Following the Minnesota Timberwolves‘ Game 2 win over the Denver Nuggets, Jaden McDaniels provided a whole new level of bulletin board material. When asked what the keys to the Wolves’ offensive rhythm were, he didn’t just vaguely attack Denver’s defense. He named names.
“Go after [Nikola] Jokić, Jamal [Murray], all the bad defenders,” McDaniels said. “Tim Hardaway. Cam Johnson. Aaron Gordon. The whole team. Just go at them. …They’re all bad defenders.”
For hoopers, this hits harder than, say, acknowledging someone as a bad shooter. “You can leave Tony Allen alone and he won’t hurt you” is sort of just a fact. But when you say this guy can’t play defense, it goes at a ballplayer’s street cred. You’re calling him soft, not up to the task in the toughness part of the game.
And McDaniels did it in such a cold way. Full hoody. Deadpan delivery. He rattled off a hit list that included everyone but the Denver mayor and then went out in Game 3 and walked the walk in a 113-96 win.
Nuggets fire back at Jaden McDaniels over ‘all bad defenders’ criticism: ‘I can’t wait for his podcast’
James Herbert
That’s the key. Had McDaniels and the Wolves gone out and laid an egg in Game 3, we’d be talking about an up-and-coming young player who needs to stop writing checks his game isn’t ready to cash. But McDaniels most certainly is ready, and so are the Wolves, who have a 2-1 lead in a series that most everyone saw going the way of the Nuggets.
McDaniels went for 20 points and 10 boards on 9-of-13 shooting on Thursday, and he continued to put on a defensive clinic by making the life of every Denver ball handler in front of him a living hell.
There’s more where that came from.
The Murray-Jokić two-man game is typically easy money offense for Denver, but McDaniels and Rudy Gobert have been snatching wallets in this series.
Murray again tries his luck here, and again he’s denied.
This isn’t just defense. This is “I meant every word I said” humiliation. So glued to Murray was McDaniels that Denver’s only hope of creating some breathing room was through illegal screens.
Murray finished the night 5 for 17. He’s shooting 35.9% from the floor and 22.2% from 3 for the series. It’s not entirely McDaniels. Donte DiVincenzo and Anthony Edwards are putting all kinds of ball pressure on Denver’s perimeter players, too. Gobert is putting on a masterclass in defending Jokić, who has struggled in this series in ways and to a degree that we haven’t seen from him at any point in the last half-decade.
Edwards is the star on one end, Gobert on the other. But McDaniels is the key here. He is the glue. He’s the perfect playoff player — a versatile, 6-foot-9 wing who thrives in any lineup, against any matchup, with a combination of lockdown defense and way more offensive juice than you probably realize.
McDaniels hasn’t shot it well from deep in this series yet (that 3 you just watched above is the only one he’s made in 10 attempts), but he can seriously shoot. He finished the season at better than 41%. He has upped his scoring each of the last three years. He can legitimately create for himself and has an array of clever paint shots he can get off from different angles, on different platforms, in traffic. He loves to work off of one foot and has a naturally decelerating cadence.
Perhaps you thought when McDaniels started trashing the Nuggets that he was barking up the wrong tree. Maybe he was. Maybe it just hasn’t hit yet. Maybe Murray and Jokić will go off in Game 4, or for the rest of what could still be a series victory for the Nuggets.
But right now, McDaniels is backing up what was already an extremely loud statement with his mouth with an even louder statement on the court. If you’re going to do that, you deserve to talk all you want.
