JULY 23: The Bulls have officially re-signed Dosunmu, the team confirmed today in a press release.
JULY 21: The Bulls will retain shooting guard Ayo Dosunmu on a three-year deal worth $21MM, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The contract was confirmed by Dosunmu’s agent, Mike Lindeman of Excel Basketball, Wojnarowski adds.
Chicago made Dosunmu a restricted free agent by extending a $5,216,324 qualifying offer last month. The Bulls would have been able to match any offer he received, which likely limited his interest on the open market. The Raptors were the only team reported to be considering Dosunmu over the past three weeks.
The 23-year-old guard appeared in 80 games last season, making 51 starts and averaging 8.6 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 26.2 minutes per night. However, his playing time and effectiveness both decreased after Chicago signed Patrick Beverley late in the season.
Chicago selected Dosunmu with the 38th pick in the 2021 draft and he made an immediate impact, starting 40 of the 77 games he played as a rookie. He earned a combined $2.49MM during his first two years in the league, so the new contract represents a significant raise.
Once Dosunmu’s contract becomes official, the Bulls will have 13 players on guaranteed contracts and will be about $3MM below the luxury tax, tweets K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago. Carlik Jones is also on the roster, but his $1.9MM deal is non-guaranteed until opening night.
The Bulls also re-signed Coby White this summer and brought in free agent guard Jevon Carter, so the competition for backcourt minutes will have to be worked out in training camp.
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Good move. Dosunmu is a very solid player. A good guy to keep now and potentially a good trade chip in the future if things really go bad for the Bulls.
Unfortunate. Now they can’t sign Christian Wood or PJ Washington.
A wing or mobile PF is a bigger need than 5th guard (he’s behind Coby, Carter, LaVine, and Caruso). I like Ayo but this roster needed size, not guard redundancy.
I feel like the Bulls are going to try and go small and play as positionless as possible as often as they can. Craig, Derrick Jones, Adama Sanogo, Caruso, Carter, and Dosunmu are all above-average defenders at minimum, and their offense is better when they play faster. Trying to get into good positions and kill the opponent with jumpers isn’t necessarily a bad strategy, especially when your primary Center isn’t a good defender.
DJJ is a free agent. Sanogo is not even on the roster. He’s a two way.
Caruso and Carter are the bench guards. Ayo isn’t passing up either this next year. Ayo will struggle for minutes.
PW and Craig are the only wings on the roster you know are playable. Terry seems unplayable and Phillips is super raw so who knows I’d he cracks a rotation.
They needed another PF because they only have two guys above 6’6 not Vuc or Drummond.
Bulls can’t keep putting Caruso out there at the 3 or 4. He’s got heart but he’s just not big enough.
It is true. Caruso struggles guarding Lebron, Kawhi, Tatum, etc.. Caruso does his best but what can he do giving up 4 inches and 30 pounds. Last season Donovan did what he had to do.
Everyone struggles guarding LeBron, Kawhi, Tatum! That’s why they are superstars.
The Bulls almost perfect fit was ripe for the taking right in front of them, but instead they re-signed Ayo.
Now, I’m not saying the money would have been the same, but PJ Washington would have been a MUCH BETTER fit for their roster rather than having another combo guard who is already behind at least four other players in their rotation.
I’m sure the Bulls will now be forced to play more guys out of their traditional positions, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see Torrey Craig and Patrick Williams forced to play as big forwards, even though both of their games are more naturally suited to play as SFs.
The same goes with Derozan, Caruso, and Green who they had last season, they are all traditional 3/wing types, but the Bulls used them at the four last season. Needless to say, this is just one of the reasons, they were torched when they went up against teams that had any semblance of a size advantage…
PJ Washington, Naz Reid, etc. there were at least a handful or so guys that could have fit really well alongside their starting rotation, yet here we are.
Clearly, they didn’t learn from their mistakes last season, and unless Donovan can figure out some way to play smaller more efficiently and effectively the Bulls are just going to repeat alot of their same mistakes from last season.
Now, I will say they have gotten significantly better defensively by adding some solid 1on1 and quality perimeter defenders in G Javon Carter, F Torrey Craig, and by selecting the raw but physically gifted F Julian Phillips in the draft.
Dalen Terry looks like he’s added on some muscle as well, which should help him defensively, but he’s pretty unlikely to even crack their rotation. Terry will most likely only see some garbage minutes here and there, but hopefully he’s still able to grow and learn along the way.
Still though, yet again, neither Terry nor Phillips are really true 4s. Phillips could possibly be molded into an effective smaller four, but he will need some time to add some weight and muscle. That goes along with the fact he has a good ways to further develop his game as a whole as well, so he likely won’t be a strong contributor anytime soon.
Sanogo is also a very intriguing young player they acquired this offseason, but like Phillips he’s still very raw, and he will spend the vast majority of his two-way deal down in the G-League. Still though, I did really like alot of what I saw from him in the Summer League, and he was able to showcase some good skills that he might be able to translate over as a pro after he’s had some time to further develop and mature his body.
Small ball can work. Last season, the Heat were not big at all. Maybe the Heat got lucky. The Heat could have lost to the Bulls, the Bucks, the Knicks and the Celtics but prevailed in each. Enjoyed watching the Heat play.
Agreed. Like Ayo but the Bulls need size and rim protection. Vucevic is big and talented but not really a leaper like say Adebayo for example. Have always liked Wood.
It does not really matter, no one should have faith in this Bulls org. I mean everyone is back from last year. The problem? What did the Bulls really do last season? Nothing.. They should be tearing it down, but the GM needs to try to save face with the Chairman and his son to keep his job instead of doing what is needed.
I like Ayo but I would’ve rather allocated money towards someone like C Wood or Oubre and given Ayo’s minutes to Liberty-Freeman.
Either Caruso needs to be traded or this signing is pointless in my opinion.
I believe Ayo can serve as a great bench play but when you have Caruso and Carter in front of him, well what was the point?
Like Ayo but as you say seems strange to have five guards under contract, LaVine $40 , Caruso $9.4, White $11.1, Carter $6.2 and now Ayo $7.
I would rather see the Bulls run out White and Ayo, and move the rest, but that means a tear down and the GM will not do that. He should just admit that without Ball this team does nothing (which is weird to have a whole team be bad due to one guy missing) and tear it down. Instead he is going to run pretty much the same bunch out there only to see the result likely be the same.
Booker T is back!
Ayo showed good vision skills in college. He’s got size. And could develop into a solid 2way PG. So why didn’t the Bulls play him at PG. For the first yr in G-league. I know Ball got hurt. But they had other guys. He should have been playing a half yr at least in GL. Now they’re calling him a SG …..
developing players , all players is what drafting is all about. It’s unfortunate too many teams just don’t do it. Knicks sucked at it till they hired Rose and Thibs.
Ayo to me has the potential to be starting PG. A solid 2way guy.