The NBA Has No Idea What To Do With Jaden McDaniels

The NBA Has No Idea What To Do With Jaden McDaniels

In 2023, Anthony Edwards, one of the most electric players in the NBA, was asked a simple question at All-Star Weekend. >> So, you know, they got KD, but we got Jaden McDaniels. >> The internet laughed. Kevin Durant, two-time NBA champion, two-time Finals MVP, 10-time All-NBA, one of the 50 greatest players to ever play this game.

And Ant was throwing out Jaden McDaniels? But, here’s the thing. >> 12 points, plus has a couple of assists. Here’s Durant, lot of contact. >> Anthony Edwards wasn’t joking. He never jokes about Jaden McDaniels. >> Clark from the other corner, not that time, but there’s McDaniels taking the rebound away from >> Federal Way, Washington, a working-class suburb 20 miles south of Seattle.

 It’s not exactly a place you hear mentioned in NBA circles, but here’s a fun fact. Federal Way High School has produced two brothers drafted in the NBA in back-to-back years. That doesn’t happen by accident. That happens in a household where basketball is a religion. Jaden McDaniels was born September 29th, 2000, the younger son of Will McDaniels and Angela Jackson.

 His parents are Chicago natives who packed up their lives and moved to the Pacific Northwest. His dad worked early mornings to keep the family stable. His mom stayed locked in on her boys’ futures. >> You know, being in the house with three males, uh they were really active, rambunctious little boys. They were good boys. >> And those boys, they were born to hoop.

Let that sink in for a second. Two brothers, both in the NBA, and their mother is a cousin of Juwan Howard, one of Michigan’s Fab Five, a man who played 15 years in the league. Basketball didn’t just run in this family, it flooded it. Jaden’s older brother Jalen was the blueprint. Two years ahead of him, Jalen played at Federal Way High School and Jaden watched, competed, pushed.

 As a freshman, they were teammates together and Federal Way won back-to-back Class 4A state championships. There’s something you need to know about Jaden even in those early days. He was forced to shoot left-handed his freshman year because of a right elbow injury. Couldn’t use his dominant hand and he still won a state title. That tells you everything about who this kid is.

 By his junior year, the word was out. McDaniels was different. He was averaging 21 points, 10 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 3.3 blocks per game. In high school at 16 years old and then came his senior year. January 25th, 2019, Jaden McDaniels dropped 51 points on Todd Beamer High School breaking the school’s all-time single-game scoring record.

 A record that had been held by an NBA player. That’s how you announce yourself. He finished his senior season averaging 23 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and two blocks per game. He played in the McDonald’s All-American Game, the Jordan Brand Classic. ESPN and Rivals both had him in the top 10 players in the entire country. The consensus? Jaden McDaniels was the best power forward prospect in the class of 2019 and college programs were lining up.

 Kentucky came hard, but Jaden stayed home. He committed to the University of Washington right there in his own backyard. And walking into his freshman season, analysts were already projecting him as a potential number one overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft. So, what happened? We’ll get there, but first, we need to talk about what he actually became.

 Jaden McDaniels arrived at Washington in the fall of 2019 with the weight of enormous expectations. In his very first college game, an upset win over Baylor, he dropped 18 points and seven rebounds. The hype was real, but as the season wore on, something felt off. Draft scouts started taking note and not always in a good way.

 And here’s what makes this complicated. The raw numbers weren’t bad. He averaged 13 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. He was one of the best shot blockers in the Pac-12. His shooting touch was real. >> First shot defense in the half court setting has been pretty good. >> Jaden McDaniels with a three. The assist to Quade Green.

>> But scouts had questions. Questions about his motor, his consistency, his temperament. The kid who was once projected to go number one overall was now sliding fast. And on draft night, November 18th, 2020, the picks rolled in. 1 2 3 4 5 10 15 20 25 28. The Los Angeles Lakers called his name. Pick 28. >> 28th pick in the 2020 NBA draft, the Los Angeles Lakers select Jaden McDaniels from the University of Washington.

>> Then before he even stepped foot in a Lakers facility, he was traded to Oklahoma City as part of a Dennis Schroder deal, then flipped again to Minnesota, drafted, traded, traded again. In a single night, Jaden McDaniels went from top-10 prospect to being a pawn in someone else’s transaction. A 19-year-old kid watching his NBA dream arrive and immediately feel like it was being reshuffled like a deck of cards.

Now, here’s where the story gets interesting. A lot of players in that situation crumble. The fall from grace is too much. The doubt seeps in. They become cautionary tales. Jaden McDaniels went to Minnesota, kept quiet, and went to work. The steal of the draft, file that one away. We’re coming back to it. Minnesota, 2020.

