![\"Chicago](\"https:\/\/www.chicitysports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/USATSI_28287800-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSAN FRANCISCO \u2013 Trust is everything for Rob Dillingham.<\/p>\n
It was crushed and then eventually lost in Minnesota by the time the second-year guard was traded last month, and it\u2019s being slowly rebuilt in his new stomping grounds.<\/p>\n
But as Dillingham is learning, it\u2019s a two-way street with Billy Donovan.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The coach played him 20-plus minutes in the 130-124 overtime win over the Warriors on Tuesday but also knew in crunch time the moment was still too big for him. That\u2019s why Dillingham was on the bench late in the fourth and into the extra stanza.<\/p>\n
The two players that didn\u2019t leave the floor for the Bulls (27-38)? Matas Buzelis, who scored a career-high 41 points, and Mr. Triple-Double himself, Josh Giddey. All the point guard did was mess around and get his 10th<\/sup> triple-double of the season, scoring 21 points, with 17 assists and 13 rebounds.<\/p>\n As for Dillingham, he\u2019s hoping his time will come.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s me as a person. I\u2019m a trust person,\u201d Dillingham explained. \u201cIf I\u2019ve got your word, you got my word, and that\u2019s how I look at it. When it comes to basketball you feel more comfortable, you feel more confident in what you do if you know your coach or your team is going to live with your mistakes and with your wins. But when it\u2019s the other way around it gets to that, \u2018Oh, if I mess up \u2026 \u2018 Playing that way, no one can. The best players don\u2019t play that way. That\u2019s what makes the difference between being an amazing player and just being a player in the NBA.\u201d<\/p>\n Very fair, but Donovan\u2019s job is first trying to get Dillingham to be an NBA player. \u201cAmazing\u201d is still far down the road. What has complicated his progression, and him getting more minutes, is he\u2019s been dealing with a cyst in right wrist that\u2019s messed with his shot, and he also has to get out of some bad habits that have left his decision making questionable at best in some instances.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the biggest challenge he has and we\u2019ve talked about is I think he identified himself in high school, in college as a scorer. That\u2019s what he did. Just put the ball in my hands and go score,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cWell, when you have Anthony Edwards and (Rudy) Gobert and Julius Randle, as a rookie (for the Timberwolves), second-year player, you\u2019re probably not going to do that to the level of those guys, right? I\u2019ve told him he\u2019s got to develop into a point guard where he finds that balance between himself and his teammates.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want him to be a traffic cop. What he does is get into the lane, he can put it on the floor. He does hold onto it a little too long, the decision making, but I think he \u2013 and a lot of players go through this \u2013 they get to this level for a reason but they are unable to get to that other level because it\u2019s going to require some level of mentality and change in his game.\u201d<\/p>\n Which Dillingham isn\u2019t opposed to. He just feels that playing time and repetition will move that process along. He did score only five points against Golden State on a shaky shooting night (2-of-11), but he had four assists, three rebounds and just one turnover.<\/p>\n While Donovan is giving him more minutes than he\u2019s gotten since being drafted No. 8 overall, he\u2019s also had two games in the last several weeks in which he got single-digit minutes.<\/p>\n The positive part in all of this is player and coach are on the same page when it comes to communicating everything. Dillingham has made sure of that.<\/p>\n \u201cHe and I talk a lot,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cAnd I would say this about him which I really respect and admire, he\u2019s always reaching out, wanting to talk, wanting to communicate.\u201d<\/p>\n With good reason. Dillingham didn\u2019t feel like there was much communication going on with Minnesota, so he doesn\u2019t want that repeated.<\/p>\n \u201cThat communication piece with (Donovan) telling me what I need to do and how I can get better at it, what I can be the best at, it\u2019s easier for me because I\u2019m a communication person,\u201d Dillingham said. \u201cWhen I know what you need from me it\u2019s easier for me to go out there and perform, and then at that point it\u2019s on me. If I\u2019m not doing the right things at least he told me and communicated that. That\u2019s why communication is key.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 Trust is everything for Rob Dillingham. It was crushed and then eventually lost in Minnesota by the time the second-year guard was traded last… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":162537,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-162515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/p>\n