Tag: NBA Draft

Meet Timberwolves rookie Rob Dillingham, Kentucky’s elite scorer ready to shine in the pros

His scoring and playmaking could translate very well to the next level.

Editor’s Note: This story was originally published June 12, 2024.

Kentucky Wildcats star Rob Dillingham is a crafty guard whose scoring and playmaking could translate very well to the next level in the pros.

Dillingham is widely considered one of the top players at his position in this class. After averaging 15.2 points with 3.9 assists per game while shooting 44.4 percent on 3-pointers as a freshman, the SEC named him Sixth Man of the Year.

Although he is celebrated for his incredible ball-handling and his ability to score off the dribble, during a recent interview with For The Win, the guard said there is plenty more to know about his game.

“I would say an all-around playmaker player who can get my teammates involved and really just do whatever the team needs to win,” Dillingham said. “I feel like if it involves scoring a ball, I can score the ball. If it involves passing the ball, I can pass the ball.”

Dillingham, who has represented Team USA in the FIBA U-16 Americas Championship and played for Donda Academy as well as Overtime Elite, has already had a long journey in his young basketball career.

Through it all, he has kept the same attitude that has gotten him this far.

“I’m just a funny dude. I always joke around with my friends,” Dillingham added. “I can’t help but joke. I laugh all day. I just be in the gym for sure. Outside of basketball, I feel like I try to make people happy because you never know what people go through.”

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Watch Episode 3 of Prospect Park, a video series featuring future NBA players brought to you by USA TODAY Sports and For The Win:

What should NBA teams know about you?

I’m an all-around dude. I want to see everybody win. I feel like that’s a boost to my thing because if I want to see everybody win, everything feels good for people that want positive things. I feel like I can help my teammates and it gives confidence to my teammates and it makes my teammates like me, so just knowing I can be a leader and also a player that gets guys together.

Is ball-handling your best skill?

I really don’t feel like ball-handling is my best. I feel like change of pace makes my ball-handling looks a little better because I know how to change speeds. But I feel like reading the game is my advantage because I feel like a lot of people don’t really see because I’m moving so fast. I feel like I can really read the game. I see everything that happens on the floor. I know where people are. I know basketball.

How will your shot-making off the dribble help you?

I think honestly it would be a big help for me because getting past your first defender, if you can score with the ball, they have to guard you. If they have to guard the shot, getting past them isn’t really the hard thing about it. So once you’re past them, the defense has to help and once the defense helps, it’s based on what reads you’re going to make. Sometimes, getting to the second thing is just helping me get to the reads. Once I get to the reads, it’s up to me to make the right decisions.

How would you have helped teams in the playoffs?

Really, depending on the role I’m playing. But if I’m in a point guard role, coming off screens is easy because you’ve got to switch it. If you don’t switch, it’s a play where I’m ahead and I have an advantage. If I’m at the two, I feel like I can knock down shots at all times. I have to space the floor and they can’t help as much. Either position, I feel like I can do both and help any team.

How can you help teams defensively?

I feel like I can be a pest at all times. I can always be on the ball and really just knowing the game plan. When I know the game plan, I can do it and if I don’t do it, that’s on me. I’m going to rise to the occasion. Whatever the coach needs me to do to play defense, I can do it. If I don’t do it, you can take me out. I don’t have a problem. I want to get better in that role and I feel like I can, honestly. 

What have you learned on your basketball journey?

Really, it’s just keeping the main thing the main thing: Understanding that it’s going to be so many distractions and so many things that come to you and if you keep basketball the main thing and you really love it with everything you want and that’s what you want, it’s always going to work out for you because that’s your main goal. As long as you put that as your main goal and you don’t have other distractions, God is going to guide your path. That’s how I look at it. 

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Victor Wembanyama had the best reaction to 3 French players going so high in the 2024 NBA Draft

Victor Wembanyama loved seeing three French players go so high in the 2024 NBA Draft.

San Antonio Spurs superstar Victor Wembanyama seemed very proud to see his fellow French players get drafted so high during the first round of the 2024 NBA Draft.

Zaccharie Risacher (Atlanta Hawks), Alex Sarr (Washington Wizards) and Tidjane Salaün (Charlotte Hornets) all went within the first six picks of this year’s draft on Thursday night, making that three players from France taken that high.

