The season of opportunity and growth continues for Timberwolves guard Jordan McLaughlin.
On Wednesday night, McLaughlin made national highlights, hitting a game-winning layup over Bam Adebayo, to help the Timberwolves to a 129-126 win over the Heat.
Adebayo is 6’9. McLaughlin is 5’11.
Wait . . . A two-way point guard, who is under 6-feet tall, is taking the biggest shot for the Timberwolves when D’Angelo Russell is on the floor?
For some that might be a surprise. But not for those paying attention. McLaughlin is one of those players who oozes confidence, even if he’s not super vocal about it.
Looking at McLaughlin’s size and immediately coming to a conclusion on his game is a mistake. Yes, McLaughlin is small. But calling him undersized probably isn’t fair. Because of his size, he’s able to get into spaces on the court that other players aren’t able to get to. That breaks the defense down and opens things up for cutters – thus opening things up for shooters.
It’s something we first saw in Summer League. McLaughlin helped lead the Timberwolves to the Summer League championship game under the coaching of Pablo Prigioni. McLaughlin was familiar with Prigioni from the previous season with the Brooklyn Nets organization – McLaughlin was on the G League team while Prigioni was an assistant coach for the Nets.
In seven Summer League games, McLaughlin averaged 9.9 points, 5.0 assists and 3.9 rebounds per game. Those numbers don’t jump off the page, but you really had to watch the games to get a true feel for how McLaughlin was able to lead the team.
McLaughlin earned himself a two-way contract with the Timberwolves. And after injuries to Jeff Teague and Shabazz Napier earlier in the season, McLaughlin was thrown into the fire.
He’ll be the first to admit that in four games from Nov. 6 to Nov. 11, he wasn’t great. McLaughlin shot just 26.7 percent from the field and 12.5 percent from the 3-point line and had an average of a -6.3 plus/minus. There were certainly some I’m in the NBA! Nerves.
McLaughlin played in just two more games before 2020, instead spending time with the Iowa Wolves. From Jan. 17 to now, though, McLaughlin has not only proven that he deserves to be in the NBA, but he’s done so with limited practice days. Being a two-way player, McLaughlin can only be with the Timberwolves for 45 days during the regular season – that includes practices as well of games. So instead of having McLaughlin practice with the Timberwolves and have it count as a day, the team will have McLaughlin do an individual workout with an assistant coach for about an hour after practice.
“He doesn’t get much practice time because we’re saving his days as a two-way player, but he came up with a big go-ahead bucket and I’m happy for him,” Coach Ryan Saunders said after win over the Heat. “Jordan is a good pick-and-roll player. He has a toughness about him, especially late in games.”
Perhaps one knock in years past with the Timberwolves organization was the lack of opportunity for players like McLaughlin. It seemed like players like McLaughlin around the league found success through opportunity. Of course, there were going to be some tough moments, but how do you find a diamond in the rough without getting some sand in your eyes?
Over the last 17 games, McLaughlin has averaged 8.3 points, 4.5 assists and 1.2 steals in 20.6 minutes per game while shooting 51.5 percent from the field and 45.7 percent from the 3-point line. In his first career start, McLaughlin was instrumental in the team’s upset win over the Clippers at home back on Feb. 8, finishing with 24 points and 11 assists in 37 minutes while shooting 11-for-15 from the field and 2-for-4 from the 3-point line. Maybe more impressive than anything is that he had zero turnovers.
That’s also a big part of what makes McLaughlin so good: He doesn’t make many mistakes. McLaughlin’s 5.41:1 assist-to-turnover ratio ranks second in the league, two spots ahead of old friend Tyus Jones.
Speaking of Jones . . .
Letting Jones walk in free agency and trading Napier at midseason opened the door for McLaughlin to have this moment. Of course, we didn’t know at the time the team would be trading for D’Angelo Russell. And we also didn’t know McLaughlin would develop into the player he is – but it appears as if the Timberwolves front office had a pretty good idea about both of these things happening.
Per 36 minutes, McLaughlin makes a case for being the best out of this group and considering his limited NBA action so far, he also probably has the highest ceiling.
McLaughlin is still a rookie. He’s going to make some mistakes. Opposing offenses will look for ways to get McLaughlin caught in mismatches. But the dude is a gamer. He does the little things that don’t always show up in box scores.
The 2019-20 season was one of finding fits and individual growth for the Timberwolves.
McLaughlin just might be the best example of both of those.