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Whenever someone in the NBA ascends to greatness, they tend to attract more and more vitriol.
For Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the 2025 NBA MVP and the best player on the 68-win Oklahoma City Thunder that's now up 2-0 against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference Finals courtesy of a 118-103 win on Thursday night, he is getting underneath the skin of his opponents and the general NBA fanbase for being a “foul merchant”.
In fact, it appears as though his primary defender in the Timberwolves series, Jaden McDaniels, is getting sick and tired of all the foul-baiting games Gilgeous-Alexander is engaging in on every possession. McDaniels, with the game getting out of hand for them in Game 2, simply decided to shove the Thunder star to the ground, getting called for a flagrant foul penalty one in the process.
McDaniels' remarks after the game won't do anything at all to dispel the notion that he and the Timberwolves are getting annoyed with Gilgeous-Alexander's antics.
“I just wanted to foul him for real. I wasn't even mad; I just had fouls to use,” McDaniels said in his postgame presser, via Clemente Almanza of the Thunder Wire.
Jaden McDaniels on his SGA shove: “I just wanted to foul him for real. I wasn't even mad. I just had fouls to use.”
pic.twitter.com/p4rQnoh0ti— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) May 23, 2025
McDaniels has to be the most frustrated man on the planet by the generous whistle Gilgeous-Alexander gets. He fouled out in Game 1 and fell just one foul short of being forced out of the game early yet again in Game 2. And the Timberwolves forward feels as though some of the fouls he's been whistled for are undeserved.
Thus, the Timberwolves forward wanted to leave a little bit of something to at least make Gilgeous-Alexander feel some sort of receipt from all the damage he's been doing. The silver lining is that McDaniels did not cross a line and did not go out of his way to purposefully harm the Thunder star.
Timberwolves have to mix up their Shai Gilgeous-Alexander coverage
At this point, getting the ball out of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's hands might be the Timberwolves' best bet to disrupt the Thunder's offense.
Allowing Gilgeous-Alexander to carve up Jaden McDaniels over and over again is exposing so many holes in Minnesota's defense and is putting McDaniels, one of their most important players, in a spot of danger by exposing him to potential foul trouble.
In Game 2, Gilgeous-Alexander scored 38 points on 12-of-21 shooting from the field, so it's not like he only did his damage from the foul line (where he went 13-of-15). He showed why he's the MVP, and the Timberwolves' response cannot be limited to a petty shove with the game already out of reach.
