MINNEAPOLIS — For months, every entry in Ayo Dosunmu’s journal included the same five words: “We will make the playoffs.”
It might be at the beginning as he was first jotting down his thoughts. It might be the closing line. But starting last September during Bulls training camp, Dosunmu didn’t miss a day, almost hellbent on writing into existence what had become his personal mantra.
On Thursday, he and his teammates went through their morning shootaround, preparing for Game 3 of their best-of-seven first-round playoff series.
Dosunmu had made the playoffs, all right … 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 forward Julian Phillips were traded to Minnesota on Feb. 4, one day before the deadline, for guard Rob Dillingham, forward Leonard Miller and four second-round draft picks. It was one of seven deals the Bulls made leading up to the deadline as Arturas Karnisovas, then the executive vice president of basketball operations, and then-general manager Marc Eversley purged the roster of Dosunmu, Phillips, center 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 said. “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, of course. And the fallout from the trades became one of the many reasons why Karnisovas and Eversley were fired before the end of the regular season.
Dosunmu said he recently spoke with Karnisovas, the man who drafted him in 2021 to play for his hometown team, and found some closure.
“Sometimes you have that thankfulness,” he said. “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 main thing about being a free agent — you listen. You have conversations with whoever is interested. I’ll sit down with my family, and you have those conversations about where the next duration of my career will be, but Minnesota has shown me love here. I love the love I’ve been getting from the coaching staff, the fans, the players. So of course Minnesota will have the first dibs to do right and make me feel at home where I won’t even have to go out 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 another day.
