Billy Donovan didn\u2019t have time to sit down with Rob Dillingham for an hour-long dissertation on everything that went wrong for the guard in Minnesota.<\/p>\n
It was obvious that the No. 8 overall pick in the 2024 draft had fallen out of favor in the eyes of Timberwolves coach Chris Finch, was traded to the Bulls in the deadline deal for Ayo Dosunmu, and was hoping for a fresh start.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s been given one, and then some, in the ultimate baptism under fire.<\/p>\n
In his first three games with Donovan, he played 22 minutes in his debut against Denver, another 22 in Brooklyn, and then followed that up with 30 minutes of work in Boston.<\/p>\n
This was a player that averaged 5.3 minutes per game in January when he did get off the bench and had only played one game in which he received 20 minutes of run the entire season up north.<\/p>\n
In Dillingham\u2019s eyes the Bulls didn\u2019t just trade for him, they rescued him.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust two different styles of offenses, not as much holding the ball (with the Bulls),\u201d Dillingham said of the differences between the two heads coaches. \u201cJust like get off the ball and really like in Minnesota it was like every possession \u2026 I mean every possession matters here, but you\u2019re going to mess up. Over there it was just like not everyone could mess up and keep playing, so just the opportunity and the pace of the game, just the playing styles.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s maybe why Donovan has gone out of his way to bite his lip with Dillingham mistakes, making sure the kid\u2019s confidence can be re-lit. There\u2019s also the fact that Donovan definitely sees something special with the shifty ball-handler.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s the one guy that off-the-dribble that can really get by people and get into the teeth of the defense,\u201d Donovan said of the second-year player. \u201cThat\u2019s like a real great positive. But the decision making, the shots he\u2019s taking, are not sustainable, and I told him that.\u201d<\/p>\n
So while he does have a runway to make erroneous passes and bad decisions at times, it\u2019s a short one.<\/p>\n
Not only has Donovan wanted to give him playing time to restore his confidence, but it was also out of necessity with guards Josh Giddey and Tre Jones sidelined with hamstring issues. Both have been working out in three-on-three scrimmages, signaling a return was close.<\/p>\n
What that means for Dillingham is get ready for a quicker hook when mistakes are made.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis job and responsibility is to generate shots for guys when he gets (inside) and understand the shots where he has angles and can shoot a high percentage on and the shots he can\u2019t,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like I\u2019m giving him free rein, we need him downhill, but he also can\u2019t be jumping off two feet, getting caught in the air, trying to shoot over guys, trying to throw passes that aren\u2019t there. He\u2019s got to clean that up and we\u2019ve got to help him do it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I don\u2019t want him to do is not be aggressive or be afraid to attack. He has to attack. He just has to make better decisions, and I think that will come in time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which is all Dillingham has wanted since arriving to the NBA after his one season at Kentucky.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Last week) was my first time playing against the Celtics and actually having the ball in my hand,\u201d Dillingham said. \u201cIf I play against the Celtics three, four more times, by the time I play them the fifth time I already played them so many times that I know how to play against them. It comes with experience, studying film, and taking that into the next game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Billy Donovan didn\u2019t have time to sit down with Rob Dillingham for an hour-long dissertation on everything that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-474391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}