Struggles Continue for MN Timberwolves Top Pick

The Minnesota Timberwolves continue to push towards the opening tip of the 2025 NBA regular season, which for the Wolves, will happen in less than two weeks — October 22nd out West against the Portland Trail Blazers.

Entering the offseason, Minnesota’s most significant need, arguably, was at point guard. With Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels and TJ Shannon Jr on the wings, plus Naz Reid, Rudy Gobert and Julius Randle all locked in long-term down low, the Timberwolves are an upgrade away at point guard from being a team without weaknesses.

MN Timberwolves trying to take training wheels off Rob Dillingham

But money is tight when you are up against the second apron of the NBA luxury tax system for the second-straight season, which is why Nickeil Alexander-Walker signed elsewhere in the offseason.

Thus, Tim Connelly was handcuffed into returning last year’s PG duo of grizzled vet, Mike Conley and uber-talented recent top 10 pick, Rob Dillingham. In theory, standing pat is the right move. Conley still has enough game left in him to give a solid 15 minutes per night and we are now entering Rob’s second season.

At some point, you have to take the training wheels off, especially when we are talking about a kid drafted as high as Dillingham was. That’s why head coach Chris Finch challenged the size-challenged 20-year-old out of Kentucky.

Minnesota Timberwolves unimpressed by Dillingham’s development?

Unfortunately, through training camp and now halfway through the preseason schedule, those who cover the Minnesota Timberwolves, including Jon Krawczynski (The Athletic), are not seeing a much-improved version of Rob Dillingham.

Instead, it sounds like former Connelly draft pick (Denver) Bones Hyland is making a play for some of Rob’s minutes. And reading some of Finchy’s quotes recently, you can tell he is not impressed by Dillingham’s growth since last season either.

It is still early, but Hyland just seems to have a much better feel for who he is as a player and what he can do to help than Dillingham. The 2024 No. 8 pick is still just 20 years old and barely played as a rookie last year. The learning curve will be unavoidable. He needs time to play, adjust to the speed of the game and figure out who he is as a player.

“I think the key for Rob is to pick a direction and go,” Finch said. “I think physicality gets him if he’s trying to always reverse course. Then, if he has to fight it at that point in time, he should be looking to get off of it.”

Dillingham looked his best when he was out in the open court, particularly during a sequence in the second quarter when he grabbed the ball in transition, surged up the court, hit the paint against Pacers big Jay Huff and kicked it out to Terrence Shannon Jr. for a wide-open corner 3. Finch wants Dillingham to keep things simple and to use his speed to inject pace into the game.

The Athletic

The Timberwolves jumped up to 8th overall during the 2024 NBA Draft in order to select Rob Dillingham. They hoped the young Wildcat was on his way to developing into an elite offensive player up top that would make it impossible for opposing teams to stack their defenses up on Anthony Edwards.

Rob Dillingham is still young, but it’s time he shows us more

Rob is still very young, as Krawczysnki points out. That said, this is a Minnesota Timberwolves team with intentions to win now. It’s going to be a lot more difficult to do that if Dillingham doesn’t take a significant step forward in his development between now and April, when the NBA will start ramping up for the playoffs.

As a rookie, Dillingham played in 49 games but averaged just 10.5 minutes per game. He shot 44.1% from the field, but only 33.8% from deep. As Finch noted to The Athletic, how well Dillingham can adjust to the speed of the game is key.

This is what Rob Dillingham needs to do offensively whenever he’s on the court

Use his speed and handle to get into the paint and create havoc on the defense, creating openings for his teammates on the 3PT-line
pic.twitter.com/jb2kRO85Mf

— Point Made Basketball (@pointmadebball) October 10, 2025

Minnesota needs Dillingham to be able to not be a complete liability on defense, while showing off his innate ability to maneuver through traffic on offense and find open scorers. What they do not need is a siv on defense and a turnover machine on offense. So far, he’s been much more the latter.

Chris Finch will need someone to step into a transition process for Mike Conley. The 37-year-old showed clear signs of decline last year, and finding the next man up may determine the ultimate outcome for the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2025-26.