Rob Dillingham gets shifty in his NBA preseason debut

Rob Dillingham (who is not bald after all) was his usual shifty self in his NBA preseason debut on Friday night. The NBA lottery pick and second guy off the bench for Kentucky last season played 25 minutes for the Minnesota Timberwolves against the Los Angeles Lakers. Although the Wolves’ likely starters got plenty of run in the first quarter, the young guys took over after that and Dillingham was firmly in that mix.

Rob is lots of things but shy ain’t one of them. He put up 20 shots on the night and made nine of them, leading to 21 points. This included 2-3 from behind the arc as the long-distance shooting woes of the Summer League appear to be gone. He also chipped in four assists and a rebound, as the Wolves won the meaningless game, 124-107.

Rob Dillingham off-screen pull-up 3 pic.twitter.com/YZoDc7HLk0

— Timberwolves Clips (@WolvesClips) October 5, 2024

Rob Dillingham cooking in his preseason debut.

7 points already 👀

(via @NBA)

pic.twitter.com/6oyhhzX1vv

— Overtime (@overtime) October 5, 2024

Reed Sheppard is the former Kentucky rookie who has gotten all the off-season attention and for more reasons than his God-awful-looking mustache. However, watching Rob Dillingham cook against the Lakers on Friday was a stark reminder of how much fun it was to scream, “Dilly, Dilly!” at the top of your lungs when he put his defender in a blender last season.

One of Rob’s collegiate opponents was the same guy he faced off against in the NBA preseason on Friday. Dalton Knect, formerly known to wear that orange you can’t sit with, scored 16 points in his debut, which is–checks calculator–fewer than Rob’s 21.

Dillingham played without longtime Timberwolves centerpiece, Karl-Anthony Towns, who is now with the New York Knicks after a jaw-dropping trade earlier this week. However, he was also without the other key Wildcat in that same trade, Julius Randle. The Timberwolves swapped out one ‘Cat for another, but Randle spent his first preseason game in street clothes on the sideline, probably wondering why it is the low temperature in Minnesota on Sunday is forecasted to be 41 degrees with an 18-mile-per-hour wind.

He and Dillingham will get on the floor together soon, however, as the two former Kentucky players with the most polar opposite of playing styles will vie for an NBA title this season…together.