{"id":576314,"date":"2026-02-02T02:19:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T02:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/576314\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T02:19:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T02:19:13","slug":"northwest-notes-mcdaniels-thunder-jazz-conley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/576314\/","title":{"rendered":"Northwest Notes: McDaniels, Thunder, Jazz, Conley"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jaden McDaniels<\/a>\u2018 name has popped up in rumors surrounding the Timberwolves\u2018 pursuit of Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a>, but on Thursday night\u2019s win over the Thunder, he showed just how valuable he is to Minnesota in his own right, writes Jon Krawczynski for The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The sixth-year wing is averaging career-highs in points per game (14.9), assists per game (2.9), three point percentage (44.5%), and both free throw attempts (2.5) and percentage (84.9%). He has also missed just two games this season after playing all 82 games last year, and has only suited up in fewer than 70 games once in his career.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, McDaniels has the support of the team around him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s my favorite player in the league,\u201d star Anthony Edwards<\/a> said about him. \u201cI love everything about Jaden, everything that he does on the court, defensively, offensively, for us as a team, on the bench, he\u2019s always cheering his teammates on no matter how the game goes for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Edwards and head coach Chris Finch\u00a0have discussed how hard he grinds to fix the holes in his games, and the business-like approach he takes to his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s an incredible worker,\u201d Finch said. \u201cHe\u2019s like a machine every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Krawczynski writes that any Antetokounmpo deal for the Wolves would likely require McDaniels to be moved, either to the Bucks or to a third team, but should no deal come to pass, McDaniels has become the piece the Wolves need him to be at exactly the right time.<\/p>\n

We have more from the Northwest Division:<\/p>\n

The Thunder are unlikely to make a major shake-up move at the trade deadline, with most reports indicating<\/a> that 22-year-old wing Ousmane Dieng<\/a> is the most likely player on the team to be moved. That said, the team could still use some frontcourt insurance depth, especially with Isaiah Hartenstein<\/a> in and out of the lineup with injuries, Rylan Stiles writes for Sports Illustrated<\/a>. In his breakdown of seven potential trade targets, Stiles primarily focuses on depth big men who are unlikely to be overly coveted by their team. Kevin Love<\/a> (Jazz), Nick Richards<\/a> (Suns), Bobby Portis<\/a> (Bucks), and Jock Landale<\/a> (Grizzlies) are three veterans he believes could be acquired for little more than Dieng and second-round picks, of which the team is loaded. He also looks at the Nets\u2018 Day\u2019Ron Sharpe<\/a>, a productive per-minute big man whom Stiles notes could fit into Oklahoma City\u2019s non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception before deciding what to do with his team option in the summer. As a more ambitious target, Stiles notes that Trey Murphy III<\/a> (Pelicans) would make an excellent stylistic fit, but the cost to acquire him would likely be more than the Thunder are willing to pay in-season.
\nThe Jazz are also not expected to make any major moves by the deadline, Andy Larson writes for the Salt Lake City Tribune<\/a>. Notably, that means that unless Utah is blown away by a godfather offer, Lauri Markkanen<\/a> is expected to remain a part of the team\u2019s core moving forward. While Jusuf Nurkic<\/a> was considered a clear trade candidate coming into the year, his solid play within coach Will Hardy\u2018s system has the team trying to figure out how he can fit into the team\u2019s outlook moving forward, rather than deciding what they can get for him in a deal, Larson reports. Nurkic is averaging a career-high 5.0 assists and the most points per game (11.2) since the 2022\/23 season. Larson notes that Love and Kyle Anderson<\/a> could be moved in deals, as both have been in and out of the rotation, and that rather than acting as sellers, the Jazz could be in a position to take bad money in order to add more assets to their substantial draft pick collection. He lists D\u2019Angelo Russell<\/a> of the Mavericks and Maxi Kleber<\/a> of the Lakers as two such names they could receive draft comepensation to take on.
\nTimberwolves point guard Mike Conley<\/a> wants to keep playing past this season, but doesn\u2019t know if he\u2019ll be able to do so, according to Dane Moore (Twitter video link<\/a>). \u201cHonestly, every game I play from here on out I think about, \u2018is this my last game?\u2018\u201d Conley said. \u201cI know I want to play more years, but you just never know how things work\u2026 I\u2019m just gonna go out there and have fun and not take things for granted.\u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jaden McDaniels\u2018 name has popped up in rumors surrounding the Timberwolves\u2018 pursuit of Giannis Antetokounmpo, but on Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3785],"tags":[7,507,7265,2299,377,423,3692,5088,1678,2870,3000,371,6,7797,6609,4203,422,427,3972],"class_list":["post-576314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-utah-jazz","tag-basketball","tag-bobby-portis","tag-dangelo-russell","tag-dayron-sharpe","tag-jaden-mcdaniels","tag-jazz","tag-jock-landale","tag-jusuf-nurkic","tag-kevin-love","tag-kyle-anderson","tag-maxi-kleber","tag-mike-conley","tag-nba","tag-nick-richards","tag-ousmane-dieng","tag-trey-murphy","tag-utah","tag-utah-jazz","tag-utahjazz"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}