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New York Knicks Draft Profile: Washington forward Jaden McDaniels

By Geoffrey Campbell

New York Knicks option Jaden McDaniels #0 of the Washington Huskies looks to pass the ball as he makes up way up court during the second half of the game against the Ball State Cardinals at the Stan Sheriff Center on December 22, 2019 in Honolulu, Hawaii. (Photo by Darryl Oumi/Getty Images)
New York Knicks option Jaden McDaniels #0 of the Washington Huskies looks to pass the ball as he makes up way up court during the second half of the game against the Ball State Cardinals at the Stan Sheriff Center on December 22, 2019 in Honolulu, Hawaii. (Photo by Darryl Oumi/Getty Images) /
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SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – JANUARY 30: Jaden McDaniels #0 of the Washington Huskies works towards the basket against Nico Mannion #1 of the Arizona Wildcats in the first half at Hec Edmundson Pavilion on January 30, 2020 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images) /

Jaden McDaniels: Weaknesses

Efficiency. I touched on this in previous slides, and while efficiency can be an issue for a lot of young, talented players, McDaniels doesn’t help the issue with his shot selection. According to Hoops Math, McDaniels took 20.2% of his shots at the rim and a whopping 42% of his jumpers were inside the three-point line.

During the 2019-2020 season, McDaniels produced a true shooting percentage of .515 and an effective field goal percentage of .469. Both stats ranked behind forwards such as Deni Avdija, S. Bey, Okoro, Zeke Naji, and P. Williams. Furthermore, according to Simon Gerszberg’s shot quality chart, McDaniel’s ranked within the 27th percentile in good possession rate, indicating how often he was able to get an efficient shot.

Another weakness consistent with young players is turnovers, and McDaniels had plenty of them. The freshman totaled 100 turnovers this past season compared to just 65 assists. The University of Samford’s Josh Sharkey “earned” the NCAA top honors in turnovers with 177, and McDaniels wasn’t too far off. Going back to Derek Murray’s evaluation of McDaniels, factoring his usage rate and assist to turnover ratio, the only current/past NBA players with similar numbers in college were Doug McDermott, Buddy Hield, and Jodie Meeks. As Murray points out, all of the aforementioned shot better from three, which forecasts an uphill battle for McDaniels.

Using Adam Spinella’s breakdown of McDaniels’ weaknesses (above) you can see that his handle is loose and a little high, which can make it easy pickings for defenders. Add on to the fact that McDaniels often makes questionable decisions in the half-court, and is not always aware of the defenders around him. Again, a lot of this is synonymous with young prospects, but McDaniels committed so many turnovers that you have to be concerned about his ability to improve in the pros.

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