Wolves trade number 2. We got Ayo!!

[Lipoli390]

Remember that Minott had a honeymoon period with the Celtics and their fans.

Minott was a mid 2nd round pick whose only discernible skills were energy and athleticism. Dillingham is a highly skilled young player who was widely viewed as a lottery pick before the Wolves took him at #8. I remain convinced that he’ll become a very good NBA PG. And I think Chicago fans will love him.

[Phenom]

Rob Dillingham on playing with the freedom to make mistakes with the Chicago Bulls:

“Obviously we’re gonna win, we wanna win, but like, we can mess up here, it’s not like if we lose we die.”

(via @Will_Gottlieb)

I would argue the actions of Finch and the players on the Wolves, losing and messing up isn't an issue. Just ask Rudy.

[60WinTim]

In case you missed it, and have any interest, here is TC's presser after the Ayo trade. A lot of nice nuggets in there, including comments on the aprons and luxury tax, having two top-10 3pt shooters on the team that shoot better than the guy who thinks he is the best shooter, how they almost drafted Julian, and more...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Yc0r7T63NQ

[60WinTim]

And this popped up in my youtube feed. It was put together 5 months ago and is a collection of Ayo highlights. Some of the quickness he has is pretty amazing. Bones and Ayo are really going to up the Wolves pace!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF7q27-FlHw

[Monster]

Dilly first game with the bulls
9 pts (3-7, 1-3 from 3), 3 Rebs, 4 Asts, 3 turnovers team leading +9 in 22 minutes losing to the nuggets

Good for Rob!

I can already see the challenge the Bulls are going to have...surviving the non-Rob minutes. They were a -25 when he was off the court! Hmm...does he have a chance of replacing Ivey as a starter? Bulls fans on Reddit want it.

Dillingham has made 1 three pointer in 3 games in Chicago. He has to improve his game overall but his lack of being able to be a factor from 3 is gonna be a big problem if it doesn't come around. He was barely even taking them this year. Less than 4 per 36 minutes. I know he wasn't exactly out there to jack up a bunch of shots but his 3 point shooting was one of the main reasons I thought he was gonna be good in the league. Just to compare Julian Phillips has taken and made more 3s this season in a couple fewer minutes. That's not good. A smaller guard has to be a threat from outside if they are gonna be getting I to the paint to score for themselves or others and maybe almost as important in the league now be able to play off others players like Giddy. There is plenty of time for him to figure things out and become a good player but there are some legit concerns too. He is gonna get some freedom in Chicago but there seems to be plenty of competition he will need to outplay and they might bring in more young players this off-season.

[Wolvesfan21]

Remember that Minott had a honeymoon period with the Celtics and their fans.

Minott was a mid 2nd round pick whose only discernible skills were energy and athleticism. Dillingham is a highly skilled young player who was widely viewed as a lottery pick before the Wolves took him at #8. I remain convinced that he’ll become a very good NBA PG. And I think Chicago fans will love him.

I'm taking the other side, by far the greatest chance he's nothing more or worse then a role player/6th man. Still a slim chance he's a very good starter (say 5%). He had every opportunity here to get on the court and he couldn't (Conley and Bones, even Clark were not exactly lighting it up!!!). Blaming Finch who saw him everyday and knows more BB then any of us seems silly to me.

[Wolvesfan21]

Dilly first game with the bulls
9 pts (3-7, 1-3 from 3), 3 Rebs, 4 Asts, 3 turnovers team leading +9 in 22 minutes losing to the nuggets

Good for Rob!

I can already see the challenge the Bulls are going to have...surviving the non-Rob minutes. They were a -25 when he was off the court! Hmm...does he have a chance of replacing Ivey as a starter? Bulls fans on Reddit want it.

Dillingham has made 1 three pointer in 3 games in Chicago. He has to improve his game overall but his lack of being able to be a factor from 3 is gonna be a big problem if it doesn't come around. He was barely even taking them this year. Less than 4 per 36 minutes. I know he wasn't exactly out there to jack up a bunch of shots but his 3 point shooting was one of the main reasons I thought he was gonna be good in the league. Just to compare Julian Phillips has taken and made more 3s this season in a couple fewer minutes. That's not good. A smaller guard has to be a threat from outside if they are gonna be getting I to the paint to score for themselves or others and maybe almost as important in the league now be able to play off others players like Giddy. There is plenty of time for him to figure things out and become a good player but there are some legit concerns too. He is gonna get some freedom in Chicago but there seems to be plenty of competition he will need to outplay and they might bring in more young players this off-season.

I agree, thats the bread and butter of any NBA guard. He must become to good 3P shooter to be playable. Maybe he does it, but his shot just looks more wonky to me then when he came here, not to mention his shot inside around the basket is easily blocked too. None of what he has shown so far made me happy about his long term projection.

He does have elite speed and handle, but he has a long ways to go. I would bet the house he is out of the league in 4-5 years versus good starter.

[Monster]

Good for Rob!

I can already see the challenge the Bulls are going to have...surviving the non-Rob minutes. They were a -25 when he was off the court! Hmm...does he have a chance of replacing Ivey as a starter? Bulls fans on Reddit want it.

