Rob Dillingham came up huge for the Minnesota Timberwolves in this year’s Summer League Tournament. Dillingham scored 25 points to lead his team past the Orlando Magic in the team’s final game of the 2k sponsored event. The entire tournament was a nail-biter from start to finish, and most top-ranked talents came to play from the jump. With so many talented up-and-comers going at each other, fans knew that they were in for a treat from the start and they even had their favorite players picked out.
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Dillingham recently teamed up with Bleacher Report and went behind the scenes to interview Summer League attendees. The interview kicked off with Dillingham posing the following question to a group of four young boys.
Dillingham: “Who y’all here to see most?”
Rob Dillingham: “Who y’all most here to see?”
“[You] and Reed Sheppard.”
“I came here to see Jared McCain.”
Rob: “Oh, you just like the dances. He is cold for sure.”
(via @BleacherReport / TT)pic.twitter.com/M2afCKe8Y5
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) July 22, 2024
The majority quickly took his name in response to the answer, but Dillingham noted that they were only taking his name because he was in front of them. They amended their answer to include Reed Sheppard’s name alongside his on the list soon after.
After walking around a bit, Dillingham met a family, and the father confessed to being a fan of the Minnesota rookie and even added, “You was actually one of our top three that we actually wanted to see.”
With the Summer League having wrapped up, Dillingham asked the patriarch if he had any early picks for next year’s Rookie of the Year Award, and the unnamed fan answered by saying,
“I think it’s a no-brainer. I think you going to pull it off. You got too much in your bag and I feel like with Ant [Dillingham’s teammate Anthony Edwards] getting double-teamed, you’re going to be hella open… you’re going to eat.”
Leaving a few fans that voted his Kentucky teammate Reed Sheppard as the favorite to win ROTY, the majority sided with Dillingham to take home the prize in May next year. But Dillingham confessed that Sheppard was a selection that he couldn’t be mad with, considering how close he is to his former Kentucky teammate.
Reed and Rob make for a good ex-teammate rivalry.
Rob Dillingham and Reed Sheppard met Thursday night in their professional debuts against each other. Both Kentucky stars put in solid performances and Dillingham’s Timberwolves got the better of Sheppard’s Houston Rockets on the night, as the game ended on a scoreline of 93-83.
Sheppard led all scorers with 20 points, but didn’t even make one shot from distance. He did shoot 9-17 from the field and dished out a team-high seven assists. He further made up for his sub-par shooting night by collecting 5 rebounds, making 2 steals, and registering one block.
Dillingham wasn’t any better as he finished his 31 minutes as a starter with 15 points, six assists, five rebounds, and three steals. Dillingham was even worse from the field making 6 of 21 shots, which included 2 made 3-point tries on seven attempts.
The Kentucky duo might have had underwhelming performances in their debut against each other, but their performance throughout the Summer League was nothing short of spectacular. Hopefully, the duo acclimatizes to the professional game quicker as a full-force back and forth between the former Kentucky teammates will make for much-watch basketball.
