The Minnesota Timberwolves paid a significant price to draft Rob Dillingham, sending an unprotected 2031 first-round pick and a 2030 pick swap to the San Antonio Spurs in order to select him eighth overall in the 2024 draft.
Despite the investment, the former Kentucky Wildcats guard struggled to find consistent playing time during his season and a half in Minnesota and was dealt to the Chicago Bulls before last month’s trade deadline.
Dillingham told Joel Lorenzi of The Athletic that competing for minutes on a contender created constant pressure.
“When you do (play), you gotta play perfect in your opportunity, or you won’t get more opportunities,” Dillingham said when asked to describe the pressure he felt in Minnesota.
“The pressure really comes from whenever you come out of college or come from wherever; you play freely because you know you get minutes.
“But in the NBA, it’s not like that. It’s you switching your whole mindset to ‘I gotta perform well in these minutes.’ Your whole life, you just played basketball.
“You messed up, but you learned from mistakes. With me, I’m a smaller guard, so it was way less room for mistakes.
“And, shit, you gotta own up to that at that point. So, I feel like the pressure really comes from not knowing when you’re gonna get the opportunity.”
Rob Dillingham felt intense pressure with the Timberwolves: https://t.co/eZ0EfwYCEc
— Hoops Rumors (@HoopsRumors) March 9, 2026
