Why Rob Dillingham will help Ant & Timberwolves get to next level | NBA Draft | Hoops Tonight

Why Rob Dillingham will help Ant & Timberwolves get to next level | NBA Draft | Hoops Tonight

what’s up everybody thanks as always for supporting the show it would mean a lot to me if you would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel and then follow me on social media on Tik Tok Instagram and Twitter so you guys don’t miss any of our content over the course of this season all right let’s talk some basketball so I look at Rob as kind of like a smaller version of Malik monk he was an overtime Elite guy and then he transferred to Kentucky and was immediately one of the best shot creators in the country he was 87th percentile among pick and role players at volume he’s already a really good pull-up shooter he’s got a deadly floater he shot 53% of them uh shot 53% on them this year at Kentucky he made some strides as a playmaker that was his biggest weakness when he was with overtime Elite basically just dribbling up the floor and shooting every single time and you know we uh we talked to Damen Wilkins on Monday and he made some good points about the fact that like that’s what he does and you want to lean into that but the growth as a playmaker is important because if you want to be a sixth man who just comes off bench and shoots every time sure but if you want to be a functional part who plays significant rotation minutes on a great team you’re going to have to be able to play alongside other good basketball players and he did make some strides in in that area of the game at Kentucky Super explosive off the balance he has good start stop quickness a deadly like left-handed High hesitation dribble where he’ll like come to a complete stop and then shoot out of a cannon can really beat people off the dribble but the big thing that’s exciting to me as far as the fit with Minnesota he is a straight up deadly off ball shooter he shot 50% field goal percentage on unguarded jump shots this year that came out to 1.48 points per shot 48% overall field goal percentage on catch and shoot jump shots regardless of whether or not they were guarded he was a 97th percentile spot up player he got 1.3 points per possession those are like Michael Porter Jr type of numbers right so the biggest weakness with Rob is that he’s small right and that can obviously cause cause some issues for him defensively but he does play hard and he does compete he’s got a good motor so like Minnesota makes a ton of sense for me in terms of a fit for Rob because if you had to construct a team that would allow him to have an achievable defensive role it would be on a team like this that has multiple Elite perimeter Defenders and an elite rim protector because what that means is Rob is most likely going to be on a movement shooter like any sort of on ball dribble Creator you’re going to put ant on you’re going to put Jaden McDaniels on right you’re going to ask uh Rob Dillingham to got guard a shooter who’s either operating on the weak side or maybe occasionally coming off of some screening actions that’s an achievable role for him right and then like yeah he’s going to be attacked in some ball screen situations where they bring his man up into the screen but he’s quick enough to throw a hedge and recover again like that was the thing what caused issues for Luca in the finals was he’s not fast enough to hedge and recover so he basically has no choice but to guard and he can’t guard and so it became an issue as Boston continued to get dribble penetration on him like the when it comes to weak Defenders you just have to have the ability to do something in terms of the game plan and as long as he can chase Shooters around and as long as he can functionally hedge and recover to protect himself from getting attacked in switches I think he can I think it can work not to mention in terms of uh in his lock and Trail situations he’s going to be in a pretty good spot from the standpoint of having Rudy gobear behind him and just the overall amount of length and athleticism behind him to kind of anchor him on that end of the floor and again he competes and and he competes and he’s got the quickness those are things that that I think make it uh doable things I like he’s just an absolute flamethrower off ball score and after what we saw happen to Minnesota in the Dallas series where Dallas just loads up the strong side and and just any of those swing passes to n Alexander Walker Jaden McDaniels or Kyle Anderson or whatever there just wasn’t enough off Ball scoring Pop to make Dallas pay for loading up the strong side right especially with Rudy gobear who can really cause problems for the offense with his inability to catch and finish in traffic around the basket right so like Minnesota is uniquely set up to benefit from Rob dillingham’s strengths while also covering for Rob dillingham’s weaknesses and then in addition to that he fits a positional need Mike Conley’s 36 years old he’s going to start this year he’s going to be their primary guy in that position but he can help Rob as a mentor if Conley has to sit out games he can slide into that role and over time if he shows the ability to compete defensively and shows that his scoring his flamethrower scoring can help uh in that back court that could be his spot to take my one concern he’s not a natural playmaker he’s getting better at it but it’s not a natural thing for him and I don’t love the idea of having your backourt be