The Rob Dillingham experiment gave the Timberwolves a costly reminder about timing.
Minnesota swung big during the 2024 NBA Draft, sending an unprotected 2031 first-round pick and a pick swap in 2030 to the San Antonio Spurs to move up and take Dillingham with the eighth overall pick. It was a move built on urgency. The Timberwolves had just reached the Western Conference finals, Mike Conley was aging out of the job, and the front office was looking for a young point guard who could grow into the role fast.
That part never happened.
Dillingham never locked down a consistent spot in Chris Finch’s rotation before Minnesota moved him to the Chicago Bulls last February as part of the package for Ayo Dosunmu. Even now, Finch sees the mistake as bigger than the player itself.
In his view, the Wolves asked too much of a raw young guard too soon, much like another Minnesota team did with J.J. McCarthy.
“I do know they’ve had a lot of volatility at the quarterback position, which, you know, I think [Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell] has done a remarkable job…of navigating that. And we know how important that position is,” Finch said during an appearance with Paul Allen on KFXN. “We’ve had similar issues in and around the point guard, as Mike Conley, who was incredible for us but got to the end of his run.
“I see some parallels there, and what you expect of a young point guard. Like, what we expected of Rob Dillingham was probably too much and unfair given where we were, given where he was at the time, and what we needed and what he needed. Maybe there are some parallels there to J.J. as he continues to try to find himself.”
The expectations made sense on paper. Minnesota needed help at point guard, didn’t have much flexibility to chase one elsewhere, and bet on Dillingham’s shot creation and playmaking to speed up the process.
But the rookie wasn’t ready for that kind of load. He came into the league listed at 164 pounds at the NBA combine, lacked the strength to handle the NBA grind, and was still working through his defense.
With Conley, Donte DiVincenzo and Anthony Edwards also in the backcourt, the path to real minutes was crowded from the start.
By the time the Wolves traded him midway through his second season, the fit had already fallen apart.
The comparison Finch drew to the Vikings is hard to miss. McCarthy, the 10th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, lost his rookie year to a torn meniscus suffered in the preseason.
Then the pressure ramped up anyway. The Vikings won 14 games, let Sam Darnold leave the following offseason and passed on Aaron Rodgers in free agency, leaving McCarthy to step into a massive role right away.
Instead, he got hurt, played poorly and Minnesota finished 9-8.
In both cases, the lesson was the same: young, raw players are a tough bet when a team expects immediate help on a winning roster.
The good news for Minnesota is that it didn’t stay stuck on the mistake. The Vikings signed Kyler Murray and handed him the starting job to replace McCarthy. The Timberwolves took a similar route this summer by trading for LaMelo Ball, a proven point guard who fits the kind of timeline Minnesota needed in the first place.
Ball is 26 and arrives as an established starter, the type of veteran presence a team with championship ambitions can plug in right away. He turns 25 on Aug. 22, giving Minnesota the kind of runway it never had with Dillingham. That matters, especially for a team that tried to solve the problem by betting on upside and learned how quickly that can go sideways.
The Wolves took a risk, missed, and now hope they’ve finally found the right answer.
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