Heading into the 2025-26 season, much of the conversation around the Minnesota Timberwolves' internal growth is around second-year players Terrence Shannon Jr. and Rob Dillingham. This is certainly understandable as the Wolves have open minutes with Nickeil Alexander-Walker leaving in free agency, and Mike Conley aging.
Shannon seems locked into the Wolves' rotation and poised for a massive season. However, Dillingham still looks raw and might not be able to carve out a consistent role in the rotation.
The Wolves could have a breakout star outside of those two second-year players, though, that being Jaden McDaniels. Entering his sixth season, it's easy to view McDaniels as somewhat of a finished product. Nevertheless, McDaniels is coming off a career-best season and leveled up his production in the playoffs. At 25, McDaniels is entering his true prime and could have a breakout type of season offensively.
It's possible that McDaniels establishes himself as the Wolves' clear third option behind Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle. Undoubtedly, this would give the Wolves more offensive stability.
McDaniels can build off of a stellar 2024-25 season
McDaniels is already one of the league's best defenders, both on and off the ball. Regardless, he could become a true two-way force this season. We've seen offensive growth from similar molds of wings, including OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges.
His 12.2 points and 2 assists last season were barely a career high. However, it's worth noting that McDaniels averaged 14.3 points and 2.5 assists in the final 30 games of the season. As hinted at earlier, McDaniels continued this strong play in the playoffs, where he averaged 14.7 points on 51.5/38.2/89.3 shooting splits.
It's no coincidence that McDaniels' strong play was paired with the Wolves going 8-2 in the first two rounds of the playoffs and closing the season with a 20-10 record.
3-point shooting will undoubtedly be a key swing factor for McDaniels' offensive growth and the Wolves overall. He is a career 34.8 percent 3-point shooter, who has shot slightly below this mark over the past two seasons. Still, it has to be mentioned that he has netted 42 percent of career playoff 3s. With most of his looks coming from open attempts in the corner, it's possible that McDaniels knocks down outside shots at a league-average level.
A more aggressive McDaniels leads to results for the Wolves. Notably, last season, they posted a 25-9 record when he shot 40 percent or higher from beyond the arc.
Timberwolves' record when Jaden McDaniels shot 40% or higher from 3 last regular season: 25-9
— Eamon Cassels (@EamonCassels) September 6, 2025
His shooting will be key for the Wolves this season pic.twitter.com/A83mzkhTrk
McDaniels also showed significant growth as a self-creator, posting career-highs in unassisted baskets (30.4 percent) and usage rate (16.3). It's fair to expect that McDaniels will be empowered even more as a self-creator. The Washington product is the team's most efficient finisher and has improved at attacking closeouts.
Given what we saw from him at the end of last season and the playoffs, McDaniels averaging 14-16 ppg isn't far-fetched. A leap like this would certainly qualify as a breakout season and would undoubtedly change the Wolves' championship outlook.