Raptors Draft Preview: Rob Dillingham Could be Upside Pick for Toronto in Top 6

Kentucky's track record of churning out NBA-ready guards should be enough to make Rob Dillingham an intriguing prospect for the Toronto Raptors in this year's draft

Kentucky's guard Rob Dillingham (0) drives past Vanderbilt's guard Ezra Manjon (5) / Scott Utterback/Courier Journal / USA

Rob Dillingham had the matchup he wanted.

It hadn’t been a particularly impressive night for the Kentucky freshman who stood at the top of the arc facing down North Carolina’s senior guard RJ Davis. The Tar Heels’ No. 8 ranked defense had kept Dillingham under wraps for most of the night, but the North Carolina native wouldn’t let up.

He crossed the ball under his legs back and forth before making his move. With Davis retreating, Dillingham dribbled into the lane, put his shoulder into Davis’ chest, and then rose up just inside the free throw line to loft a high-arching floater through the hoop.

“I just saw that ‘I am going to win my team this game mentality,’” said Andrew Stefaniak who covers Kentucky basketball for Wildcats Today. “You have to have it in the NBA and Dillingham showed it in that win.”

For the Toronto Raptors, Dillingham is the kind of prospect who could be sitting at No. 6 should the organization keep its top-six protected first-round pick in this year's draft.

The 6-foot-3, 176-pound Dillingham is a scorer, cut from the same cloth as so many other slight and shifty Kentucky guards. He’s almost like a thinner version of Immanuel Quickley and Tyrese Maxey coming out of Kentucky.

Offensively, he’s dynamic with the ball in his hands. He averaged 15.2 points per game off the bench for the Wildcats while shooting 47.5% from the field and 44.4% from three-point range. While he’s not quite a traditional point guard at this stage in his career, his 3.9 assists per game suggest he’s further along in that respect than either Quickley or Maxey were in college.

“When you watched him play for Kentucky you were just watching an NBA player in the college game,” Stefaniak said. “He will have zero issues switching from college to the pros thanks to his ability to create open looks for himself. He is a really good shooter from deep and a better passer than many give him credit for.”

The problem is going to be Dillingham’s size.

It’s a huge red flag on the defensive end where Dillingham isn’t big enough to fight through screens or hold his own as a point-of-attack defender. He’ll certainly put on some weight as he matures, but he’s unlikely to ever be strong enough to be even an average defender at the next level.

His lack of size also creates issues going to the hoop. Like Quickley, Dillingham prefers to use his floater when getting into the paint and that’ll hurt his efficiency inside the arc.

If he’s not able to play the point guard position because of his still-developing playmaking skills, teams will be limited in how they use Dillingham at the next level. He’s not big enough to be a shooting guard and could be stuck being a combo guard off the bench. Lou Williams made a career out of being that kind of player at Dillingham’s size, but Bones Hyland’s career hasn’t panned out as a similar type of dynamic scorer with defensive limitations.

It's hard to ignore Kentucky’s track record when it comes to developing NBA-ready guards. The Wildcats seem to churn out All-Star caliber players on a regular basis and there’s a chance Dillingham is the next in line to be that type of scorer.

But there are risks in picking Dillingham too, especially for a Raptors organization already light on impact defenders. He’s certainly not an ideal fit for Toronto’s starting lineup right now, but if the Raptors want to take the best player available at No. 6, Dillingham could be that prospect.