Risacher followed in Wembanyama’s footsteps in being taken first overall in the draft out of France, which in part sparked the latter to tweet “C’est la France frère” from his Twitter (X) account and followed it with three French flag emojis.
That translates in English to “It’s France brother.”

We’ll see how these young French basketball players translate to the league once they make their debuts, as following in Wembanyama’s footsteps is a tall task for any player in the league, much less all the other great French players to make it in the NBA.

However, Wembanyama will undoubtedly welcome them once they arrive out of country pride.

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Stephon Castle wore an awesome castle chain piece to the 2024 NBA Draft

Alright, this is fantastic from Stephon Castle.

As he was being drafted by the San Antonio Spurs with the fourth-overall pick on Wednesday night, former UConn standout Stephon Castle made sure to dress in style for the occasion.

Castle wore an incredibly sharp suit to the 2024 NBA Draft’s first round, complete with an outstanding castle chain piece to complete the outfit.

Obviously, this is the perfect pick for a chain piece for Castle, and we hope he breaks this out sometime during his rookie season for his pregame look.

As far as accessories go for NBA draft outfits, Castle’s castle chain piece easily takes the cake to us.

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ESPN accidentally showed Tidjane Salaün while introducing Dalton Knecht during 2024 NBA Draft

Well, that’s not Dalton Knecht.

Wednesday night’s first round of the 2024 NBA Draft brought Tennessee star Dalton Knecht to the start of his professional career.

However, the ESPN broadcast of the evening’s festivities didn’t seem to know who Knecht was as they tried to showcase him before the picks began coming off the board.

Once the lower third for Knecht’s name appeared on the broadcast, French prospect Tidjane Salaün came up instead in a very confusing mix up.

We’re not entirely sure at what happened for the broadcast to confuse Knecht for Salaün, but it certainly kept viewers on alert to point out the mistake for themselves.

They don’t look alike at all, so we’re very unsure how this happened.

The broadcast eventually got it right, but what a strange mistake regardless.

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Jay Bilas offers final assessment of Bronny James minutes before NBA draft

Jay Bilas stressed one point above all others: Bronny James needs time to grow into an NBA-ready player.

The 2024 NBA draft began just after 8 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday night. Minutes before the draft’s official start — just before 7:50 p.m. Eastern inside the Barclays Center in Brooklyn — ESPN NBA draft analyst and college basketball commentator Jay Bilas offered a final set of remarks on Bronny James.

Bilas emphasized the point that Bronny James went through health problems last year and endured a truncated college basketball season at USC. Those realities limited the amount of time he has been able to spend on the court, training to become a better and more complete player. Skepticism about Bronny is less about how good he is, more about the simple fact that he just hasn’t played a lot of live basketball since leaving high school. He chose to enter the draft now instead of playing a second year of college basketball. In doing so, Bronny limited his draft ceiling. Does that mean he won’t amount to a good NBA player? It’s more a matter of Bronny not being NBA-ready right now. Bilas recognizes this.

On the air for ESPN, just before the draft began, Bilas said Bronny will need “one to two years” in the G League before he is a fully NBA-ready player. A lot of analysts would agree with that view. Now we wait to see if the Lakers take Bronny at No. 55 in the NBA draft.

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Check out more NFL draft coverage with the USA TODAY Sports NFL Draft Hub.

James Worthy not a fan of Lakers possibly picking Bronny James in NBA draft

James Worthy clearly doesn’t approve of the Lakers selecting Bronny James at No. 55.

Los Angeles Lakers legend and NBA Hall of Famer James Worthy went off on Bronny James and the Lakers while on a hot mic after being live for JJ Redick’s first Lakers’ press conference. The comments, shared by LakersDaily, came from a recent interview with Worthy, who was part of the great Showtime Lakers teams of the 1980s. Worthy and his co-hosts on Spectrum SportsNet threw shade at former USC guard Bronny James.

“Who we gonna be waiting for on the second day? Well, he’s the ‘greatest’ young player ever right now, Bronny, that’s what I’m gonna say,” Worthy said in a sarcastic voice.

