After the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the New Orleans Pelicans 81-74 in their first Summer League game, a reporter asked head coach Chris Hines about Rob Dillingham’s performance. The No. 8 pick went 2 of 12 from the floor and had just nine points, but Hines still spoke glowingly of him.
“I’m so proud of that dude,” said Hines. “No. 1, it’s not about him scoring. Everybody wants to see how he can score. He’s gonna be a prolific scorer in the NBA one day. It’s about understanding our culture and fitting into that culture. We’ll develop everything else behind that.”
Dillingham is in a unique situation after being a lottery pick selected by a contending team. The Wolves drafted him to eventually replace Mike Conley, 36, and learn from him in the meantime. However, they also need Dillingham to immediately provide isolation scoring off the bench. It is a glaring issue that came to light after Minnesota’s loss to the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals. Joe Ingles was the main signing Tim Connelly and his staff made this summer. They weren’t able to make any other sizable translation as they are already a second-apron team – putting even more pressure on Dillingham.
Minnesota wrapped up its 2024 Summer League campaign with a 115-100 win over the Orlando Magic on Sunday, finishing with a 4-1 record. Dillingham averaged 5.4 makes on 15 attempts from the floor (36%). He also averaged 1.6 threes on 5.2 attempts (30.8%) through all five games. Dillingham registered 13.8 points on average, but as the 19-year-old got used to the physicality and pace of professional play, he looked far from the electric player he was in Kentucky.
Dillingham averaged 3.9 assists through 15.2 minutes per game in college. Entering the draft, scouts didn’t highlight his passing ability. He wasn’t a lousy floor general, but his well-defined role under John Calipari made him a scorer first and passer second in the limited possessions he saw.
Dillingham needed to focus on two areas the most in Summer League: becoming a more frequent passer and learning the nuances of being an NBA point guard. Dillingham, the coaches, and the front office know he can score. Even though his usually reliable shot faltered in Las Vegas, which could have sparked concern among fans, he looked like a natural-born floor general ahead of his time.
The Hickory, NC native averaged 7.6 assists in the Summer League, the fourth-most among those who played more than four games. However, the statistic doesn’t quantify how impressive Dillingham’s passing was.
Minnesota’s coaching staff used Dillingham’s more direct pick-and-roll technique in his second Summer League game, and the positive results were noticeable.
“I feel like that is the best part of my game, honestly, because there are a lot of things I can do off of it,” said Dillingham when asked about the up-tick in pick-and-rolls. “When my big rolls, it’s the three, it’s the shot, or it’s the big. I just got to get to the point where I am not getting bumped off of [the screen].”
Dillingham’s shiftiness with the ball in his hands makes him a matchup nightmare for a switching defense. He’s quick to get to his spots and seemingly always has a plan of attack. Rarely does he aimlessly attack into the paint and force up a shot out of his wheelhouse despite being heavily undersized.
Physically, Rob was a teenager playing amongst men in Las Vegas. However, you would not have been able to tell that with how he read the floor.
He isn’t even 20 yet, stands 6’3”, and only weighs 176 lbs. After his second Summer League game, Dillingham admitted to being tired down the stretch after scoring 12 points on 4 of 11 shooting in the first half and just two points on 1 of 3 in the second half. The physicality of the professional level, which will only get more intense once the regular season starts, bothered Dillingham. However, it’s a learning curve every rookie goes through, especially a one-and-done who started in one game in college.
Dillingham couldn’t find his shot consistently through a 40-minute game in Las Vegas until the team’s final game on Sunday when he tallied 25 points on 11 of 18 from the floor. Before that performance, Dillingham still attempted quality shots, but they weren’t falling. Even though the Wolves primarily drafted him to fill a need for scoring off the bench, his lack of shot-making in the Summer League wasn’t alarming.
Many players have poor shooting splits, as that comes with the territory of Summer League basketball. Most players – especially rookies – don’t pass the ball with the conviction and run the offense with the confidence of a 15-year NBA veteran.
However, Dillingham was the exception that proved the rule.
Pick-and-rolls are among basketball’s most productive plays that generate easy offense. But they can only take you so far. In the Wolves’ third Summer League game, the Philadelphia 76ers immediately went with zone coverage on defense. They were also incredibly aggressive on the perimeter, particularly against Dillingham. That uptick in defensive pressure took the PnR out of Minnesota’s arsenal and gave the Wolves fits for most of the game.
You have to get creative to be an effective passer in those situations. Keeping your head up and connecting on difficult passes with a small window of space can help break down the defense and doesn’t cause the team-wide offense to become dependent on one play.
Nineteen-year NBA veteran and 12-time All-Star Chris Paul is among the league’s most intelligent passers. Like Dillingham, Paul is an undersized guard at 6’0”, 175 lbs. He is a career 17.5 points-per-game scorer, which was a strong suit of Paul’s illustrious professional career. However, he led the league in assists five times, averaging north of ten assists in seven seasons.
The Wolves don’t need or expect Dillingham to be among the league leaders in assists in the near future. But they need him to be a reliable passer who mitigates turnovers, another positive Paul displayed immediately, averaging 7.8 assists and 2.3 turnovers in his Rookie of the Year campaign in 2005-06. If Rob can turn in similar stats, his NBA transition will be much smoother.
Paul led the NBA in assists twice while he was a member of the Los Angeles Clippers, who gained the nickname “Lob City” because of Paul’s connection with Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan. While Dillingham doesn’t have the same ammunition that CP3 did while in Los Angeles, throwing “lobs” effectively will be essential for Rob in his rookie year. It’s a skill that is often overlooked in the NBA. Most fans expect point guards to be able to throw passes above the rim successfully. However, they take a high level of connection, chemistry, and basketball IQ to execute effectively.
Dillingham’s lob-ability was a welcome surprise in the Summer league, and it isn’t something many 19-year-old rookies excel at.
“I feel like you have to prove instead of just expecting something,” Dillingham told Michael Grady late last week. “I feel like I have to get better at a lot of things before I can go out there and really perform on a team that reached the Western Conference Finals.”
The Wolves need scoring from the No. 8 pick as soon as he can provide them with it, but the coaches and front office are well aware this will be a learning process. However, Chris Finch and his staff can’t afford to have their rookie check into a game and start chucking up low-percentage shots. They need Dillingham to be effective and efficient with the possessions he gets, even if that means passing up a good shot for a great shot. Rob seems to understand that and appears far ahead of the learning curve.
