Rob Dillingham

[Lipoli390]

I thought it made sense to devote a threat entirely to the we guy traded all the way up to #8 to get, Rob Dillingham. He was on my list of coveted PGs I wanted to trade up for. That list started with Reed Sheppard. It also included Devin Carter and Carlton Carrington in addition to Dillingham. The following video review of Rob is one of the better ones I’ve seen:

https://youtu.be/cErPsaDLXR0

I’m excited about Rob, but also nervous. He’s an electric bucket getter with incredible quickness, ball-handling skill and shiftiness. He also amassed excellent shooting stats as a freshman at Kentucky. But if we take a step back and look at him objectively, he’s an absolutely horrendous defender. A troubling part of that, as you’ll see in this video, is that some of his defensive failings are attributable to a lack of effort. You’ll see moments every bit as bad as those Leonard Miller moments in the G-League we saw last season. It’s bad enough that he’s only 165 points with a 7’11 standing reach. But his apparent lack of IQ and effort on the defensive end are alarming.

As I reflect, I think I would have favored taking Devin Carter at #8. In fact, I’m sure I would have preferred Carter at #8. But I’m still excited about Rob and for now we’ll just have to trust TC and his front office cohorts on this one.

[60WinTim]

I understand your "nervous"ness. There is a big question mark as to whether Dilly can develop into the starting PG that supplants Conley. But even if Dilly's eventual role is our "Lou Williams" off the bench with a better 3-point shot, it still addresses the Wolves biggest weakness: bench scoring.

I had re-signed myself to accepting Monte Morris has our Conley replacement because of the similar traits he has to Conley. So regardless of the development path Dilly takes, I think the Wolves are in good shape. Assuming we secure Monte Morris' services...

[Lipoli390]

I understand your "nervous"ness. There is a big question mark as to whether Dilly can develop into the starting PG that supplants Conley. But even if Dilly's eventual role is our "Lou Williams" off the bench with a better 3-point shot, it still addresses the Wolves biggest weakness: bench scoring.

I had re-signed myself to accepting Monte Morris has our Conley replacement because of the similar traits he has to Conley. So regardless of the development path Dilly takes, I think the Wolves are in good shape. Assuming we secure Monte Morris' services...

One of us should call TC and tell him to re-sign Morris.

[rapsuperstar31]

I think the defense is certainly a worry, especially for someone so young on a team that has aspirations of winning the title this upcoming season. I do think our defensive schemes and players will force Dillingham to be a good enough defender. Kat's never been a good defender in the NBA, he's never really bought into it until this last season. This last season Towns was solid on defense. I think having Rudy talking to him, Conley mentoring him, and Ant's ability to give constructive criticism will all help Rob get there. Even Monte Morris, never known as a defender, looked pretty good on defense at times when he was here giving effort. Luka is an atrocious defender, and Kyrie has always been bad as well but both were solid enough in the playoffs within a defensive scheme of good defenders. Well at least until they played Boston who had no weaknesses in it's top 6 players.

[Lipoli390]

I think the defense is certainly a worry, especially for someone so young on a team that has aspirations of winning the title this upcoming season. I do think our defensive schemes and players will force Dillingham to be a good enough defender. Kat's never been a good defender in the NBA, he's never really bought into it until this last season. This last season Towns was solid on defense. I think having Rudy talking to him, Conley mentoring him, and Ant's ability to give constructive criticism will all help Rob get there. Even Monte Morris, never known as a defender, looked pretty good on defense at times when he was here giving effort. Luka is an atrocious defender, and Kyrie has always been bad as well but both were solid enough in the playoffs within a defensive scheme of good defenders. Well at least until they played Boston who had no weaknesses in it's top 6 players.

Who among us would have ever predicted that the Wolves would have a culture, especially a defensive one, that you’d want to put young players into and expect them to improve. We’ve come a long way as an organization!

[Q-is-here]

Yeah, I didn't realize the defense was so bad until I heard that he was ranked in something like the bottom 1% of D-1 players. Sorry, that's not just size, but effort, technique, and overall want-to. Very discouraging and it has turned me into a skeptic.

The Wolves absolutely cannot have someone this bad on defense as the primary backup to Mike Conley next season. And sorry, "culture" can do only so much. How did culture impact DLO's defense? It didn't.

[Lipoli390]

Yeah, I didn't realize the defense was so bad until I heard that he was ranked in something like the bottom 1% of D-1 players. Sorry, that's not just size, but effort, technique, and overall want-to. Very discouraging and it has turned me into a skeptic.

The Wolves absolutely cannot have someone this bad on defense as the primary backup to Mike Conley next season. And sorry, "culture" can do only so much. How did culture impact DLO's defense? It didn't.

Becoming aware of how bad Dillingham is on the defensive end hasn’t turned me into a skeptic yet. TC repeatedly emphasized Dillingham’s competitiveness. That alone distinguishes him from DLO, who has always lacked anything approaching a competitive edge. DLO seems to coast through life as if he’s perpetually high on weed. Actually, I think he is perpetually high. We’ll have to see for ourselves, but I think it’s highly unlikely that TC is flat wrong about Dillingham’s competitiveness. There have been poor defenders who become good ones after a few years in the NBA. Edwards is one example close to home. It took KAT 7 years to become a good defender. Moreover, Allen Iverson was always a poor defender but his offense was so good he was a big net positive for his team. So perhaps that’s what we’ll end up with in Dillingham.

Yes, I’m concerned but still excited and not skeptical. I don’t see him as our primary backup for Mike Conley next season because I think he’ll need a couple years to bulk up his body and ramp up his defensive effort and IQ. But I can see him coming off the bench in some games next season and providing a scoring spark that could translate into wins we wouldn’t get without him.

[thedoper]

We need on ball scoring, and we will continue to need scoring if our long term core is Ant and Jaden. I think Dillingham was a great play. We know the types of pieces that can make this team great defensively with our experience last year. What we were missing was someone else other than Ant who could make offense happen with the ball. I think Connelly is really showing his excellence on team building piece by piece. Not every element is going to work every time, but he has continually filled our gaps nicely.

[Lipoli390]

We need on ball scoring, and we will continue to need scoring if our long term core is Ant and Jaden. I think Dillingham was a great play. We know the types of pieces that can make this team great defensively with our experience last year. What we were missing was someone else other than Ant who could make offense happen with the ball. I think Connelly is really showing his excellence on team building piece by piece. Not every element is going to work every time, but he has continually filled our gaps nicely.

I think that’s spot on, Doper. But I still think Dillingham has to improve a lot defensively to be playable as primary backup to Conley and more so as a successor to Conley. I don’t think he has to become a great or even good defender. If he can go from terrible to OK defensively that will be enough with his offensive gifts.

I’ll add that I’ve now watched just about every on-line video of Dillingham. One thing I’ve noticed is that he CAN play defense. When he’s really getting after it - hounding the ball carrier - he looks good, i.e., like that pesky defender no opposing player wants to go up against.