Minnesota Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly was almost giddy when the dust settled on the first night of the NBA Draft. His team was fresh off a stirring run to the Western Conference finals, but with precious few options to make moves to improve.
He spent days searching for ways to trade up to get his hands on a dynamic playmaker for his offense. So when he had pulled it off and acquired the No. 8 pick to take Rob Dillingham, there was a lightness in his step. He saw Dillingham not just as the bucket-getter the Timberwolves needed right now, but as a 19-year-old who can develop into Mike Conley’s heir apparent at point guard.
The boldness of the maneuver and the electricity in Dillingham’s highlight reel built up plenty of anticipation for the Timberwolves summer-league team. But his first four games were underwhelming with his lack of size a little too glaring in the neon Las Vegas lights. He had a hard time getting his shot off near the rim, was missing too many 3-pointers and was adjusting to the increased physicality from defenders in this step up from college.
None of that was surprising for a player so young at the game’s most demanding position. And while his shot wasn’t falling, Dillingham was still impacting games with his passing and embracing the Timberwolves’ defense-first mindset despite his limitations on that end of the floor.
It took a little while — until the finale on Sunday to be precise. Still, Dillingham finally put his entire package on display, giving Wolves fans a tantalizing glimpse of what he is fully capable of accomplishing. He put up 25 points on 11-of-18 shooting and had 12 assists and two steals in Minnesota’s 115-100 win over the Orlando Magic.
But it wasn’t just the numbers. It was how Dillingham compiled them that stood out.
The quick-trigger, pull-up 3s that made him so dangerous at Kentucky started to fall.
let it fly, Rob.
🏹🏹🏹🏹 pic.twitter.com/VZx4lKSYZH
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) July 21, 2024
What excited the Timberwolves in their scouting of Dillingham even more than his shotmaking was his ability to break down a defense and find teammates for easy and explosive offense.
Reviewing his college video, it was conceivable to think that he may already be one of the best lob throwers on the Wolves roster, an essential addition for a team that features Rudy Gobert on offense. Karl-Anthony Towns and Conley have proven adept at connecting with Gobert on those plays, but outside of that, the Wolves don’t have many options for that connection now that Kyle Anderson is with Golden State.
Dillingham showed versus the Magic that he has it in his arsenal.
LENNYYYYYYY pic.twitter.com/sREHdgaxNi
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) July 21, 2024
Given his scoring struggles in the first four games in Vegas — four points on 2-of-12 shooting in the opener, followed by 14 points in the second, 10 points in the third and 15 in the fourth game — it was understandable that Dillingham wanted to put a little extra sauce on his best performance.
🚨🚨 ROB DUNK 🚨🚨 pic.twitter.com/ONPUqYa7a7
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) July 21, 2024
In five games, Dillingham shot 36 percent from the field and 30.8 percent from 3-point range. In his first few, he was frustrated.
“I’m mad I didn’t hit shots, but I feel like honestly, you got to do all the other things,” he said after the opener.
That is what the Timberwolves coaching staff spent all of their time focused on with Dillingham in the days leading up to Vegas and then once they arrived. He shot 44.4 percent from 3 at Kentucky. He has a flamethrower for a jumper. That it wasn’t always firing during a four-game stretch was of little concern to anyone on the team.
“It’s not about him scoring. He’ll figure that out in his long journey in the NBA, how to score, how to pick his spots,” summer-league head coach Chris Hines said. “He’s super talented. We just have to figure out how to hone that talent in.”
The Wolves view this as a process for Dillingham. There will be times, like Sunday, when he is lighting up the scoreboard, raining 3s, throwing lobs and sending a charge through Target Center. There also will be nights when it’s not working and searching for room against bigger, stronger players.
On a team that will start next season with championship aspirations, it will be asking a lot from a young player. But the roster is designed to build up Dillingham throughout the season. He is the only true point guard behind Conley, which means he will get plenty of opportunities to play and learn as he goes.
The Wolves also have Anthony Edwards, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Joe Ingles who can fill in as the primary ballhandlers, but the plan is to throw Dillingham into the fire and develop him throughout the regular season so that when the playoffs come, he has a perfectly defined role that works for him and the team.
“He has so much wiggle in his game and he understands the dump-off passes right now,” Hines said last week. “Once he starts understanding how to read the floor, the pick-and-roll, he’s going to be a beast in terms of having everybody involved.”
To that end, Dillingham did show throughout Vegas that he could make winning plays even when he wasn’t scoring. He averaged a healthy 7.6 assists per game in almost 30 minutes per night. He also grabbed 4.2 rebounds per game, uncommon for a point guard his size, and played aggressively on defense, which will be demanded of him when Gobert and the big club convene for training camp in the fall.
“He’s gonna be a prolific scorer in the NBA one day,” Hines said. “It’s about understanding our culture and fitting into that culture. We’ll develop everything else behind that.”
Dillingham leaves Vegas with a better understanding of what he will face in the league. There will be more talent and more size waiting for him in October, and he knows what he has to work on in the two months before training camp opens.
“I know I’ve got to get bigger,” Dillingham said. “But I feel like the more confidence you have, it doesn’t really matter.”
He is not going to be able to add 20 pounds of muscle to his 6-foot-1, 165-pound frame in the next six weeks. It will be a gradual process to build strength over time. But the blueprint is out there.
Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young, listed at 6-1 and 164 pounds, struggled mightily in his first few games as a summer-league rookie in 2018. It took him some time to figure out how to mitigate the size differential and find his spots. By his second season in the league, Young was an All-Star.
The Wolves do not need Dillingham to be an All-Star right away, but they do need him to be a factor on a very good team. He will not be the center of attention like Young has been for the Hawks in the last six seasons. Dillingham will have so much more talent around him to help him as he gets acclimated to a new league and a new team.
Dillingham has a lot to learn and a lot of growing to do. The competition will be much tougher going forward. As he showed on Sunday, he also can do things that the Wolves desperately need.
(Photo of Rob Dillingham: Adam Hagy / NBAE via Getty Images)
