Around The NBA : 2025-26

[Clocian]

Pro tankers should be happy for Ayo. He would've hurt our draft position

[ImSlower]

This game (and the one prior) have made Dosunmu probably 20 million dollars over what we'd generally have expected a week ago. And every big game he has with DiVincenzo out and Edwards hobbled is worth a couple million on top.

[JimmyButler21]

Pro tankers should be happy for Ayo. He would've hurt our draft position

They probably added 1 draft slot because they waited so long to "tank"

[Michael Jackson]

This game (and the one prior) have made Dosunmu probably 20 million dollars over what we'd generally have expected a week ago. And every big game he has with DiVincenzo out and Edwards hobbled is worth a couple million on top.

Well yes but he wouldn’t have had this showcase if he was on the Bulls. He is getting paid now. I hear John Malkovic.

[burlydee]

There was no long-term plan. The short-term plan though was to not worsen their draft positioning. How does keeping Ayo, who could also leave the Bulls in free agency for any reason he wants, help with that?

Teams sit guys all the time.

As we saw, you can't force players to sit. Ayo is a free agent; he has every incentive to play. Y'all are advocating for things that conflict with each other.

If Ayo was still here and the Bulls lost in the play-in, would you be happy?

You can't force guys to sit, I guess, but guys are literally sitting all over the league. Considering Giddey was gimpy as well at the deadline, its not hard to.envision the team tanking with Ayo.

At the end of the day they get paid a lot of money to figure this out and they woefully failed. The fact that many fans did not see a pathway is kind of irrelevant. And I think the consensus was that Ayo was the best player involved in the Bulls series of trades. And imo, he is the best fit with Giddey of the bunch. Even if you thought the trade was okay at the time, you now have to see it as a miss unless Miller takes a gigantic leap.

[Dan Z]

The better Ayo plays in the playoffs the more I’m thinking it’s good that we let him go when we did, because he may end up getting a contract bigger than Coby.

I’m extremely happy for him, and I would have loved for him to still be on the Bulls but for where we are at as a team, we can’t be paying him 25-30 a year, which is likely what he is going to end up commanding.

I hope he stays with the Wolves but my guess is that he is playing himself out of their price range right now for the Wolves as well, because they are a pretty cheap franchise themselves.

If he wasn't traded he wouldn't be able to show what he can do on a winning team and that would effect his next contract. I doubt he would get 25-30 million if he was still here.

[Dan Z]

There was no long-term plan. The short-term plan though was to not worsen their draft positioning. How does keeping Ayo, who could also leave the Bulls in free agency for any reason he wants, help with that?

Teams sit guys all the time.

As we saw, you can't force players to sit. Ayo is a free agent; he has every incentive to play. Y'all are advocating for things that conflict with each other.

If Ayo was still here and the Bulls lost in the play-in, would you be happy?

The Bulls were losing even when Ayo was here. They weren't going to make the play-in either way.

[ImSlower]

This game (and the one prior) have made Dosunmu probably 20 million dollars over what we'd generally have expected a week ago. And every big game he has with DiVincenzo out and Edwards hobbled is worth a couple million on top.

Well yes but he wouldn’t have had this showcase if he was on the Bulls. He is getting paid now. I hear John Malkovic.

I agree, and I also hear that line. Boy do I wish he were always a Bull, but that's sports. I sure hope that whatever contract he gets, he continues to live up to.

[Michael Jackson]

This game (and the one prior) have made Dosunmu probably 20 million dollars over what we'd generally have expected a week ago. And every big game he has with DiVincenzo out and Edwards hobbled is worth a couple million on top.

Well yes but he wouldn’t have had this showcase if he was on the Bulls. He is getting paid now. I hear John Malkovic.

I agree, and I also hear that line. Boy do I wish he were always a Bull, but that's sports. I sure hope that whatever contract he gets, he continues to live up to.

He might get overpaid, but that kid plays hard so he won’t ever be a terrible contract.

[Michael Jackson]

The ant injury no looky good.

[Red Larrivee]

You can't force guys to sit, I guess, but guys are literally sitting all over the league. Considering Giddey was gimpy as well at the deadline, its not hard to.envision the team tanking with Ayo.

At the end of the day they get paid a lot of money to figure this out and they woefully failed. The fact that many fans did not see a pathway is kind of irrelevant. And I think the consensus was that Ayo was the best player involved in the Bulls series of trades. And imo, he is the best fit with Giddey of the bunch. Even if you thought the trade was okay at the time, you now have to see it as a miss unless Miller takes a gigantic leap.

