Milwaukee Bucks NBA Draft Prospect Watch: Jaden McDaniels

Strengths

It doesn’t take long to watch and look at McDaniels’ game to see what has attracted NBA teams for some time now.

At 6’9″ and armed with a near seven-foot wingspan, McDaniels’ various physical tools and athletic qualities were tantalizing enough to make him a lottery prospect in this class entering the year.

Along with that, McDaniels’ shooting potential, especially off the dribble, gives off the signal of a supersized shot creator that can attack any mismatch in the vein of a long, score-first forward like a Kevin Durant or Brandon Ingram. The perception of McDaniels’ shooting skills doesn’t meet that dream-level aspiration, but the Washington native’s ability to hit shots off the catch is key to his spacing of the floor.

Switching sides of the ball, McDaniels is a very promising defensive piece, again, in large part due to his quickness and long limbs. That has made him a functional free safety-like defender where McDaniels’ anticipation and reading of the game helped him accumulate 1.8 blocks and average a steal per 40 minutes in college.

With his ability to disrupt and protect the rim as a secondary rim protector, and his range shooting, McDaniels does have some interesting role playing potential at the next level.