Minnesota Sports Forum

Camden wrote:

mrhockey89 wrote:This all is starting to remind me of when the Wolves missed out on drafting Luke Babbitt because they traded #16 for Martell Webster.

Here's the sad thing, mrhockey. Some of us non-professionals on this board have a much better armchair draft record than the guys who are actually in those positions earning six or seven figures to make those decisions. This is a franchise who has notoriously botched draft pick after draft pick and most of the time it's because they went against common sense. Minnesota routinely misses the easy ones and it bites them in the ass for a decade. Here we have Gersson Rosas who, by all accounts, misplayed his hand in last year's draft. Why should any of us have this unmitigated, unwavering sense of confidence in his decisions this time?

I think we could say that for a lot of franchises Camden. Here's my own history (off memory of hard takes that I had pre-draft time):

-I was on Towns at #1 before I read/heard any of the "experts" suggest him at #1 over Tim Duncan 2.0.
-I didn't want to trade Derrick Williams when we took him, but I did want to trade up from 2 to 1 to take Kyrie when the Cavs suggested they'd be open to trading to #2 (because I loved what I saw out of Kyrie in his limited college play time).
-I wanted no part of Flynn, and wanted Rubio and Curry big time
-I wanted to trade up to get Derrick Favors, didn't want Cousins, and didn't hate Wes Johnson (after all, he had a great smile)
-I wanted Danny Granger the year we took McCants
-I was convinced OJ Mayo would be a stud, and was pissed when we traded him for Love + Mike Miller. I liked MM, but believed Love was another David Lee.
-I was shocked we didn't draft Josh Howard and instead gambled on Ndubi Ebi (I wanted Howard, but I'll admit after we drafted Ebi I was excited about his upside)
-I would have tried to trade up for Oladipo or Ben McLemore, and drafted Trey Burke or CJ McCollum rather than trading down and taking Shabazz (who I couldn't stand the thought of drafting) and Gorgui (who I was fine with at the time).

I'm convinced, even with my misses, that we would be in a much better position had we drafted my unprofessionally picked preferences.

That said, also remember that Rosas and co were not drafting most of these drafts. Even last year's draft was pretty terrible after year 1. Herro we can talk about, it's not like Culver is a closed book, or that it was a draft in which everyone hit except the Wolves (ala taking Tony Manderich in a top 5 that included 4 Hall of Famers and 1 colossal bust).

If you want a positive about McDaniels apparently his catch and shoot numbers his freshman year at Washington were very good. I believe he also had a couple pretty good games once he came off the bench. It might be good that he has already been humbled in college. He isn't likely going to be getting run right away for the Wolves.

monsterpile wrote:If you want a positive about McDaniels apparently his catch and shoot numbers his freshman year at Washington were very good. I believe he also had a couple pretty good games once he came off the bench. It might be good that he has already been humbled in college. He isn't likely going to be getting run right away for the Wolves.

Too bad we don't have a KG on the team to keep him in line. I feel like that's the type of player that would keep a player like McDaniels on the narrow.

Tonight I watched this Washington vs Tennessee game.

https://youtu.be/Q5vK1YvH8qU

Let's start with the bad. Offensively McDaniels was not good. I'll say that the whole Husky team didn't really play very good offensive basketball (ISO bad passing little movement etc) so that didn't exactly help. McDaniels has some nice skills handling the ball and he often made the right read on his passes but a few were off target some leading to TOs. He took some bad shots but often hadn't really touched the ball on offense for quite a while because the ball wasn't really moving etc. There wasn't much rhythm to what they were doing. Isaiah Stewart is pretty impressive and they often spent a lot of time trying to get him the ball to go to work. Anyways McDaniels offense didn't look too good overall but the raw tools look to be there. Honestly I thought he looks like a guy that could do well living as a complimentary player. I imagine him catch and shoot 3's and if there was an obvious opening he has the skills to drive the lane.

The other bad was the Zone Washington played on defense. The Vols were carving it up big time. McDaniels was mostly playing at the top of the 3-2 zone so if that continued throughout the season I can see why he didn't have more rebounds. He was literally the farthest guy from the ball on defense. He did come in and crash for rebounds though. Especially the first half the Vols were getting it into the middle soft part of the zone. I can't say any of it was McDaniels fault. I'm not sure why they stuck with it as long as they did.

The good news to me was how well McDaniels moves on defense Especially as a many defender on the perimeter. He can and does get down in a stance when playing man on the perimeter and basically nobody really beat him and often people didn't even seem to have any interest in doing so. There was at least a couple times his hustle in transition plays cause a turnover that would not show up on a stat sheet in his favor. There was another play where his anticipation as moving his feet in front of the offensive player helped force a travel. He stayed active as the guy on the top of the key when in the zone often waving his arms hoping around. Sometimes he could have had his arms out much more when the play was moving around the court but he wasn't just totally standing around or anything like that. When he was playing the in the lower part of the zone he had some impressive close outs where he nearly blocked the shot and so had a really nice contest. Idk if he will be strong enough to be a full time PF but He looks like he could play as a SF. I was really impressed with how he moved in this game. He also had a possession Near the paint where he stayed down kept his hands up and the player air balled the shot for a shock clock violation. Q would be proud. :)

I didn't see a guy that didn't play hard or was lazy. He looked engaged to me. I was expecting to see a guy that wasn't. This was game 3 of the season so who knows what happened after this in other games but I liked the other stuff in his game even though the offensive part was a mixed bag at best. There was a play late in the game when it was basically over where McDaniels went up for a shot and got fouled and got tangled up with the Vols C. It sorta looked like maybe it was something but really it looked like both guys where holding on to each other trying to keep each guy from falling. They were cool even thought he ref came in to try and get between them. I thought that was interesting considering McDaniels rep as a guy that gets Technicals.

monsterpile wrote:If you want a positive about McDaniels apparently his catch and shoot numbers his freshman year at Washington were very good. I believe he also had a couple pretty good games once he came off the bench. It might be good that he has already been humbled in college. He isn't likely going to be getting run right away for the Wolves.

