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.
All sorts of people rip players on this forum. I don't think I'm known as one of them, or at least an irrational one, sans an occasional blow-up through the years for guys like Rashad McCants, Michael Beasley, Eddie Griffin, et al. Basically, it's only when it's painfully obvious do I lean in heavily. Additionally, I've been a PG guy for the entirety of my NBA fandom dating back to Thomas, Stockton, Price, et al. So I tend to pay more attention to them than other positions.
More importantly though... I've consistently supported my eye test takes on Dillingham by (1) detailing real in-game situations and (2) using statistics.
If you find that sort of analysis "troubling" amid the other criticisms on this site... that says more about you Lip than it does me.
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.
I'm still quite a few games behind on the season so I didn't see the last few games Dillingham played before basically leaving the rotation. At one point I thought he had made some solid progress doing some of the things that actually made him look like a worthwhile player. Up to that point he did give effort on D and did some of the things he was asked to do on that end. Still in general Hyland simply looked like a vet NBA rotation player (he had a couple meh games for a stretch then came back around) and Dillingham looked like a young inexperienced player that was quite a ways from being a positive. We all understand the situation for Dillingham but it is year 2 he should have been farther along than he was.
I think the biggest issues for him was the size and then his scoring closer to the basket. I wasn't as worried about this as much when he was drafted mostly because ai though he was gonna really be a good shooter possibly from both 3 and even in some sort of midrange. That wasn't the case.
I still think there is a path for Dillingham to become a worthwhile player maybe like a Coby White but as we saw this trade deadline that's only so valuable. We have also seen some players north of 25 make pretty big strides and become better players than we would have thought and so Ayo could even be that next guy to do so. I haven't watched him play a lot but he seems very much like the type of guy you would want to add to the roster. Yeah we had to pay up to get him but sometimes you gotta go get a player another team has regardless or how the player arrived or what you didn't do right. Not every GM would be willing to pull the plug on Dillingham. One thing Connelly has been willing and able to do is move on from guys and he doesn't seem to have any issues doing so which is interesting since he is a relationships guy.
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.
All sorts of people rip players on this forum. I don't think I'm known as one of them, or at least an irrational one, sans an occasional blow-up through the years for guys like Rashad McCants, Michael Beasley, Eddie Griffin, et al. Basically, it's only when it's painfully obvious do I lean in heavily. Additionally, I've been a PG guy for the entirety of my NBA fandom dating back to Thomas, Stockton, Price, et al. So I tend to pay more attention to them than other positions.
More importantly though... I've consistently supported my eye test takes on Dillingham by (1) detailing real in-game situations and (2) using statistics.
If you find that sort of analysis "troubling" amid the other criticisms on this site... that says more about you Lip than it does me.
Abe - I was kidding! The emoji was supposed to signal that I wasn’t serious.
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.
All sorts of people rip players on this forum. I don't think I'm known as one of them, or at least an irrational one, sans an occasional blow-up through the years for guys like Rashad McCants, Michael Beasley, Eddie Griffin, et al. Basically, it's only when it's painfully obvious do I lean in heavily. Additionally, I've been a PG guy for the entirety of my NBA fandom dating back to Thomas, Stockton, Price, et al. So I tend to pay more attention to them than other positions.
More importantly though... I've consistently supported my eye test takes on Dillingham by (1) detailing real in-game situations and (2) using statistics.
If you find that sort of analysis "troubling" amid the other criticisms on this site... that says more about you Lip than it does me.
Abe - I was kidding! The emoji was supposed to signal that I wasn’t serious.
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.
All sorts of people rip players on this forum. I don't think I'm known as one of them, or at least an irrational one, sans an occasional blow-up through the years for guys like Rashad McCants, Michael Beasley, Eddie Griffin, et al. Basically, it's only when it's painfully obvious do I lean in heavily. Additionally, I've been a PG guy for the entirety of my NBA fandom dating back to Thomas, Stockton, Price, et al. So I tend to pay more attention to them than other positions.
More importantly though... I've consistently supported my eye test takes on Dillingham by (1) detailing real in-game situations and (2) using statistics.
If you find that sort of analysis "troubling" amid the other criticisms on this site... that says more about you Lip than it does me.
Abe - I was kidding! The emoji was supposed to signal that I wasn’t serious. I should add that even if my eye test turns out to be more accurate than yours, this was still a good trade because there is no evidence Dilly will be what I think he’ll become. In contrast, Ayo provides a lot of positives on the court immediately.
There's no question that this trade makes the Wolves better right now...and the Bulls worse. But it's easy to see why they did it. If you can get a 20-year-old lottery pick who hasn't really had the chance to show what he can do in exchange for a bench player, you roll the dice. I love the trade, but in a couple years analysts might conclude that chicago won it. Anyway, I'll be cheering for Rob.
FNG wrote: ↑Thu Feb 05, 2026 2:06 pm
There's no question that this trade makes the Wolves better right now...and the Bulls worse. But it's easy to see why they did it. If you can get a 20-year-old lottery pick who hasn't really had the chance to show what he can do in exchange for a bench player, you roll the dice. I love the trade, but in a couple years analysts might conclude that chicago won it. Anyway, I'll be cheering for Rob.
Well said FNG. I’ll be rooting for Rob too. Just wasnt the right fit for him here, especially with Finch as head coach.
. 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.
