https://youtu.be/42PNB5RVM0g
Is there anything better in the NBA than a long, skinny shooter? No, I don’t think there is. There’s a reason why Kevin Durant is considered by many to be the best scorer in NBA history. It’s because the aesthetics of a guy with twig arms shooting every type of jumpshot imaginable are unrivaled. Some people like gritty, bodies-banging-on-bodies action, and I won’t begrudge them that, but I’ll take the lanky dude with a pure shooting stroke every day.
Jaden McDaniels fits the Kevin Durant/Brandon Ingram prototype pretty well. He’s super skinny and he shoots jumpers. The comparison sort of ends there, but the comparison doesn’t need to go any further to prove my point. He even outscored Ingram this game, 20 to 13, and the Timberwolves won this game in a blowout, so my point is further reinforced.
My sincere hope is that McDaniels develops into more of an Ingram-caliber player, and less of a “Quincy Miller” caliber player or an “Austin Daye” caliber player; both of those players had promise as shooters but never found their footing in the NBA, and that’s always a sad fate when it comes to guys like this. I feel kinship with them because I am also a skinny jumpshooter with long arms who is of questionable utility on the basketball court. If I was ten inches taller, 1000% more talented, and 1000% more driven, you can bet I’d be bouncing around random second-tier European leagues right now just like those guys.