Rookie Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels, the No. 28 pick in the 2020 draft, has earned the trust of head coach Chris Finch and his teammates to tackle Minnesota’s top defensive assignments, writes Chris Hine of The Star Tribune.
“At times I’ll say that people just aren’t knowing how long my arms really are,” McDaniels said of his defensive attributes for the Timberwolves. “The first time we played Houston, at the end of the game I had blocked Ben McLemore. I’m cool with him and he was like, … ‘I didn’t think your arms was that long.’ Just hearing little things like that is kind of uplifting.”
There’s more out of the Northwest Division:
- Many Thunder players and staffers received their first COVID-19 vaccines yesterday, now that everyone aged 16 and up is eligible in the state of Oklahoma, according to Royce Young of ESPN.
- The Jazz faced a recent scare in transit. One of the engines blew on the team’s plane during a recent road trip, forcing the team to return to Salt Lake City, per Mark Medina of USA Today (Twitter link). Head coach Quin Snyder called the experience “traumatic and eerie.” He added, “The pilots, you have their appreciation for their expertise and training to keep us safe.” All-Star point guard Mike Conley elaborated, per Eric Walden of the Salt Lake Tribune (Twitter link). “Sounded like there was an explosion,” Conley said. “It felt like the plane was breaking apart in midair.” Reserve guard Jordan Clarkson added, “A lot of us came to a point where it was like, ‘This might be over for us,'” tweets Mark Medina of USA Today.
- Thunder rookie power forward Aleksej Pokusevski has entered the league’s coronavirus health and safety protocols, tweets Joe Mussatto of the Oklahoman.
NcDaniels was a high lottery pick coming into college season. Then he dropped almost out of 1st rd. He’s looked good at times, got a future. Minny could of hit jackpot here. Still very young with plenty of upside.
He has downside too. Pleased to hear someone credit his arm length?
Took long enough for them to use McDaniels. I think I only talked about it back in December or early January
If the Wolves can somehow hang onto the top #3 pick they could really suprise some people next year. Pray to god they stay in the bottom 3 and they don’t get screwed in the draft like 75% of the history of the franchise.
Yeah, I think Kuminga would be awesome with a MIN uniform, right?
Wow! That would be spooky to be in that plane scare. Donovan ended up not traveling with the team on the second flight. He was on the original flight. I wonder if it spooked him too much? Said “personal reasons” why he didn’t play against Memphis. Hard to say what that means. Anyone know?
They play the Bulls on Friday at home so I’m sure he’ll play then hopefully. We beat Memphis without him, but it was too close. Donovan gives us that extra swagger and confidence that helps push us out to big leads. Hope he plays. Love ya, bro!
Believe Mitchell has spoken in the past about having a fear of flying — can’t imagine this week’s incident helped. Would guess him staying home was directly related.
Oh wow! Yeah that would make you distrust flying again.
Ever see the A-Team TV series? They had to trick or drug B. A. Baracus every time they needed to fly somewhere.
Not saying they need to do that with Donovan but maybe he could talk to Tony Robbins about removing the fear?