When the Timberwolves traded up for Rob Dillingham during the 2024 draft, I, and a lot of Timberwolves fans, were ecstatic. They had finally found their point guard of the future, and all it took was a protected pick swap in 2030 and an unprotected first-round pick in 2031.
At the time, this deal was easy to process. The Timberwolves are going to be good in 2030, so those picks are unlikely to be high. But little did we know, fast forward less than two years later, and Rob Dillingham has already been traded.
The Rob Dillingham experiment was a failure
Not only did Dillingham receive little opportunity to prove himself as a staple on this team, but in his limited minutes, he was extremely ineffective. He would eventually lose the trust of the coaching staff and fall completely out of the rotation, leading to his departure at the trade deadline.
With the Timberwolves, Dillingham averaged 3.5 points and 1.7 assists in only 9.3 minutes of game time. After his trade to the Bulls, his opportunity has increased, but unfortunately, his production has stayed the same. In 18.9 minutes per game, he's averaging 6.5 points and 3.0 assists, on 36.9 percent from the field and an impressively bad 19.2 percent from 3-point range.
The Timberwolves might end up needing the picks they gave up in the trade
In the event that the Timberwolves have an early exit in the playoffs, they are bound to make some changes, whether that is with the coaching staff, the roster, or both. If they do decide to make a change to the roster, it makes sense for them to buy in on a true, elite second star to pair with Anthony Edwards.
The only issue with that is that the Wolves are severely lacking in draft capital, in large part due to the blunder that is the Rob Dillingham trade. Their only tradable first-round picks are their 2026 first (only tradable during or after the draft), a 2028 pick swap, and their 2033 unprotected pick.
Getting a second star with those assets is difficult but certainly not impossible. And despite the Dillingham trade being a huge mistake, Tim Connelly's track record with moves since he got to Minnesota has been near-perfect.
You can best believe that Connelly will exhaust every option to acquire a Robin to Anthony Edwards' Batman this offseason if they underperform in the playoffs, but unfortunately, he might have made his job harder by banking on the wrong guy to be the long-term solution at point guard.