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Milwaukee Bucks NBA Draft Prospect Watch: Jaden McDaniels

By Jordan Treske

HONOLULU, HI - DECEMBER 22: 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)
HONOLULU, HI - DECEMBER 22: 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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Jaden McDaniels, NBA Draft, Milwaukee Bucks
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – JANUARY 30: (Photo by Alika Jenner/Getty Images) /

What the experts say

ESPN [$] (Jonathan Givony): 16th

The Athletic [$] (Sam Vecenie): 19th

Sports Illustrated (Jeremy Woo): 18th

Sporting News (Chris Stone): 21st

Bleacher Report (Jonathan Wassermann): 23rd

The Ringer (Kevin O’Connor): 22nd

Quotes:

Woo outlined the likely development time McDaniels will need in order to iron out his developing game and the optimism an NBA team will have to see in him to select him in the draft after slotting McDaniels 18th in his most recent Big Board:

"“It requires some optimism to really sell him as a lottery pick, and a number of more functionally versatile forwards may end up pushing him down a bit. He’s a project in need of some G League time, ideally, and it takes some real optimism to sell him as an obvious lottery guy. But if he ever puts the pull-up game together more consistently, McDaniels could evolve into a contributor and deliver on his promise. He’s shot it better of late, for what it’s worth.”"

In his column detailing the many archetypes and prospects in this draft class, The Athletic’ John Hollinger ($) laid out why McDaniels is such a confounding prospect at this stage in the pre-draft process:

"“McDaniels has slid further, going from top-5 preseason hype to a place somewhere in the 15-25 range on a lot of online boards. That seems fair. He’s more of a length-tools-potential guy than somebody getting selected on performance, so you can understand why his fairly horrid freshman season hasn’t completely cratered his draft stock. A small forward with his combination of extreme length and non-existent offensive skill may just be too tempting for the Oklahoma City Thunder to pass up; it’s possible they promised him two months ago. All kidding aside, McDaniels might be overrated even in the 20s – he had a shockingly low steal rate for a rangy wing player playing at the top of a zone, his shooting in warm-ups was even more troubling than his marksmanship in the games, and the tape says he can’t beat anybody off the dribble. Teams will also want to delve into his on-court tantrums that resulted in six technical fouls. At some point, however, somebody will see those arms and legs and take the plunge.”"

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