Timberwolves Bold Moves: Building for Success with Smart Trades and Drafts
The Timberwolves' trade for the draft rights to Rob Dillingham shows they remain aggressive two years after the Rudy Gobert trade. Plus, 3 draft thoughts.
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If you are not an NBA glamour market, you have to do brave things to remain and stay competitive. Of course, winning the lottery or landing Kevin Garnett fifth in the draft helps. You cannot rely solely on player development or free agency to improve your team if you’re not a glamour destination like Los Angeles, Miami or Brooklyn. Look at what the Timberwolves did by trading for Rudy Gobert or the Cavaliers in trading for Donovan Mitchell. Sometimes, you need to create your own luck.
Last week’s NBA draft was a great example of this when the Timberwolves acquired the eighth-overall pick and the draft rights to Rob Dillingham from the Spurs for a 2030 pick swap and 2031 unprotected first-round pick. Dillingham potentially provides the team an immediate bench scorer and long-term ballhandler option the team was previously lacking, a big picture investment over journeyman options like re-signing Monte Morris or Tyus Jones.
I wrote last week that the NBA’s new CBA was going to make it harder sustain a team with middle class veterans and finding young, affordable talent will be crucial. If Dillingham pans out, he may not be cheaper but a better value because of his talent over a veteran on a minimum. The only concerns I have seen from outside pundits is how much this increases the Timberwolves’ luxury tax bill, but this moves signals that the team is less worried about those costs if the moves are sensible and strategic. Plus, the Timberwolves dumped seldom-used Wendell Moore Jr. onto the Pistons so expeditiously, that I almost wonder if Moore asked for a trade after seeing the team add two more prospects ahead of his path to the court.
Bold and Brave
Anyway, if you are going to make a move like the Gobert trade, you cannot stop taking smart big swings. It’s not like they moved up for Dillingham and gave up future assets not to play him. Tim Connelly has said that Dillingham will have a role next season. Rookies don’t often contribute to contending teams (see: 2024 Denver Nuggets) but they can (see also: 2024 Dallas Mavericks) but they won’t be asking Dillingham to carry the team. If he can fill that bench scorer role or be an effective spot starter when Mike Conley needs a breather, the team is better off for it. Plus, Anthony Edwards does not have to try to do everything.
From a team building standpoint, it makes sense to add another perimeter ballhandler. Karl-Anthony Towns can be a great outside scorer, but carrying the offensive load every night is difficult for nearly every big man not named Nikola Jokic and sometimes Joel Embiid. It will be interesting to see how Dillingham’s role evolves over the course of the season. It seems likely he begins off the bench but who knows if he’s a spot starter by season’s end.
As for Dillingham’s size, his frame is certainly slight but he is also 19 and he is still 6’3” in shoes with a matching wingspan. For comparison, Steph Curry is 6’2” with a 6’4” wingspan. Curry has not been known as an elite defender but he is not a small guard; he is appropriately guard-sized, just like Dillingham.
Should We Worry About the Draft Picks in the Trade?
We know the Timberwolves still owe the Jazz three first round picks — ‘25, ‘27, and ‘29 — to the Jazz to complete the Gobert trade. While the Timberwolves did sacrifice more future draft capital, what are they supposed to do with a constricting CBA that limits the avenues they have for improving their team? Seriously, no one was worried about the MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES buying Larry O’Brien trophies. If you are the Timberwolves, you saw that the Western Conference was fairly wide open last season and made the Conference Finals. Their window is open now and the team had a need now, not in 2031. Besides, why pass up the opportunity to improve the team now, when you need to, because you are worried about a first-round pick when Edwards is turning 30 years old that you hope is a late first anyway?
This is not the same as the Timberwolves trading a first for Adreian Payne (RIP). Trading firsts too freely can be a problem, but they aren’t thinking they will be drafting in the mid-lottery in 2031, so they needed to act while they could to obtain a talent at a place in the draft they otherwise would not.
Heightening Interest
Besides, there are few better ways to drum up interest than trading up for an exciting prospect. Dillingham’s scoring and passing highlights are thrilling enough to make an already interesting team even more appealing. Before Dillingham, this team would have still been a good watch, but Dillingham adds a new wrinkle and layer of intrigue. I would be even more excited if Dillingham had played against better competition in the NCAA or a pro league last season, but it looks like what he does works and will be a ton of fun if it translates.
Here are some other stray NBA thoughts I’ve had over the past few days:
Remember when the Timberwolves were a laughingstock for trading for a then three-time DPOY and All-Star Rudy Gobert? Sure, he was turning 30 at the time and had a large contract, but he was a proven great player. Then the Knicks trade five picks for the very talented Mikal Bridges who turns 28 in August and has not made an All-Star team and there is nowhere near the mockery. Look, I hate to be this guy but it seems like more evidence that people just don’t care for Gobert.
Connelly did so much praising of Terrence Shannon Jr., the Timberwolves’ other first-round pick, that I wondered if he was trying to flatter Klutch, Shannon’s agency, and potentially setup a Bronny James draft pick.
Speaking of Bronny James, there have been a lot of people decrying the nepotism in the Lakers taking him 55th overall. The 55th pick is rarely worth getting upset about and Bronny really is not that difference. For me, much like Michael Jordan’s kids, Bronny is in the impossibly large shadow of his dad and as a prospect coming off of cardiac arrest 10 months prior, will need time and patience. That’s hard to do when your 40-year-old dad wants to share the floor with you. Speaking practically, being 19 years old and wealthy on the road with your dad around does not sound like a great time. Plus, this whole thing happening for the Lakers, the most recognized and discussed team in the league, is rather boring even acknowledging what a great moment this will be for the James’.
