2024 NBA Draft Prospect: Rob Dillingham

At 6'2", Rob Dillingham is quick with the ball, makes direct passes, and he can shoot from the outside.

2024 NBA Draft prospect: Rob Dillingham (Kentucky)

Height without shoes, Weight, and Age when NBA season begins: 6’1”, 164 pounds, 19 years old

Standing reach: 7’11” | Wingspan: 6’3”

Mock average: 12.9

NBA player ranking for access to combine information: 7th - 10th (for teams drafting 1st to 25th)

Shot diet: 60% of shot attempts on 2s, 40% of shot attempts on 3s

What are Dillingham’s ready-to-go skills and where will he need to improve going forward?

• Speed with ball - When dribbling the ball, Dillingham is very quick with his ball handling, where he just needs a little bit of momentum to kick start himself on a drive toward the basket. Dillingham has a quick 1-2 crossover, where, because of how fast his dribbling is, and how fast his body can sprint after the dribble, defenses will get caught off guard and he can jet past them. Dillingham also likes to run his sets on-ball from far above the 3-point line, to use his speed advantage to get past the defense in the event he chooses to drive.

• Running the P&R - Dillingham has demonstrated patience in some possessions when running the P&R, for instance, being able to draw in two defenders on a P&R trap up top, and then finding the rolling big open under the rim. He’s still learning the P&R and some of his turnovers do take place on those possessions.

• Going to the floater - On his drives, if there’s too much congestion near the rim, Dillingham will go to the floater shot. In the tape I watched, Dillingham settles for looks just outside the restricted area, often not getting right near the rim before putting up a floater or distance layup. In the times he does try to go for layups up close, Dillingham can show some craftiness in the air, before attempting the layup, to draw contact.

• Perimeter defensive speed - Up top on the perimeter, Dillingham uses his speed to stay with his matchup on-ball and he uses his smaller size to try to zip past screens before they’re set on him. On DHO actions, Dillingham uses his quickness to try to blow up the action by getting in the middle of hand-offs to try to create a steal or deflection. There are times when Dillingham can put immense pressure on the ball handler, forcing the player to dribble back almost toward the halfcourt line.

• Direct passes - Teammates need to be ready for Dillingham’s passes. He throws direct bullet passes to teammates with 1 or 2 hands, if he sees the player is open. When he’s off the ball, he can scan the floor and as soon as he catches it, he can find cutters if they’re open inside. Dillingham can deliver his 1-handed passes with space inbetween. For example, he’s comfortable standing on the right arc, and then with 1-hand throwing a right handed pass across his chest to a left arc shooter. Dillingham can also throw the lob pass to bigs for catches in the air to complete alley-oops.

• Combo guard potential - Though he’ll be undersized as a shooting guard in the NBA, Dillingham is comfortable playing the 1 and 2 because of how many possessions he was on/off the ball with another ball handling guard in teammate and fellow lottery projected pick Reed Sheppard.

• Size on defense - Being 6’2”, if a screener makes contact with Dillingham, he can bump him out of an action. Dillingham’s size also limits his ability to help on the boards. When getting matched up with a big in the post, Dillingham will have trouble guarding that player 1-on-1, so help defense will be needed.

• Outside shooting - Though the college three is similar to the length of an NBA corner three, Dillingham showed at the college level he can make 44% of his threes. Some of the types of 3s he showed the ability to make were spot-ups with the hop shot, pull-ups, and pump fakes into side-steps. Dillingham has a quick trigger when putting up outside shots. An example of this is when he was dribbling with his right hand at the top of the arc, and he just quickly pulled up for a three and drilled it. With the momentum he started with in a casual dribble, it didn’t seem like he would shoot a three, but he did, and the defender wasn’t ready to contest. When off the ball, Dillingham knows how to run paths along the arc to make himself a target for a catch-and-shoot three by being in the best place for a driving teammate to kick out to.

What do other draft experts say about Dillingham?

• Kevin O’Connor of the Ringer: Ball handling, pull-up threat, float game, movement shooter

• Jeremy Woo of ESPN: Uncommon mix of shot creation and 3-point ability

• Krysten Peek of Yahoo! Sports: Can create seperation off the dribble, gets downhill, finishing at the rim

• NBA Draft Room: Walking bucket, can score off the bounce and from deep

What are Dillingham’s NBA comps?

• My comps: Bones Hyland, Immanuel Quickley, flashes of Derrick Rose’s ball speed

• Kevin O’Connor of the Ringer: Lou Williams, Bones Hyland

• NBADraftRoom.com: Brandon Jennings

• NBA executives to HoopsHype.com: Lou Williams

Read about other Draft Prospects: Alexandre Sarr | Zaccharie Risacher | Nikola Topic | Ron Holland

How would Dillingham fit on the San Antonio Spurs?