Always open to positives, Monster. :) This kid certainly has talent - physical abilities and skills. But he strikes me as a major head case.

The only issue with Edwards is whether he has the competitive drive to be great. There are signs that he doesn't (disappearing in games, poor defensive effort, passively settling for jumpers rather than driving), but there are also signs that he does (Crean praising his worth ethic and characterizing him as aggressive, moments of passion he's shown on the court that we never saw from Wiggins, putting up huge numbers, especially impressive for an 18-year old freshman). While the jury's out on whether Edwards has that intense competitive drive to be great, there is no question in my mind that he's a good kid with his head screwed on straight. He's self aware and seems to have good self discipline.

McDaniels, on the other hand, seems to have some deep-seated issues between the ears. I don't see things turning out well for him.

lipoli390 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:If you want a positive about McDaniels apparently his catch and shoot numbers his freshman year at Washington were very good. I believe he also had a couple pretty good games once he came off the bench. It might be good that he has already been humbled in college. He isn't likely going to be getting run right away for the Wolves.

Always open to positives, Monster. :) This kid certainly has talent - physical abilities and skills. But he strikes me as a major head case.

The only issue with Edwards is whether he has the competitive drive to be great. There are signs that he doesn't (disappearing in games, poor defensive effort, passively settling for jumpers rather than driving), but there are also signs that he does (Crean praising his worth ethic and characterizing him as aggressive, moments of passion he's shown on the court that we never saw from Wiggins, putting up huge numbers, especially impressive for an 18-year old freshman). While the jury's out on whether Edwards has that intense competitive drive to be great, there is no question in my mind that he's a good kid with his head screwed on straight. He's self aware and seems to have good self discipline.

McDaniels, on the other hand, seems to have some deep-seated issues between the ears. I don't see things turning out well for him.

Lip What are the signs of these deep issues With McDaniels? I'm wanting to do some research on it I'm hoping to get a head start. :)

monsterpile wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:If you want a positive about McDaniels apparently his catch and shoot numbers his freshman year at Washington were very good. I believe he also had a couple pretty good games once he came off the bench. It might be good that he has already been humbled in college. He isn't likely going to be getting run right away for the Wolves.

Always open to positives, Monster. :) This kid certainly has talent - physical abilities and skills. But he strikes me as a major head case.

The only issue with Edwards is whether he has the competitive drive to be great. There are signs that he doesn't (disappearing in games, poor defensive effort, passively settling for jumpers rather than driving), but there are also signs that he does (Crean praising his worth ethic and characterizing him as aggressive, moments of passion he's shown on the court that we never saw from Wiggins, putting up huge numbers, especially impressive for an 18-year old freshman). While the jury's out on whether Edwards has that intense competitive drive to be great, there is no question in my mind that he's a good kid with his head screwed on straight. He's self aware and seems to have good self discipline.

McDaniels, on the other hand, seems to have some deep-seated issues between the ears. I don't see things turning out well for him.

Lip What are the signs of these deep issues With McDaniels? I'm wanting to do some research on it I'm hoping to get a head start. :)

It's the technical fouls and his on-court demeanor. I know he was pulled from the starting lineup. There's something there, but maybe it's not as bad as I suspect.

lipoli390 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:If you want a positive about McDaniels apparently his catch and shoot numbers his freshman year at Washington were very good. I believe he also had a couple pretty good games once he came off the bench. It might be good that he has already been humbled in college. He isn't likely going to be getting run right away for the Wolves.

Always open to positives, Monster. :) This kid certainly has talent - physical abilities and skills. But he strikes me as a major head case.

The only issue with Edwards is whether he has the competitive drive to be great. There are signs that he doesn't (disappearing in games, poor defensive effort, passively settling for jumpers rather than driving), but there are also signs that he does (Crean praising his worth ethic and characterizing him as aggressive, moments of passion he's shown on the court that we never saw from Wiggins, putting up huge numbers, especially impressive for an 18-year old freshman). While the jury's out on whether Edwards has that intense competitive drive to be great, there is no question in my mind that he's a good kid with his head screwed on straight. He's self aware and seems to have good self discipline.

McDaniels, on the other hand, seems to have some deep-seated issues between the ears. I don't see things turning out well for him.

Lip What are the signs of these deep issues With McDaniels? I'm wanting to do some research on it I'm hoping to get a head start. :)

It's the technical fouls and his on-court demeanor. I know he was pulled from the starting lineup. There's something there, but maybe it's not as bad as I suspect.

I'm pretty sure at least half his Ts were yelling after dunks. Not sure that's a big deal especially after living with sleepy Wiggins for a few years.

Here is an interesting article about how his dad handled his college recruitment.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/jaden-mcdaniels-dad-isnt-the-next-lavar-ball-but-hes-controlling-his-5-star-sons-recruitment/

Along with his Brother Jalen already being in the league his cousin is Juwan Howard.

Edit: and he is a Seattle kid so of course he knows Jamal Crawford and other NBA players that are involved in that area. Nowell is from there too and went to Washington.

https://theundefeated.com/features/jaden-mcdaniels-is-a-product-of-the-seattle-basketball-fraternity/

It's funny how we all wish Wiggins maybe had a little more Mcdaniels in him but are worried that Mcdaniels isn't Wiggins enough.

I know next to nothing about this kid. He definitely fits a positional need, which is good. Hopefully we can work some G-League magic on him like the soon-to-be-all-NBA-Defense team member Jarred Vanderbilt!