Iowa Wolves

[Monster]

Q - Thanks for keep your eye on the ball and reporting back to us. I’m always looking for your Iowa Wolves reports.

Let’s hope Dilly’s turnover propensity is no more than a failing of youth. He’s young enough that he might grow out of his tendency to turn the ball over. I think his defense will be good enough playing with Ant, Jaden and Rudy. The one thing I worry about with Dilly is his finishing. He didn’t finish well in college either. Finishing well at the rim is a critical skill for small/slight NBA guards. Some examples: Ja Morant, Steph Curry, Allen Iverson. Part of what makes Curry so great is his ability to score efficiently at the rim in addition of course to his lights out perimeter shooting. Dilly’s a much better three-point shooter than Morant or Iverson coming out of college. He actually had a slightly better college three-point percentage than Curry. But he has to master the mid-range and finish effectively at the rim if he’s going to be a really good PG for us. Fingers crossed.

Lip, Dillingham doesn't have the athletic burst around the rim that Ja and Iverson have/had. He has the shake to free himself up from his man, but then can't quite get all the way to the rim before help arrives, so he's usually stuck having to throw up difficult floaters, push shots, etc. over the weakside defender. That's more the Curry route and I think he will eventually develop a great touch on these shots but it will take some time.

I'd really like to see Dillingham be our full-time backup PG next season right out of the gate. Conley needs to move to more of a Joe Ingles/break glass in case of emergency role. I guess that makes DDV the starter unless Connelly has other plans to trade or sign a vet mid-level PG like Lonzo Ball or Tyus Jones.

Curry was the model I had in mind for Dilly’s development finishing at the rim. The point is that, if you’re a small PG, you have to be super quick getting to the rim and able to finish efficiently once you’re there. Like Iverson before him, Ja uses explosiveness. As you said, Dilly will need to emulate Curry. One thing I’ll add is that Dilly, with a recorded 42” vertical, has much better hops than Curry. That should help, but Dilly is still more of a Curry than Ja around the rim.

Like you’d I want to see Dilly as our backup PG from the start next season and I agree Conley is in the Joe Ingles part of his career - or certainly will be next season at age 38. But I think that means DDV as our starting PG. We likely won’t have the full MLE available (assuming Randle opts in and we re-sign Naz) because we’ll still be over the 1st apron. That’s a reality that some on this Board seem to be overlooking. We won’t have much more transactional freedom next season than we have now. It’s better to be below the 2nd apron, but the CBA restrictions are still pretty draconian for exceeding the 1st apron and there’s no realisic way we can be under the 1st apron unless we trade Randle this season for expiring contracts.

If Conley is relagated to a guy that barely plays he should be considered a guy thrown into any possible trade to make some sort of move. I'm not convinced Conley will be that cooked next season but we also need to see Dilly progress towards being a legit rotation player or hopefully more.

[Q-is-here]

I didn't watch this one, but Dillingham had another rough outing in Iowa. 17 points on 6-24 shooting (!), 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal, and 6 turnovers.

That's 12 turnovers in just two outings! He's no Jordan McLaughlin, that's for sure!

It's nothing to panic about given his age and the situation he's playing in down there, but based on his play earlier this season off the bench in brief stints along with what we see now in Iowa, it appears he won't be seeing regular NBA minutes anytime soon.