The hits keep coming for a team that is already dealing with Edwards' injury.
The Minnesota Timberwolves got some bad news on Monday when the team announced that forward Jaden McDaniels will be listed week-to-week after an MRI revealed left knee patella tendinopathy and a bone bruise.
It's a tough blow for a team that was already navigating through a stretch without All-Star guard Anthony Edwards, who has missed six consecutive games with right knee patellofemoral pain syndrome of his own.
McDaniels initially downplayed the injury after leaving the Timberwolves' wild overtime win over the Houston Rockets on March 25, telling reporters, "I really just kind of cramped a little bit, but I'll be alright next game."
That clearly turned out to be more serious than he thought, because the 25-year-old has not played since and the MRI results tell a different story.
What The Injury Means Going Forward
Patella tendinopathy, sometimes called jumper's knee, involves pain and irritation in the tendon connecting the kneecap to the shinbone.
The added bone bruise makes the recovery a little more unpredictable.
These types of injuries typically take anywhere from two to six weeks to heal depending on how the player responds to treatment and rest, and the week-to-week timeline suggests the Timberwolves are being cautious rather than rushing him back.
The good news is that according to The Athletic's Jon Krawczynski, "No surgery will be needed for Jaden McDaniels, I'm told, and this timeline appears to be geared entirely toward getting him ready to go for the playoffs."
That reporting lines up with what makes sense given where the season stands.
Minnesota sits at 45-29 on the season and holds the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference heading into Monday's game at Dallas.
There are only eight games left on the schedule and the Timberwolves are projected to face the Denver Nuggets in the first round, which means getting McDaniels healthy for the postseason matters way more than any regular-season game at this point.
Why McDaniels Matters So Much
The reason this hurts so much is because McDaniels has been having a career year on both ends of the floor.
He's putting up 14.8 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game while shooting 51.6 percent from the field and a scorching 44.6 percent from three, which is far and away the best mark of his career from beyond the arc.
He also continues to be one of the more versatile defenders in the league, averaging 1.1 steals and 1.0 blocks per game with the kind of length and switching ability that makes him tough to replace in any matchup.
Without McDaniels and with Edwards still working his way back, the Timberwolves looked lost in Saturday's blowout loss to the Detroit Pistons, shooting just 32 percent from the floor.
Minnesota needs both of those guys healthy and in rhythm if they want to make a deep playoff run, and right now neither one is a sure thing.
The hope is that McDaniels can get right during the final stretch of the regular season and be ready to go when the games start to really count in mid-April.