Inside The Huskies

Jaden McDaniels Grows Up — He's Playing Hard in the NBA

The former University of Washington forward shakes off concerns about his game.
Dan Raley|
Jaden McDaniels Grows Up — He's Playing Hard in the NBA
Jaden McDaniels Grows Up — He's Playing Hard in the NBA

Jaden McDaniels must have been bored with the college game.

Because 20 games into his NBA career, the former University of Washington forward is a far different player, showing himself to be much more engaged and willing to do what it takes to advance his pro basketball career.

Exactly a year ago, the 6-foot-9 McDaniels, as a freshman, played himself out of the Husky starting lineup and turned off the fan base with his various antics. He slapped an opponent in the back of the head and threw a ball at an official.

For the Minnesota Timberwolves, he entered the minutes rotation two weeks ago and he's apparently not coming out.

On Sunday, McDaniels blocked three shots in a 109-104 victory over Cleveland. He had an emphatic dunk, as shown in the accompanying photo, over the Cavs' Jarrett Allen. He had his teammates all excited. 

"How about Jaden McDaniels?!" Timberwolves guard D'Angelo Russell said unprompted to reporters. "Guys are stepping up, and it's not really on the stat sheet on how he affected the game, but he was a beast!"

Drafted 28th in the first round, McDaniels was labeled a project at the time, a newly turned 20-year-old who lacked maturity.

He wasn't expected to get on the floor except for mop-up duty for a season or more. He sat out six games entirely early on.

Shuttling back and forth to the developmental G-League wasn't out of the question, something his brother Jalen McDaniels, who plays in the Charlotte organization, is doing now.

Everything changed in mid-January for young Jaden. He's pulling 16.1 minutes per game and averaging 5.1 points and 3.3 rebounds each time out. On Sunday, he helped hold Cleveland to 18 fourth-quarter points. 

"He's doing it with defense," Minnesota coach Ryan Saunders said. "He's doing it by rebounding the ball and making an impact at the rim."

McDaniels seems a lot more focused than he was as a freshman forward at Washington, playing hard at all times and delivering more consistently.

It runs totally counter to what draft analysts said about him when he entered the league. He wasn't motivated. He needed a wake-up call.

"It's a people-say-what-they-want kind of thing," McDaniels told reporters. "I just know what I'm capable of and just knowing during the summer that I was working on things that people think that I struggle at. It's just knowing and digging deeper inside myself."

Follow Dan Raley of Husky Maven on Twitter: @DanRaley1 and @HuskyMaven

Find Husky Maven on Facebook by searching: HuskyMaven/Sports Illustrated

Published
Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

Home/Husky Legends