With Zach LaVine (right ankle) sidelined again, it’s time for third-year guard Ayo Dosunmu to try and step up. Considering the work he put in last offseason, so far so good.
Charles Rex Arbogast/AP
Three years and $21 million is a nice motivator.
Ayo Dosunmu wasn’t about to deny that truth.
A nice motivator, but not the motivator.
The offseason work was going to come no matter the contract extension given by the Bulls or if his hometown team would have allowed him to walk into free agency and go elsewhere.
Call it unfinished business for the former Morgan Park standout.
“It’s about looking in the mirror and then trying to dig deep into yourself and telling yourself the truth,” Dosunmu said of his approach after last season. “If you go into the offseason unrealistically then you may stay consistent, but I wanted to be real with myself. Look at the numbers and the film and see, ‘OK, this is how I’m being guarded, this is what I need to work on. Now, let me try and attack and get better at it, because this will make me even better.’ “
And the team better.
It’s like Dosunmu went down a checklist of his issues, the team’s issues, and put the work into repair mode.
The Bulls needed less turnovers this season, and Dosunmu’s turnovers are down. Coach Billy Donovan has been stressing offensive rebounding, and Dosunmu’s offensive rebounding numbers are up. The three-point shooting needed to improve, and guess who has improved his three-point shooting from the 2022-23 campaign?
“I think he’s becoming more comfortable knowing the league defensively and matchups,” Donovan said of his third-year guard. “The game has slowed down for him. He’s more patient in pick-and-roll, he’s not in a rush, he’s taking his shots when they’re there, he’s ready to shoot the basketball.
“He’ll keep getting better. I always say when somebody is getting better you’ve got to make sure you’re getting better at the right stuff. I felt like he was working on the right stuff.”
Work that will be needed even more for at least the next week.
Like he did when Zach LaVine missed 17 games with a right foot injury, Dosunmu’s minutes are about to make an uptick with LaVine now sidelined with a sprained right ankle.
What that looked like in Saturday’s win over Memphis for Dosunmu was a team-high 20 points, six rebounds and four assists, while hitting on 3-of-5 from three-point range.
But those obvious numbers didn’t tell the full story. It’s the other aspects of his game he fixed that don’t necessarily appear in box scores.
It was impressive just to hear Dosunmu list them as he broke down his own game.
“I still have a long way to go to continue to get better,” he said. “But I just wanted to read closeouts better, be more effective from the three, and then my overall pace on both ends, pace on pick-and-rolls – offense and defense – being able to space the floor, be effective on that side of the offense, and also help my teammates when they get beat.
“That’s pretty much what I worked on a lot in the offseason, and as the season continues to go, the coaching staff telling me the mistakes I’ve made, just trying to pretty much on the spot get better.”
The one person not surprised with what Dosunmu has done? His coach.
As Donovan told it, he would see Dosunmu in the Advocate Center every morning over the summer and again in the afternoons.
He knew the guard was disappointed with his inconsistencies last year and was hellbent on avoiding a repeat performance.
“Sometimes when somebody has a very difficult year, those are the greatest opportunities to learn from, and I think he learned a lot from last year,” Donovan said. “He’s made great growth.”
