On draft night in 2024, the Minnesota Timberwolves traded two future picks to acquire a young point guard to support, and eventually replace, veteran Mike Conley. A year and a half later, the Rob Dillingham experiment in Minneapolis has come to an end.
On Thursday, the Timberwolves traded Dillingham to the Chicago Bulls for guard Ayo Dosunmu, marking the end of a well-meaning but unsuccessful gamble by the team.
Rob Dillingham: A developmental project on a win-now team
Dillingham played one season at Kentucky, averaging 15.2 points and shooting 44.4 percent from beyond the arc. However, this scoring ability did not carry over to the NBA, where he has averaged only 4.0 points per game. His two-point shooting has struggled this season, falling to 32.4 percent.
In the past six weeks, Dillingham has seen limited action. He appeared in only 10 of the Timberwolves’ 24 games, totaling just 61 minutes on the court. Bones Hyland has assumed the role of backup point guard, while the Timberwolves traded Conley to the Bulls primarily for salary relief.