Look, I wanted Ayo to be here. I'm not a huge tanking enthusiast, though it's not irrational to want that path. Still, there is a very relevant chance that you keep Ayo, worsen draft position and he leaves you in free agency. Not for more money necessarily; just for a better situation.

You can't have it both ways where you keep Ayo, tank, and re-sign him for an MLE deal. AK is a dummy, but even he understood that. The issue is waiting to trade him when you had no more leverage.

[Avery W]

I wanted to evaluate an Ayo/Giddey starting backcourt, but it's like they were so deferential to Coby after last season that they didn't really try it even when he was out.

Then with all of the reporting from Cowley and others about AKME preferring Ayo long term and not intending to move him unless wowed, I thought we might get it...and instead Ayo was moved for a return that was absolutely not "wow" caliber.

I don't think keeping him would have had some huge impact on draft odds this year, but trading him for what they got definitely makes me feel worse about the future next season and beyond.

[Red Larrivee]

Teams sit guys all the time.

As we saw, you can't force players to sit. Ayo is a free agent; he has every incentive to play. Y'all are advocating for things that conflict with each other.

If Ayo was still here and the Bulls lost in the play-in, would you be happy?

The Bulls were losing even when Ayo was here. They weren't going to make the play-in either way.

Ayo adds wins. The Bulls finished with 1 more loss than Milwaukee. Again, you guys want things that conflict with each other. Ayo and Coby have no incentive to sit and tank for a team that they are not signed to for next season.

[Dan Z]

As we saw, you can't force players to sit. Ayo is a free agent; he has every incentive to play. Y'all are advocating for things that conflict with each other.

If Ayo was still here and the Bulls lost in the play-in, would you be happy?

The Bulls were losing even when Ayo was here. They weren't going to make the play-in either way.

Ayo adds wins. The Bulls finished with 1 more loss than Milwaukee. Again, you guys want things that conflict with each other. Ayo and Coby have no incentive to sit and tank for a team that they are not signed to for next season.

I'm not the one saying they should sit, but like I said they were already losing with them on the team. Maybe Ayo means the difference between 9th and 10th place in the draft. I'll give you that.

Which I don't think is a big deal.

[Jo Jo English]

Wishing the Bulls would have prioritized draft position for the past couple of years in stacked draft classes doesn't preclude them from choosing a select few players to keep and try to develop. They could have absolutely focused their long-term plans on guys like Buzels, Giddey & Dosunmu while also making moves that looked to the future, instead of play-in games.

But they had awful leadership that celebrated mediocrity.

[MrSparkle]

One thing that constantly pissed me off about Billy was playing everybody small. How many minutes did Ayo spend at SF? Coby and Ayo had bad metrics playing together, but insisted on keeping them paired most the time. In MIN he actually gets to use his size as an advantage, not a weakness.

This could be a contract year playoff anomaly, but still… this is YET another young guy who left Billy’s system and reached a new peak.

Anyway, Rudy and Ayo share the traded-by-AK bond.

[kodo]

Ayo Dosunmu's 43 Points on 96.5% TS% is the Third Most Efficient 40+ Point Game ever in the Playoffs.

Great job AK.

[dumbell78]

Ayo is playing free right now and not worried about three's and layups only as his permissible options. He is showing out at the right time.

Denver, what are you doing? Getting punked like this is quite the indictment. They have a bunch of soft dudes with little pride. Braun and Cam have been trash. AG is never healthy. Adleman is not the right coach and think it was a mistake moving on from Malone. I never understood why Mike was fired.

[pipfan]

Glad for Ayo-he was my favorite Bull of the last few seasons and happy he's shinning. He seems like a great kid

I posted on another thread a while ago about bringing Ayo back. Now, Minny will probably break the bank

[Dominator83]

As we saw, you can't force players to sit. Ayo is a free agent; he has every incentive to play. Y'all are advocating for things that conflict with each other.

If Ayo was still here and the Bulls lost in the play-in, would you be happy?

The Bulls were losing even when Ayo was here. They weren't going to make the play-in either way.

Ayo adds wins. The Bulls finished with 1 more loss than Milwaukee. Again, you guys want things that conflict with each other. Ayo and Coby have no incentive to sit and tank for a team that they are not signed to for next season.

Yep. When we had that 3 game series vs the Heat, the game we took AYO basically won that game by himself