Rob Dillingham’s Growing Chemistry with the Timberwolves Centers

How Rob Dillingham’s basketball past has fueled his instant chemistry with Rudy Gobert and Naz Reid

If you look up Rob Dillingham’s Wikipedia page, you’ll quickly realize how notable his basketball past has been. After growing up and starting his high school career in his hometown of Hickory, North Carolina, he transferred to Donda Academy in California – Kanye West’s school – for his junior year before heading to Overtime Elite (OTE) in Atlanta. He finished his pre-NBA career at one of the most well-known college basketball institutions in the country, the University of Kentucky.

All of this is to say, he’s been under the spotlight playing with some pretty heavy hitters before coming to the Twin Cities. With this spotlight comes a lot of exposure, social media clips, and overall flare that we see permeate his game on a night-to-night basis. His shifty dribble moves combined with a blur of quickness pops on the screen constantly.

While his popularity soared well before he reached the NBA stage – already amassing 1.1 million followers on Instagram – it is more interesting to look at how this background impacted how he is as a basketball player on the court. As a player smaller in stature, having a big to be able to play pick and roll and help him gain advantages offensively makes a world of difference.

No one doubts his ability to use his handle to get an open look, but what has popped to me during his first NBA season is the chemistry he’s already developed with the two polar opposite centers that the Minnesota Timberwolves deploy: Rudy Gobert and Naz Reid.

A big reason for this is because of the top-tier basketball programs he was a part of before his time in the league. Because he played with and against the highest of competition, he is used to playing with massive 7-foot-plus players like Rudy Gobert and do-it-all modern bigs like Naz Reid. To fully understand this chemistry, we can look to the past.

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Rudy Gobert

One of the biggest qualms that many Timberwolves fans have had since the Rudy Gobert trade is Anthony Edwards never being able to find Gobert on the roll for lobs and dunks despite it being open because of the attention that Ant demands.

While sometimes it is understandable, as we can all recall a time when Rudy has had a perfectly placed dime in the palm of his hands and found a way to fumble it away for a turnover, it is maddening watching how many open lobs Ant passes up because of his inability to throw it. While he has gotten much better, it is interesting to watch Rob Dillingham get minutes and immediately be able to have a good connection with Gobert.

A big part of this is because of Rob’s past experience with bigs who play like this. Dillingham, because of his background of playing with talented high school and college basketball bigs, got the chance to play with multiple 7-footers who are a similar archetype to Rudy Gobert.

Steven Solano (Donda Academy) and Ugonna Onyenso (Kentucky) were two examples to point to as the reason behind Rob’s comfortability with a rolling, lob threat big like Rudy Gobert.

You compare this to Ant’s experience during his pre-NBA days, and you see the discrepancy. While Georgia had a closer semblance to a player like Gobert, Edwards never has played with a player like Rudy. Rob Dillingham, on the other hand, has.

For this reason, it tracks why Rob has seamlessly transitioned to be able to play beside Gobert. These were just two examples of players that are similar to Rudy, but there could be many more from his AAU time or other experiences playing with Centers of this type in his past basketball experience.

While Edwards lacks experience in this regard, it is also important to note that Dillingham plays point guard, so he also had a different kind of exposure as a table setter for his bigs during his younger days.

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Naz Reid

While Naz Reid did not play the Center nearly at all last year, the Karl-Anthony Towns trade forced him into this backup center position behind Gobert. As the season has gone on, he’s become more comfortable in that role and found a way to make the lineups with him at the five profitable ones.

The chemistry between Rob and Naz makes sense: they are both quick-trigger players who thrive off of change-of-pace moves going 0 to 100. This type of Center is one that Dillingham has experience playing with a lot during his time with OTE.

With the revolution and modernization of the game of basketball, more bigs are becoming combo forwards with guard-like skills. This, along with the flash that comes with OTE and the summer AAU circuit, gave Dillingham a ton of experience with this type of player. The most notable that comes to mind is Tyler Smith, who was on Rob’s OTE roster and is a 6’10” stretch big.

Smith falls into that archetype of stretch, combo forward, and you see the parallels between the two in this way. Dillingham’s gaining experience with very different types of players has only helped his transition into the NBA.

While it has been an up-and-down experience because of his size, along with young Point Guards traditionally struggling as they start their careers, it has been great to watch his chemistry with Naz Reid and Rudy Gobert grow as the season has progressed.

Coming out of college, Rob Dillingham was scouted as a quick trigger, shifty bucker-getter with a good handle and great shot-making ability. It is customary when analyzing a young player when they come into the league to just look at their skills in a vacuum. However, very rarely do people look at their teammates and how they impact the skills that were developed before getting to the NBA.

Because of Dillingham’s pre-NBA high-level basketball experience, he had the chance to play with different archetypes of players – and more vast ones than someone like Edwards did. Because of this, he’s been able to slot in next to his new teammates and develop chemistry with a player like Rudy Gobert, who is someone known for being difficult to jive with on the court.

Rob’s skills have been refined on some of the largest pre-NBA basketball stages available, and it is serving him well as he continues to acclimate to the league.