The Minnesota Timberwolves have been desperate to find quality point guard minutes this season. Mike Conley was relegated to full bench duties, and Rob Dillingham has not panned out in the slightest in his brief time in the NBA. The Wolves have now acquired their solution to some of these point guard minutes they need.
Minnesota is trading Dillingham, Leonard Miller and four second-round picks to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for Ayo Dosunmu and Julian Phillips.
Does that fix the Wolves’ issue? Should they have given Dillingham more time? Is Chicago a good spot for Dillingham to develop and turn his career around? Was this all about the second-round picks for the Bulls? Let’s bust out the red pen and throw down some trade grades for this deal.
Wolves receive Ayo Dosunmu, Julian Phillips
The sunk cost of Dillingham needs to be considered here in the initial trade evaluation. Dillingham was acquired on draft night in 2024, as the Wolves moved into the lottery to get their point guard of the future. They traded a 2030 pick swap and their 2031 first-round pick to the San Antonio Spurs for Dillingham. With Conley aging out of starter-quality minutes, he was supposed to be a guy next to Anthony Edwards for the future. There’s still a debt the Wolves have yet to pay for acquiring Dillingham and won’t pay it for a few years.
They’re hoping Dosunmu makes everybody forget all about that. Dosunmu is an excellent rotation guard option. He has great size as a point guard at 6-foot-4 and has a 6-10 wingspan. Dosunmu has had an excellent season too, scoring 15.0 points and 3.6 assists in 26.4 minutes per game. He’s having the most efficient season of his career, too, with 51.4 percent from the field and 45.1 percent from the 3-point line. He’s had a roller coaster of a career shooting the ball from deep, going from 37.6 percent to 31.2 to 40.3 to 32.8 to the current 45.1. So if he has a down shooting year next season, it’s safe to assume a bounce back is happening.
Dosunmu is in a contract year, but the Wolves must be confident they can re-sign him this summer. They’ll have some room to play with under the second apron, and Dosunmu is the exact type of guard the Wolves want in their rotation. He can score, he can shoot and he can be active defensively. The Wolves aren’t just focused on acquiring Giannis Antetokounmpo this summer. They’re looking to get back to the Western Conference finals for the third straight year and get beyond that this time.
Grade: A-
Bulls receive Rob Dillingham, Leonard Miller, four second-round picks
It’ll be interesting to see what Dillingham does in Chicago. The Bulls are clearly reshaping their roster with all of the moves they’ve made this week. He went through injuries in his rookie campaign, limiting his time on the court to 10.5 minutes per game. He posted 4.5 points, 2.0 assists and 1.1 turnovers in those minutes, and made just 44.1 percent of his shots and 33.8 percent of his 3-pointers. He wasn’t what the Wolves needed on the court as they were competing in the rough-and-tumble West. That won’t be Dillingham’s environment in Chicago. He should end up having a chance to develop.
He’s been even worse and used less this season, but he also wasn’t given much of a chance to get on the court and get some reps. If Dillingham can break through the massive group of guards the Bulls have compiled, he might get a chance to show what he can do on the court. He was a good shooter in his one season at Kentucky, but the turnovers have been high since then. Is he going to get time over Tre Jones and Collin Sexton and Jaden Ivey? Probably not right away. Dillingham should be in the mix next season to earn some time, when the Bulls have figured out more of their roster re-shaping.
The Bulls also acquired nine second-round picks in the last week of deals. They’re trying to be to the second round what the Thunder have been for the first round.
By the way, the Bulls have gone to uber-small ball. After all of their deals (to date), Chicago doesn’t have anybody over 6-9 on the roster. Zach Collins and Jalen Smith are the only big men, and Collins has played 10 games this season.
Grade: B-