Former Bull Ayo Dosunmu talks TWolves, free agency, return to Chicago?
MINNEAPOLIS — For months, each entry in Ayo Dosunmu’s journal included the identical 5 phrases: “We will make the playoffs.”
It may be at the start as he was first jotting down his ideas. It may be the closing line. But beginning final September throughout Bulls coaching camp, Dosunmu did not miss a day, virtually hellbent on writing into existence what had grow to be his private mantra.
On Thursday, he and his teammates went by their morning shootaround, getting ready for Game 3 of their best-of-seven first-round playoff collection.
Dosunmu had made the playoffs, all proper… with the Timberwolves.
“The more and more I’m here, the more opportunity for spotlight games, the first [playoffs] since my rookie year and being a monumental piece to help the team win — you can’t ask for anything better than that,” the former Illinois guard, now in his fifth NBA season, told the Sun-Times. “It’s a blessing in disguise, actually. Playing meaningful basketball, playing in the playoffs, that’s always been a dream of mine, and that’s why I wrote that in my journal every day. “God just sent me here with a different team.”
Dosunmu and ahead Julian Phillips had been traded to Minnesota on Feb. 4, someday earlier than the deadline, for guard Rob Dillingham, ahead Leonard Miller and 4 second-round draft picks. It was one in all seven offers the Bulls made main up to the deadline as Arturas Karnisovas, then the manager vp of basketball operations, and then-general supervisor Marc Eversley purged the roster of Dosunmu, Phillips, middle Nikola Vucevic, guards Coby White and Jevon Carter and guard/forwards Kevin Huerter and Dalen Terry.
“I wouldn’t say I was surprised because I understood the circumstances with my contract and how many expiring contracts we had, so I knew it was a possibility,” Dosunmu mentioned. “I’d say from the beginning of the season, I told myself I wouldn’t let that get into my play, get into the team, so I was going to never think about it.
“But as the trade deadline approached, 24, 48 hours before the trade deadline, you started to see the moves, and I understood the possibility could become bigger.”
It did, after all. And the fallout from the trades turned one of many many the explanation why Karnisovas and Eversley were fired earlier than the tip of the common season.
Dosunmu mentioned he lately spoke with Karnisovas, the person who drafted him in 2021 to play for his hometown workforce, and located some closure.
“Sometimes you have that thankfulness,” he mentioned. “You’re drafted somewhere, you help a player develop, help a player take it to another step, and that’s why I love Chicago so much, because I was a second-round pick, fought my way into the rotation, got better each and every year, and that was my home. So when I was dealt, that kind of also put a chip on my shoulder because I felt like they just threw away all the work they put into me.
“I was able to close that chapter, speak with [Karnisovas]. He said what he said, I said what I said, and we move on from there. It’s a business, and I wish those guys the best of luck, wish [departing coach] Billy [Donovan] the best of luck. Now [I’m] “focused on trying to get far in the playoffs.”
He also aims to show the rest of the NBA that he’s more than the player they saw in Chicago — that he can be a difference-maker for a talented postseason team. He was making a good argument considering his team-high 25 points in the Game 3 win over Denver.
He’ll be a free agent in July. Tim Connelly, the Timberwolves’ president of basketball operations, has told Dosunmu he wants Minnesota to be his home, but the T-wolves also have $188 million committed to next season’s payroll and are up against the first salary-tax apron.
Would Dosunmu consider a return to the Bulls?
“Everything is on the table when you’re a free agent,” he said. “That’s the primary factor about being a free agent — you pay attention. You have conversations with whoever is . I’ll sit down with my household, and you’ve got these conversations about the place the following period of my profession might be, however Minnesota has proven me love right here. I really like the love I’ve been getting from the teaching workers, the followers, the gamers. So after all Minnesota may have the primary dibs to do proper and make me really feel at residence the place I will not even have to exit and entertain [other offers].
“This is what free agency is all about, sitting down and talking to teams, so I wouldn’t rule out no team. But that’s down the road.”
A journal entry for an additional day.
With the franchise in flux and beginning a reboot with a brand new entrance workplace, the very last thing Donovan wished to be was a hindrance to that course of.
The Bulls have obtained permission to speak with a handful of candidates to substitute fired Arturas Karnisovas. A supply indicated there have been a number of thriller candidates, too. And what about coach Billy Donovan and his determination?