 The NBA bubble had just ended. The Timberwolves were rebuilding, and Jaden McDaniels was exactly where no one was watching him, which, it turns out, was exactly where he needed to be. He wasn’t starting. He wasn’t starring. He was learning. The rookie was playing behind veterans, logging minutes off the bench, decoding the speed and complexity of the NBA game, and season by season, quietly, almost invisibly, he got better.

>> Five on the floor, Minnesota pool of fifths of the roll and slam. McDaniels can score. >> Every single year, up, up, up. But stats don’t tell the whole story because what McDaniels was building quietly, in a small market, away from the ESPN cameras, was something that can’t be measured in points per game.

>> Why not? Oh, you don’t poke the bear. >> Yeah, you do. >> Uh >> McDaniels >> McDaniels DiVincenzo >> McDaniels >> He was building a defensive identity that would make him one of the most valuable players in the entire NBA. Look at this man’s measurements. 6’9″, 6’11.5″ wingspan. He can guard point guards on the perimeter.

 He can contest 7-footers at the rim. He’s one of the rarest physical profiles in the game. A player who can switch everything, guard one through four, and make elite athletes look slow. But, raw athleticism alone doesn’t make you a lockdown defender. You need IQ, anticipation, the ability to read the play before it happens. And then you need the emotional discipline to execute it under pressure.

 And that is where things got complicated. April 9th, 2023, the Timberwolves had just beaten the New Orleans Pelicans. A win, a good night. And Jaden McDaniels punched a wall. >> You see Jaden McDaniels right here. When he swings, he grabs his hand immediately. >> Right. >> Iced it. >> He fractured his right hand, his shooting hand, out indefinitely.

 The kind of moment that defines a player, not because of what happened, but because of what it reveals. Underneath all that quiet, there was fire, a lot of it. And the question for Jaden McDaniels heading into the most important stretch of his career was whether that fire was going to forge him or consume him. October 2023, the Timberwolves make a decision that shocks some corners of the basketball world.

 $136 million for Jaden McDaniels, the kid who fell to 28, the kid who punched a wall, the quiet one. The Timberwolves looked at everything the analytics couldn’t fully capture, the defensive versatility, the two-way growth, the winning impact when he was on the floor, and they said, “We’re betting on this man.

” Three weeks later, Jaden McDaniels reminded everyone why he’s complicated. During a game against the Golden State Warriors, McDaniels got tangled up with Klay Thompson. He grabbed him, ripped his jersey, started a brawl that somehow ended with Draymond Green putting Rudy Gobert in a chokehold. >> And then, look at Klay T- >> What is going on with that? >> Wow.

>> You got a full-on fracas going on. >> McDaniels was ejected, fined, and suddenly, he had a national reputation. Not the one most people would want. But here’s the question, and it’s a real one. Is there a difference between being dirty and being dangerously competitive? Because the same fire that caused him to punch a wall after a win is the same fire that makes him an absolute nightmare to play against.

 His instincts aren’t just athletic, they’re emotional. He doesn’t just want to stop you, he wants to dominate you. The NBA has always had a tension between those two things, and Jaden McDaniels was about to find out exactly which side of that line he’d land on. Before we get to the playoffs, we need to talk about Anthony Edwards, because you can’t tell the Jaden McDaniels story without talking about the man who has been his loudest hype man since day one.

 Anthony Edwards is one of the most charismatic players in the NBA. He has never, in his life, said a boring thing in front of a microphone. And, for some reason, he is absolutely obsessed with Jaden McDaniels. That’s not a one-time quote. He says this constantly, after wins, after losses, on national television, at All-Star Weekend, in locker rooms.

>> Tonight made Jaden look like he was player of the year cuz like during the play and blocking a shot. Yeah, he uh I tell you all the time, he’s my favorite player in the NBA. Um I don’t care if he had two points. I don’t care if he had 30 points. >> Let that image sink in. Jaden McDaniels is having a mid-play conversation with Anthony Edwards, telling him to stay home while simultaneously blocking a shot.

 Now, back to the Kevin Durant quote. All-Star Weekend 2023. Someone asks Edwards how the Wolves would match up against the Suns, who had just acquired Kevin Durant in a blockbuster trade, and Edwards said without hesitation, “You know, they got KD, but we got Jaden McDaniels, who can guard him.” The internet had a field day. Kevin Durant, two-time champion, all-time great, and Ant is throwing out the name of a player who at that moment had never averaged double digits in his NBA career. Memes everywhere.

 People calling it the most delusional thing Edwards had ever said, and he has said some things. One year later, April 2024, the Timberwolves face the Suns in the first round of the playoffs. Kevin Durant on one side, Jaden McDaniels on the other. McDaniels scored 25 points, a career high at the time. He held Durant to 18 points on 40% shooting.

 The Suns scored under 95 points in both games one and two. And across social media, one quote rose from the dead. The most famous thing Anthony Edwards ever said about his teammate went from a punchline to a prophecy. >> My favorite player, Jaden McDaniels. For sure. Everybody go watch him. When y’all see Minnesota, lock in on number three.

