Wolves trade number 2. We got Ayo!!

[D-Loser25]

Ugh, he seems like a solid player but this must mean we are out on Giannis and Ja. A flop by Tim in my opinion

lol you’d rather get Ja than this guy? This is a great move. Giannis wasn’t realistic for what we’d have to give up and Ja… I can’t believe that anyone who watches basketball would actually want to give up assets for that guy. There’s a reason TC has his job and you don’t lol

[Jester1534]

I guess the way i look at it is the traded for guy they wanted Dilly to be.

Hopefully we can get a good buyout guy now.

Still don't know what Milwaukee doing? Giannis will hold all the cards in the offseason where he wants to go with his contract status just like Durant did. Hopefully we make another deep run and he will want to come here on discounted price.

[D-Loser25]

We knew Rob and Lenny were our most tradeable assets providing the meast value to the team.

I really like Ayo. He was great at Illinois, has good handles and makes good decisions. Loves transition and will give us a better defender in our 7th spot. When TSJ comes back we'll have a nice Fighting Illini backcourt (draft Keaton Wagler in offseason!).

His on/off are irrelevant as Chicago has been without direction since they drafted him.

Love this deal...called it yesterday

I'm with you, Leado...like this deal a lot. If TJ comes back anywhere close to what he was last season in the playoffs, this is now our bench behind one of the best starting 5's in the Association:

6. Naz
7. D'ayo
8. Bones
9. TJ
10, 11, 12: Clark, Phillips, Joan.

We have supplemented our bench with 3 serviceable players (if TJ comes back) without losing a rotation player. I give TC an A on this one.

I would slide Joan in at 8 and the PG that we sign will hopefully be 9 with TJ sliding in at 10. Bones is trash… I know he’s shot decent so far this year, but he’s not a rotation piece for a team with championship aspirations. Just my 2 cents

[Wolvesfan21]

If Coby White's numbers were similar, I'd agree. But they aren't. In fact, Coby has a positive Net Rating and On/Off rating. That means when Ayo subs for Coby, the Bulls do worse!

Clearly far from a perfect player. But he was the 38th pick in the draft and he's going to be a bench player, and we got him for essentially nothing.

I get it. I wanna believe and certainly his box-score related stats and shooting percentages look really good. Love his greater than 2:1 assist to turnover ratio and obviously the 3-point shooting. Just wondering why the hell his team always does better when he's not in the game for five straight seasons. It's not like he was backing up a bunch of superstars.

I'll let go of this and hope he provides a much needed scoring boost to our guard rotation.

Obviously he can't be defending adequately (I haven't watched him enough to have a opinion of his defense, but the numbers don't lie). Maybe our team and culture shift could do wonders for him though? And we do need another guy who can score off the bench, so. I'm coo.

I think it's a fair deal for both sides and players. It was pretty obvious that Dilly would be better off on another team where he has a chance to make his mistakes and potentially grow. I still maybe give him a 5% chance of becoming a great NBA player, but there is still a chance. So Bulls can take on the risk. We need the sure thing now.

[Wolvesfan21]

Ugh, he seems like a solid player but this must mean we are out on Giannis and Ja. A flop by Tim in my opinion

lol you’d rather get Ja than this guy? This is a great move. Giannis wasn’t realistic for what we’d have to give up and Ja… I can’t believe that anyone who watches basketball would actually want to give up assets for that guy. There’s a reason TC has his job and you don’t lol

I was thinking if Memphis gave us Ja and two or three 1sts unprotected for Ju I might consider. But I need those 1st rounders. His game has dropped too far and he's very risky if he'll get it back, never mind become great. I can't see them doing that though, they need their picks.

[D-Loser25]

Ugh, he seems like a solid player but this must mean we are out on Giannis and Ja. A flop by Tim in my opinion

lol you’d rather get Ja than this guy? This is a great move. Giannis wasn’t realistic for what we’d have to give up and Ja… I can’t believe that anyone who watches basketball would actually want to give up assets for that guy. There’s a reason TC has his job and you don’t lol

I was thinking if Memphis gave us Ja and two or three 1sts unprotected for Ju I might consider. But I need those 1st rounders. His game has dropped too far and he's very risky if he'll get it back, never mind become great. I can't see them doing that though, they need their picks.

