GeorgeSears wrote:shrink wrote:GeorgeSears wrote:
It looks good in hindsight because his defense has proved valuable in this series against this particular team. It's also worth mentioning that he's averaging 2.5 ppg in two games. In any other situation, you wouldn't overpay for a player like this, who is good at what he does, but not great overall.
However, if the ultimate goal is to take out the Nuggets, which I believe was Tim Connelly's objective, then you pay Ant and KAT the max, you pay Gobert $40M/year, you overpay McDaniels $26M, and you take that cap hit in the near future because you need to do that to compete.
He is leading the Wolves at +40 in the two games. Isn’t that the goal?
He's proving his worth against the Nuggets.
The point I'm making is, If the goal is beat everyone else except the Nuggets, it doesn't make sense to sign McDaniels to $26M/year on top of paying Rudy $40M, and maxing KAT and Ant knowing it's going to put the team in a tough cap situation in a couple of years. Paying McDaniels that kind of money is basically paying for an anti-air missile (or anti-Nuggets missile). His worth pays off in this particular series. Obviously, he'll be good in other series as well (he was good against Phoenix), I'm not saying he's just there to beat the Nuggets. But you're overpaying so you can take out the Nuggets. He's probably worth closer to Naz Reid's salary, who is just as valuable.
Okay, three things.
1. The Wolves didn’t sign him to just take out the Nuggets. McDaniels has been one of the league’s best defenders, taking on the hardest assignments for every team, and he can guard wings 1-4 effectively. If you watched the Wolves first playoffs, he neutralized Devin Booker for three games too. In fact, the NBA leaders for +/- for all teams are +88 McDaniels, +88 Ant, +80 Tatum, +80 Conley, +74 Gobert, +74 Daniels
2. I think you may be limiting his value by classifying him as 3-and-D, and not on his impact. I think you are under on the estimate. In fact, the Trade Board polled estimates before he got his $26 mil a year. The majority correctly voted $25, and almost all pegged him between $20 and $30
https://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2311635&hilit=mcdaniels+contract3. Finally, just because McDaniels focuses on defense, that does not mean he can’t score. He had 25 points in Game 2 vs PHX. But keeping Booker from blowing up is more important for the Wolves. I would also point out that this contract is locked in from age 23-28, and improvement is likely.