Don’t watch number five, watch number three. >> Now, we arrive at the moment that changed everything. May 2026, first round of the NBA playoffs. Minnesota Timberwolves versus the Denver Nuggets, winners of 13 straight games entering the postseason. Nobody gave the Wolves a chance, and then Jaden McDaniels opened his mouth.

>> Um, go at Jokic, Jamal, all the bad defenders, Tim Hardaway, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Aaron Gordon, the whole team. Like, just go at them. >> They’re all bad defenders. >> Yeah, they’re all bad defenders. >> All of them, every single Nugget, bad defenders. The man who barely says 10 words in public just called out an entire playoff roster.

>> Coach Finch, what are your thoughts on Jaden McDaniels’ comments about your team’s defense? >> I can’t wait for his podcast. >> The Nuggets laughed it off. The internet exploded, and McDaniels, he backed it up. Ejection, brawl, Jokic altercation, road hostility, booed every time he touched the ball in Denver, held Jamal Murray, and All-Star to 4 for 17 shooting in game six to clinch the series.

 Then disaster struck for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Dante DiVincenzo, gone. Season-ending Achilles tear in game four. Anthony Edwards injured the same night. Ayo Dosunmu out for game six with a calf strain. The Wolves were gutted, and Jaden McDaniels walked into game six as the de facto leader of a short-handed team trying to close out the series.

 32 points, 10 rebounds, career high, 45 minutes, and on defense, he locked Jamal Murray so completely that the All-Star guard finished 4 for 17. With just over a minute left, McDaniels, covered by Murray, pulled up from 19 feet. Cash. Then a steal. Series over. After the game, Rudy Gobert, a man who has won three Defensive Player of the Year awards, was asked about McDaniels.

>> You know, he stayed present and uh and he won us, you know, he was he was he stepped up big time when we needed him the most. So, I’m really really proud of him. >> Emotional control. He stayed present. From the kid who punched a wall, from the prospect who sulked on the bench in college, from the player whose scouting reports flagged his body language as a red flag, emotional control.

>> Controlling my emotions has been a big thing for me, just of not like letting other things affect my way of play. So, just kind of stay even keel and like if it’s bad call, bad call, just go go with the flow. >> And in the hostile crowd of Denver, booing him every time he touched the ball, McDaniels had this to say.

>> Cool. I mean, I like it. You see, I’m probably shaking my head the whole time they booing me. I’m laughing. So, they can’t get in my head. I already expected it to come. >> The quiet man loves the noise. He just keeps it off the court. Let’s zoom out for a second, because the story of Jaden McDaniels isn’t just a basketball story.

It’s a story about what happens when a kid is told the world is his and then watches it slip away and decides, quietly, to take it back. His teammates call him Slim. The nickname fits. Long, lean, deceptively strong. You look at him and don’t immediately think lockdown defender. You look at him and think, that guy is too quiet, too thin, too understated to be a problem.

 That’s the last thought you’ll have before he ruins your night. He’s also a father now, building his family, running a winter essentials drive for kids in the Twin Cities every year, visiting elementary schools, doing the work off the court that nobody talks about because he doesn’t make them talk about it. This is a man who has never needed the spotlight to operate.

 He just needs the ball in his hands, a man to guard, and someone telling him he can’t. Here’s a question I want to leave you with. When is the last time you saw a player drafted 28th overall, laughed at, traded twice before playing a game, called a character risk, labeled boom or bust, sign a $136 million contract, earn all-defensive honors, carry a short-handed team past a champion in the playoffs, and have the face of the franchise call him his favorite player in the NBA? We said it at the top.

 They got KD, but we got Jaden McDaniels. The internet laughed. Anthony Edwards didn’t flinch. And in the end, Jaden McDaniels made sure nobody was laughing anymore. We opened this documentary with a meme, a quote that the internet turned into a joke. They got KD, but we got Jaden McDaniels.

 And we’re closing it with the truth behind that joke. Anthony Edwards wasn’t comparing Jaden McDaniels to Kevin Durant. He was saying something simpler and more powerful than that. He was saying, “Don’t sleep on number three.” And here we are in May of 2026 with a generation of basketball fans who had never heard of Jaden McDaniels three weeks ago now knowing exactly who he is.

The kid from Federal Way, the quiet one, the one the draft forgot, the one Anthony Edwards calls his favorite player in the NBA. Ant said it best, “Don’t watch number five. Watch number three.” If you made it this far, you already know you’re built different. This is Crossover Fadeaway, where we tell the stories the highlight reels skip.

 If this documentary hit different, do us a favor. Drop a comment with the name of a player you think deserves this treatment next. Subscribe if you haven’t already. We’re just getting started. And share this one with someone who’s never heard of Jaden McDaniels. Thanks for joining us. We’ll see you next time.