“They took their time. They waited, while we were trading (Brandon) Ingram, (Julius) Randle, (Kentavious Caldwell) Pope gone, brotha up in Sacramento (Malik) Monk gone… and then we weren’t getting anything for it, (Russell) Westbrook gone.

“The ink will lead back to the problem,” Worthy added.

The Lakers are projected to take Bronny James at pick No. 55 in the second round which is on Day 2 of the 2024 NBA draft.

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Suns owner Mat Ishbia denied Kevin Durant is getting traded and might’ve forgotten who he’s dealing with

Suns owner Mat Ishbia is in denial if he thinks he has power over Kevin Durant.

There is a tried and true adage about the NBA over the last decade. If Kevin Durant wants to be on a new team, he will be on a new team.

Someone should pass along this memo to Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia.

Amid rumors that the Houston Rockets are interested in trading for Durant around the 2024 NBA Draft, Ishbia decided to quell these concerns in public. He posted a milquetoast, naive screed to his Twitter account about how Phoenix fans should effectively ignore the noise from the media and still focus on Durant, who he assured will be a key piece of a championship-contending Suns team.

Man, Ishbia doesn’t understand who he’s dealing with, does he?

I’ll spell this out for Ishbia in the plainest terms.

Durant will be 36 by the time the next NBA season starts. The Suns have been his third team since the start of the decade. To no avail, he’s tried to recreate the title-winning magic of the late 2010s Golden State Warriors (something that will never happen again).

As it stands, the Suns have a top-heavy roster and are much more liable to screw up their offseason and reload a way-too-flawed team rather than blow it up. Why would Durant want to waste one of the last few years of his legendary NBA career in this tenuous situation? What, from his past, has given anyone in the Phoenix front office any comfort or indication that he won’t start forcing his hand the moment the Suns really go bottom up?

If Durant wants out, this remains a player’s league. There will be nothing Ishbia can do to stop the greatest mercenary in NBA history from deciding where his next chapter will be. Durant has all the leverage.

Sixers consulting Commanders on how to handle day 2 of NBA draft

The Philadelphia 76ers are consulting the Washington Commanders on how to handle day 2 of the NBA draft.

There will be a new wrinkle in the 2024 NBA draft with it being a two-day event rather than one night. In the past, both rounds of the draft would be conducted in just one night, but this year, the draft is two days.

It’s a little different for teams who are so used to having everything done in one night so some have hit up some teams in the NFL to see how things are done. The NFL draft is three days so those teams understand how something like this works.

The Philadelphia 76ers, who are governed by Josh Harris and David Blitzer of Harris & Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, have been in collaboration with the Washington Commanders to get advice on what to do on day 2 on Thursday.

Per Jake Fischer of Yahoo! Sports:

The Philadelphia 76ers are owned by a managing group spearheaded by Joshua Harris, who’s also led a recent acquisition of the Washington Commanders. All teams under the Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment umbrella regularly collaborate, and the Sixers and Commanders held a meeting about how to approach the second night of this year’s NBA Draft, according to one source with knowledge of those discussions. Philadelphia is slated to pick at No. 41 on Thursday night.

It will be interesting to see how the Sixers handle this type of draft process. Round 1 of the draft is set for Wednesday evening at 8 p.m. EDT while Round 2 is set for Thursday at 4 p.m. EDT.

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LeBron James posted a sweet message about his sons ahead of Bronny James’ possible 2024 NBA Draft selection

LeBron James said he’s very proud of his sons as Bronny James waits to see where he falls in the 2024 NBA Draft.

Ahead of his son’s likely 2024 NBA Draft pick, Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James posted a sweet message about Bronny James and his brother, Bryce, and how proud he is to be their dad.

It’s exactly the type of message you’d expect an adoring parent to post before one of their children reaches a major milestone, as Bronny James will most likely hear his name called at some point in the next two days to start his NBA career.

It’s very possible that the Lakers are the team that drafts Bronny James in the next two days, putting him together with his father on the court in Los Angeles.

Even if it’s another team, we’re sure that LeBron James will be immensely proud of his son no matter where he goes.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C8r822dOk8w

“Pops over here getting emotional as hell just thinking about yall journey so far!” James posted. “Thank you both for allowing me to be your DAD and be apart of your compass through life’s trials and tribulations!”

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