two ball handlers that both aren’t great passers right like an’s getting better but that’s not his natural strength either and I would argue that overall ball movement in that fiveman grouping for Minnesota is one of their biggest weaknesses offensively right right that’s how you beat teams that load up the strong side we talked about this a lot uh yesterday when we were kind of breaking down some of the five out stuff like you need to get the ball side to side if like imagine it like this if you have the three-point line and everyone’s loaded up on the strong side you need to get the ball to the other side so that defense has to shift and with multiple side to side shifts that’s where you can find cracks in the defense that you can take advantage of and you’re just not going to get those opportunities unless you have a certain amount of playmaking on the floor my one concern but that’s another thing that like if Rob can get better at it in the long run especially under Mike Conley’s tutelage it makes a lot of sense and I do I do like the off Ball scoring piece and ants development as a playmaker will help a lot in that regard as well um okay the Grizzlies and zacki this I want to look at this from two angles first I want to talk about Zack Ed kind of in a vacuum as an NBA player and then we’ll talk about his fit in Memphis can Zack Ed play in the NBA that’s the big debate that everyone’s been talking talking about over the last few weeks and it’s a lot of like radical like he’s going to be awesome or he’s not going to be able to play at all and to me the answer is really simple he’ll certainly be able to play in some matchups when he can run drop coverage on defense meaning against teams that can’t really force him to guard in space and teams that can’t run him off the floor in transition when he’s in those situations he won’t just be playable he’ll be good because he’s huge and he’s a smart basketball player who knows how to use his size on offense he’ll set great screens and he’ll roll into the lane for deep seals and buckets around the rim and on defense he’s going to protect the paint and clean up the defensive glass he is a functional big man when he’s able to be close to the rim and when he can’t be capitalized on in space right but he’s definitely going to struggle against the pace and space type of teams that can run him up and down the floor and force him to guard on the perimeter but this is something that Memphis is set up to deal with Memphis can function as a team with jiren Jack at the five and with jiren Jackson at the four right especially with the rise of GJ GG Jackson who I really like as a forward that can shoot the ball that you put next to jiren Jackson in their smaller looks you can actually see it all look work together right like here’s Memphis in a matchup against Minnesota a team that you can load up the strong side against and you’re not as worried about Rudy gobear forcing a Ed to guard in space or uh a Minnesota like just kind of running up and down the floor and transition right like in those situations you load you go big it’s Ed at the five it’s Jaren Jackson at the four operating as the low man you can allow Edie to be aggressive on the ball handler and use his length to Kind Of Swarm there jiren Jackson’s running that backline you have GG Jackson is another layer of athleticism on the wing or maybe it’s maybe you can go smaller with that group and have Smart Bane and J johnar out there but if you’re playing against the Golden State Warriors or uh or the Indiana Pacers a team that’s really going to like force Edy to cover a ton of ground and really kind of expose some of his quickness issues that’s where it may it might make more sense to take him out of the lineup go with jiren Jackson at the five GG Jackson at the four with smart Bane and johnar right like the idea here is is like Edy is only going to be functional in the NBA in certain types of situations but those specific types of situations are the only situations that Memphis is really looking at to use Ed anyway and so the fit Mak a ton of sense when Memphis can load up the strong side and keep Edy by the rim he’s their big look when they can’t they have jiren Jackson and his ability to play at the five and they can put a lineup out there with uh jiren Jackson GG Jackson Bane smart and John Morant where they just have a ton of perimeter speed the ability to contain on the ball a plenty of offensive skill and spacing right so like it makes a ton of sense and like I actually think Memphis is going to be a dominant regular season team next year like I think they’re going to be be right back in that I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Memphis got a top four seed next year so like Ed is going to have a small and achievable role alongside good role players I love the fit I’m excited to watch Ed play in Memphis [Music]

Jason Timpf reacts to the Minnesota Timberwolves trading up for Kentucky’s Rob Dillingham in the NBA Draft. Jason discusses why Minnesota is a great fit for Dillingham alongside Anthony Edwards as well as how he will contribute to the Wolves offense from Day 1. Later, Jason shares why Zach Edey will be well worth the No. 9 overall pick for Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies.

Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/MVCMSQnb7Gs

Timeline:
00:00 – Timberwolves trade for Rob Dillingham
05:44 – Grizzlies draft Zach Edey

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