Dillingham has made 1 three pointer in 3 games in Chicago. He has to improve his game overall but his lack of being able to be a factor from 3 is gonna be a big problem if it doesn't come around. He was barely even taking them this year. Less than 4 per 36 minutes. I know he wasn't exactly out there to jack up a bunch of shots but his 3 point shooting was one of the main reasons I thought he was gonna be good in the league. Just to compare Julian Phillips has taken and made more 3s this season in a couple fewer minutes. That's not good. A smaller guard has to be a threat from outside if they are gonna be getting I to the paint to score for themselves or others and maybe almost as important in the league now be able to play off others players like Giddy. There is plenty of time for him to figure things out and become a good player but there are some legit concerns too. He is gonna get some freedom in Chicago but there seems to be plenty of competition he will need to outplay and they might bring in more young players this off-season.

I agree, thats the bread and butter of any NBA guard. He must become to good 3P shooter to be playable. Maybe he does it, but his shot just looks more wonky to me then when he came here, not to mention his shot inside around the basket is easily blocked too. None of what he has shown so far made me happy about his long term projection.

He does have elite speed and handle, but he has a long ways to go. I would bet the house he is out of the league in 4-5 years versus good starter.

I was looking back at that draft and it's not even through the first year so it's still early but it's not like any of those PG guys are really lighting up the league. I'll stop now with these comparisons but Dillingham has made 2 more three pointers this year than Bronny James...

[Wolvesfan21]

Dillingham has made 1 three pointer in 3 games in Chicago. He has to improve his game overall but his lack of being able to be a factor from 3 is gonna be a big problem if it doesn't come around. He was barely even taking them this year. Less than 4 per 36 minutes. I know he wasn't exactly out there to jack up a bunch of shots but his 3 point shooting was one of the main reasons I thought he was gonna be good in the league. Just to compare Julian Phillips has taken and made more 3s this season in a couple fewer minutes. That's not good. A smaller guard has to be a threat from outside if they are gonna be getting I to the paint to score for themselves or others and maybe almost as important in the league now be able to play off others players like Giddy. There is plenty of time for him to figure things out and become a good player but there are some legit concerns too. He is gonna get some freedom in Chicago but there seems to be plenty of competition he will need to outplay and they might bring in more young players this off-season.

I agree, thats the bread and butter of any NBA guard. He must become to good 3P shooter to be playable. Maybe he does it, but his shot just looks more wonky to me then when he came here, not to mention his shot inside around the basket is easily blocked too. None of what he has shown so far made me happy about his long term projection.

He does have elite speed and handle, but he has a long ways to go. I would bet the house he is out of the league in 4-5 years versus good starter.

I was looking back at that draft and it's not even through the first year so it's still early but it's not like any of those PG guys are really lighting up the league. I'll stop now with these comparisons but Dillingham has made 2 more three pointers this year than Bronny James...

This year was basically now or never time for Rob. How many guys can you think of that hardly played as rooks and struggled, got worse and sucked in their second year (hardly playing still) then went on to be great players? Odds are stacked against him.

I bet 99% of guys show something by year 2. I'm sure their are some outliers but they are rare. I'm confident in my 5% odds he hits it big still. However that's not really a terrible thing for Chicago, they can take a swing, while we need the sure thing right now.

[Monster]

I agree, thats the bread and butter of any NBA guard. He must become to good 3P shooter to be playable. Maybe he does it, but his shot just looks more wonky to me then when he came here, not to mention his shot inside around the basket is easily blocked too. None of what he has shown so far made me happy about his long term projection.

He does have elite speed and handle, but he has a long ways to go. I would bet the house he is out of the league in 4-5 years versus good starter.

I was looking back at that draft and it's not even through the first year so it's still early but it's not like any of those PG guys are really lighting up the league. I'll stop now with these comparisons but Dillingham has made 2 more three pointers this year than Bronny James...

This year was basically now or never time for Rob. How many guys can you think of that hardly played as rooks and struggled, got worse and sucked in their second year (hardly playing still) then went on to be great players? Odds are stacked against him.

I bet 99% of guys show something by year 2. I'm sure their are some outliers but they are rare. I'm confident in my 5% odds he hits it big still. However that's not really a terrible thing for Chicago, they can take a swing, while we need the sure thing right now.

Yeah I agree with you.

For fun let's compare just because OKC gets a lot of love and rightly so let's remember they traded up to get Dieng at 11 and apparently they weren't able to develop him and had to pay a 2nd rounder to get off him. He has had a couple nice games with the Bucks. Meanwhile the Knicks used one of those picks to get Josh Hart and I believe another one of those picks ended up going to the Wolves in the Towns trade so...yeah it's fun. Of course OKC and the Knicks did a draft day deal with OKC getting Aja Mitchell so that worked out pretty well for OKC. The 2nd round pick that NY had to trade in that deal was from back in 2020 when they got two 2nd rounders from Utah for taking on Ed Davis. OKC had plenty of picks so they had some margin of error but in general that have done a heck of a job building their roster even with some misses.