Right! Ja is a trainreck, but casual fans still want him because they’ve heard of him

[Lipoli390]

From Dane Moore:

The Wolves are likely done making moves at the deadline, I'm told.

Still some mechanics to work out on how they're going to handle the move with the Bulls -- use the trade exception or not -- but at this point indications are that it is unlikely the Wolves make another trade.

Buyout market will be the next step.


Gotta say, while I am not enamored with the NAZ-Randle pairing, it was a solid trade deadline for TC.

I agree, Tim. This was a very good trade under the circumstances. I suspect the trade TC was willing to make for Giannis would have been a big mistake. Thankfully, the Bucks shut it down when they decided to wait until the off-season to trade Giannis. This deal for Ayo is TC at his best — solid strategic deals, not the big splashy ones. When you’re this late in the season, already a very good team and trying to take it up one more notch to “win now” you can’t change out your core group for another core. Instead, you need to add to your core without subtracting from it. The beauty of this trade is that TC picked up a proven but still young rotation player in exchange for guys who weren’t playing at all, which means it is pure net gain without disrupting the team’s continuity. I don’t like giving up 5 future second round picks when our future draft stock is already horribly depleted but I still really like this trade.

[Lipoli390]

My problem is they messed with Robs jumper and now he can't shoot. They should have never done that.

There are hundreds of players who improve their shooting with development. You gotta play those odds.

Maybe it's on the player a bit, too?

But more importantly... Dillingham's problems went far beyond poor shooting. He had shockingly poor command of the court with the ball in his hands, which is sorta important when you're a jitterbug type PG.

No idea what you’re talking about… his ball handling and passing were very encouraging for a PG his age. His shooting was hit problem

I agree, Loser. Abe sees Dillingham’s through a prism of disdain that distorts his perspective. Not sure what’s behind it, but it’s troubling. . Seriously, Dillingham’s passing skills looked really good to me and I still think he’s going to be a very good NBA player. That said, he wasn’t ready to help us yet and Finch wasn’t going to give him the chance to develop. Ayo fits the Wolves win-now approach. I’m sorry to lose Dilly and I worry about our lack of draft capital and young talent. But this was a very good move by TC.

[Crazysauce]

I really like Ayo. Liked him much better than Coby White or the Jones. Not quite as much as Sexton but for the contract price range being much lower then Sexton I really like him. He was a baller at Illinois. He will be a good add and plays both sides of the ball.

[AbeVigodaLive]

My problem is they messed with Robs jumper and now he can't shoot. They should have never done that.

There are hundreds of players who improve their shooting with development. You gotta play those odds.

Maybe it's on the player a bit, too?

But more importantly... Dillingham's problems went far beyond poor shooting. He had shockingly poor command of the court with the ball in his hands, which is sorta important when you're a jitterbug type PG.

No idea what you’re talking about… his ball handling and passing were very encouraging for a PG his age. His shooting was hit problem

It's fine to disagree with my eye test. That's why we're here after all.

But the stats don't support your take. Per 36 minutes... his assist/TO ratio was a mediocre 6.4/4.0. Advanced lineup stats were probably worse.

Most of the assists he made this season (as I chronicled often) were pretty pedestrian... even in situations where Minnesota had numbers. Often, Dillingham had the ball with numbers, only for the Wolves to end up trying to score in the halfcourt because Dillingham gave the ball up to someone in a less favorable position which bailed out the opposition. Heck, I even wrote about how often Dillingham with the ball would end up with the ball further from the basket once he was done with it... which would be fine if it came from Dillingham doing that from the paint. More often than not... he didn't. It was Dillingham passing the ball 20 feet from the hoop to a bigger player 27 feet from the hoop. It was ... umm... really bad.

By the end, it seemed like his confidence was shot. So, he was a shell of a lead guard... reverting to looking for his own shot over anything else many nights because he had little idea how to set others up in new and unique ways.