Arturas Karnisovas & Co. strikes again. The Chicago Bulls selected Chicago native, Ayo Dosunmu, with the 38th pick in the NBA draft. If you’re a Bulls fan, you should be speechless.
Dosunmu energized Big Ten basketball fans by leading the University of Illinois Fighting Illini to a first seed in the March Madness tournament.
It is easy to tell that Dosunmu will have a bright NBA future. He has an excellent basketball IQ, great pace for the game, and excellent playmaking ability.
The former Morgan Park and University of Illinois star is staying home in Chicago with the Bulls. It was a serendipitous occurence for him and Bulls fans on Thursday night.
Ayo Dosunmu is a great selection made by the Chicago Bulls in the 2021 NBA Draft.
Ayo Dosunmu was a 1st round talent and a steal for the Bulls!!! Kid plays hard and will play with a chip on his shoulder to prove the so called talent evaluators wrong. Lezzz Go! #BullsNation
— Stacey King (@Stacey21King) July 30, 2021
Takeaway #1: The Bulls still need help at the point guard position.
It’s been known that the Bulls need assistance at point guard. Without going into much detail, the duo of Coby White and Tomas Satoransky did not work out for them last season.
The Bulls have been tied to names like Lonzo Ball, Dennis Schroeder, and Spencer Dinwiddie in free agency and the front office will most likely continue to recruit one of these names. What does this mean for Coby White?
White or Dosunmu could ultimately solve the ongoing issue of wing depth. White’s a bit small for the position but he’s a gifted scorer off the bench that could help take the pressure off of Zach LaVine. It would be easy to pair White with any other guard on the team to run the offense. It is a simple solution to a complicated problem but the Bulls have White for two more years.
Takeaway #2: The big man issue might be solved in-house.
While the “best available” strategy was clearly the plan that AKME had in mind going into the draft, it seemed viable that the Bulls would go for any other position than point guard to fix that issue in free agency.
While Dosunmu is not tied down to playing point guard, he certainly fits the model with his playmaking ability, defensive abilities, and ball-handling skills. That brings the Bulls back to the larger issue at hand. The big man. Currently, the Bulls don’t have a lot to work with at the position.
Lauri Markkanen seems as good as gone in free agency. Thaddeus Young is still waiting for the green light to return to the team with his partial guarantee. Daniel Theis is heading out to free agency. While it’s likely Young will return and the Bulls will make a run at Theis, that doesn’t leave the Bulls with depth at the four-spot.
It seems like the perfect time for last year’s second-round pick, Marco Somonovic, to make an immediate impact on the floor. The Bulls just inked him to the team and this could be his opportunity to step into the spotlight. Nevertheless, the Bulls could also work free agency to find another big man. Stay tuned to free agency because the Bulls will be extremely active.
Takeaway #3: Trust in AKME
This pick is a monstrous one because Dosunmu is a first-round talent. His draft stock may have fallen off after Illinois was kicked out of the March Madness tournament early but he is one of the most NBA-ready point guards in this draft.
Dosunmu has progressed his game dramatically since getting to Illinois. Last season, he averaged 20.1 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 5.3 assists in the hardest basketball conference in the country, the Big Ten.
He improved his three-point shooting, eclipsing 39 percent from downtown on the season. He also improved his field goal percentage up to 48.8 percent, better than the previous seasons while taking 15.7 shots per game.
Dosunmu is a gifted scorer and while he doesn’t have the explosiveness that would cap off his offensive game, he is a smart player with the ability to navigate, catch-and-shoot, and use pick-and-roll to his advantage.
Most excitedly for the Bulls, Dosunmu’s defense was impeccable last season. He carried a 96.8 defensive rating and a 3.1 defensive box plus/minus, both drastically better than his previous seasons.
The moral of draft night is that Bulls fans should be excited about AKME as a front office duo. The fact that they did not waste assets trading up into the first round and were still able to obtain a first-round talent is unbelievable. Hats off to Karnisovas & Co. because they did not disappoint.
