On Monday, the Minnesota Timberwolves announced that Jaden McDaniels is dealing with a week-to-week knee injury. While it appears that McDaniels should be ready for the playoffs, this injury has ripple effects throughout the team.
Within all likelihood, Ayo Dosumnu will earn the starting job, but with 31.9 minutes open, it's fair to expect that the Timberwolves will rely on Kyle Anderson more. Since returning to Minnesota earlier this month, Anderson has made a solid all-around impact, especially fortifying the non-Rudy Gobert minutes on defense.
Anderson is highly versatile, capable of providing both solid rim protection and on-ball defense. Of course, he's not the on-ball stopper that McDaniels is, but overall, his defense is really strong. The bigger concern is that Anderson's offensive limitations could hurt the Timberwolves in an expanded role. While he's an impactful bench player, his current 17.9 minutes per game seem perfect.
To be clear, Anderson getting a bigger role is necessary without McDaniels, and it's better than the previous alternative of playing Terrence Shannon Jr. and/or Jaylen Clark. However, there are clear concerns on the offensive end with playing Anderson more minutes.
Kyle Anderson has his limitations that could hurt the Timberwolves
In his 12 games since rejoining the Wolves, Anderson's connective playmaking (2.8 assists) has been impactful. His outside shooting and overall scoring have remained limited, though, as he is averaging just 3.8 points while not netting a single 3-pointer.
While the Timberwolves' defense has been flat-out elite with Anderson on the court (104.9 defensive rating via Cleaning the Glass), their offense has been subpar (109.2 ORTG). Anderson's poor floor spacing makes playing him with Rudy Gobert and Julius Randle complicated. Unfortunately, without McDaniels, the Timberwolves will be forced to lean into lineups with Anderson and these big men more often.
Anthony Edwards is expected to return from a six-game absence during Monday's game against the Dallas Mavericks. With Anderson getting a bigger role, opposing defenses will be allowed to zero in on Ant more, which could be problematic. In addition to missing McDaniels' spacing, the Wolves will have less creation next to Edwards and Julius Randle.
At this juncture, it looks like McDaniels will be back (and healthy) for the playoffs. Thus, fans should not panic yet. However, with eight games left in the regular season and the Wolves jockeying for playoff seeding, there's no arguing this will be a challenging stretch run for the Wolves.
Undoubtedly, depending so heavily on Anderson during this crucial stretch is a bit concerning.