Minnesota came out of nowhere to make a blockbuster deal at the NBA Draft.
The Timberwolves traded a 2031 first-round pick and a 2030 protected pick swap to the San Antonio Spurs for their eighth overall selection, Rob Dillingham.
Dillingham, 19, was one of the highest-rated guards in the 2024 Draft. Coming out of Kentucky, the electric scorer averaged 15.2 points on 44.4 per cent from 3-point range in his freshman year in Lexington.
He’s on the smaller side, standing at six-foot-one and weighing only 164 lbs, but he’s one of the fastest players in the draft and gets the ball in the bucket at an incredible rate.
Despite putting on a Spurs hat on draft night, he’ll now join the Timberwolves, who made an impressive run to the Western Conference Finals last season for the first time since 2004.
He’ll now form a must-watch backcourt tandem with the always-explosive Anthony Edwards.
The Spurs, meanwhile, had already acquired a guard earlier in the draft when they picked UConn freshman Stephon Castle fourth overall.
The eighth overall pick had originally belonged to the Toronto Raptors, but it was conveyed to San Antonio as a result of the trade for Jakob Poeltl in 2023.