The biggest move of the night during the 1st Round of the 2024 NBA Draft was the Minnesota Timberwolves' decision to trade two future 1st Round picks — a 2030 swap and an unprotected 2031 1st rounder — to the San Antonio Spurs in order to move up to the 8th overall pick. With that pick, the Timberwolves selected Kentucky Wildcats freshman Rob Dillingham, an undersized, yet dynamic scorer who earned SEC Sixth Man of the Year and 2nd Team All-SEC honors last season.
While Rob Dillingham, and fellow Kentucky freshman Reed Sheppard were both lottery picks, they didn't garner the media attention that many other players in this draft class did… that includes USC freshman — and son of LeBron James — Bronny James. While Bronny has yet to be selected in the NBA Draft, it's widely expected that he'll come off the board at some point during Thursday afternoon's 2nd round. And when he does, it will conclude a multi-year effort of Klutch Sports Group to prepare Bronny for the NBA, and to prepare the NBA for Bronny.
So how exactly are Rob Dillingham and Bronny James related when it comes to the Timberwolves' selection of Dillingham with the 8th overall pick? Well, on the most recent episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, the namesake of the pod offered an explanation of how one Klutch draft prospect (Bronny James) took the shine away from another Klutch draft prospect (Rob Dillingham) heading into the NBA Draft.
“We didn’t hear a ton about Dillingham,” Simmons started, when discussing night one of the NBA Draft with Ryen Russillo. “Which was interesting because Rich Paul was his agent, and Rich Paul was on the Bronny, or Klutch was, and they were on the Bronny James PR Tour. And I felt like Dillingham became a little underrated by the time the draft started.”
Now it's not as if Rob Dillingham was prospect without warts. At just 6'1″, 164 lbs., Dillingham's size could've scared a handful of teams away when considering whether to use a higher lottery pick on him. But what Bill Simmons said about Klutch using their time and energy to discuss Bronny James is not inaccurate. Bronny James — and by association, LeBron James — move the needle in a way that Rob Dillingham just doesn't. Case in point, in the month of June, here at ClutchPoints, we've written twenty-five stories about Bronny James compared to just six about Rob Dillingham. But that doesn't mean by any stretch of the imagination that Bronny will be a better player than Dillingham will be for the Timberwolves.
What Rob Dillingham brings to the Minnesota Timberwolves
Rob Dillingham averaged 15 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists per game, in only 23 minutes of action each night coming off of Kentucky's bench. He proved to be an electric scorer who did so far more efficiently than most undersized freshman would. Dillingham's shooting splits were 48 percent from the field, 44 percent from three-point range, and 80 percent from the free throw line.
While nobody is going to expect that this 19-year old rookie to come in and set the NBA ablaze, landing in Minnesota allows Dillingham to play without as much pressure as he begins his career. It's possible that the Timberwolves envision Dillingham occupying a back-up point guard role behind veteran Mike Conley. But what should excite Wolves fans most is that on a team with Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns, Dillingham will get his share of open shots, and that's where he could thrive.
“When you look at his synergy numbers on catch and shoots it’s 1.42 points per shot,” Russillo noted during the discussion with Simmons. “He was in the 98th percentile, so it’s not just his creation off the dribble and getting into his shot and some drives, you’re like ‘man he really got creative on that. When you factor in that catch and shoot number, where he's essentially based on this number one of the best guys in college basketball this past season, that tells you that Minnesota probably looked at him and said even if we don't have him on the ball with all the attention that Ant gets, now with with the space in the KAT and Naz provide that maybe he can just be somebody else at spacing.”