDaniels are so similar in the fact that they've shown their teams who they can be (why the Knicks traded for Bridges and why the Wolves might not trade McDaniels).
Nevertheless, they go invisible too often, which poses the question of whether their organizations made the right decision.