When Bulls guard Ayo Dosunmu occasionally rewatches clips from his first season, he has a prevailing thought.
“I would destroy my rookie self now,” he told the Sun-Times after a recent practice.
Back then, in 2021-22, he was “jittery” and “less calm,” he said. That changed in his third year. He didn’t accelerate out of the gate last season, averaging only 7.8 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.9 assists through Dec. 30 — solid production but below his career numbers. Then something clicked at the start of 2024. From Jan. 2 onward, his averages jumped to 15.3 points, 4.1 assists and 3.2 rebounds as he started 32 games and shot 43.2%. For the season, he finished with averages of 12.2 points, 3.3 assists and 2.8 rebounds and a career-high 29.1 minutes.
“That’s why you train and play the game of basketball — to elevate,” Dosunmu said. “You always want to elevate. If I had looked at my rookie self and said, ‘I’m still doing the same thing now,’ then I’m not growing as a player. The fact that I feel that way is exciting. It’s about taking the next step and the next jump.”
That’s the goal again after a busy offseason that included workouts in Dallas, Miami and Chicago as Dosunmu added to his offensive repertoire.
“The NBA, it’s a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately league,” he said. “No one cares about what you did your rookie year or last year. You have to keep proving yourself.”
With that mentality, he and his father, Quam, and older brother, Kube, sat down to create a plan for how he would attack the offseason. Dosunmu knew he couldn’t accomplish everything in a day or a month, so he and his family prioritized the skills he needed to work on most — for example, shooting three-pointers off the dribble and pick-and-roll reads.
Dosunmu spent three weeks with renowned NBA trainer Tim Martin, whose impressive client list includes Hawks guard Trae Young, Spurs center Victor Wembanyama and 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey. But before getting into the more complex work, Dosunmu wanted to master the fundamentals.
“I promise you, the workout videos . . . you would think it’s the simplest stuff watching it, but when you’re actually doing it and trying to really perfect those details, it’s a whole different ballgame,” Dosunmu said. “The one thing about Tim is that he doesn’t really care about all the dribble-dribble stuff. He incorporates it eventually, but he’s about fundamentals, learning how to score in angles and learning how to keep things simple. You master the simplicity, and that’s when you start adding the layers.”
Dosunmu worked on pull-up jumpers, reading defenses out of the pick-and-roll and diversifying how he attacks particular coverages — drop coverage, blitz and hard hedges. That’s especially important after he averaged 0.91 points per possession as a pick-and-roll ball-handler.
He anticipates that because of the film now available on him, particularly after his strong finish last season, coaches will try to cut off his drives. Developing counters will be critical.
The same goes for being malleable for different lineups as Bulls coach Billy Donovan manages a guard-heavy roster that will include Josh Giddey, acquired in June from the Thunder. On media day, Donovan said he wasn’t opposed to three-guard lineups.
Giddey would be happy to have Dosunmu by his side.
“He was always one of the guys that, when we played the Bulls, he was one of the sneaky, tougher guys to go against,” Giddey said.
Now Giddey gets to see Dosunmu’s determination and commitment firsthand as a teammate. During his freshman year at Illinois, the men’s basketball team set the school record for losses in a season at 21. A celebrated high school recruit from Morgan Park, Dosunmu easily could have transferred. But he elected to stay and help turn around the program.
“He was one of the first athletes I had that didn’t leave [over the summer],” Illinois strength and conditioning coach Adam Fletcher told the Sun-Times. “He just stayed and trained. It was all on a voluntary basis, but he knew for him to get to the level that he wanted to get through, he had to change his body.”
As a sophomore, Dosunmu also learned the importance of quality time off the court. Camaraderie with teammates made it easier to critique them, and vice versa. Over his final two seasons, the Illini went 45-17.
“Early on, he would take guys out to eat, talk to guys and get our players to believe in [Illinois],” Fletcher said. “He was extremely competitive on the court and would balance it with his work off the court, spending a lot of time in that area. He was going to push you in practice, he was going to make you uncomfortable, he was going to hold you to an extremely high standard . . . and then he was going to love the heck of you off the court. That allowed him to hold the players to the standard he held himself to on the court.”
When Dosunmu and guard Coby White organized a Bulls trip to Miami this summer, it was to start building that same sort of camaraderie before camp — a necessary step in bringing the team together. With guard Alex Caruso traded to the Thunder for Giddey and forward DeMar DeRozan sent to the Kings in a sign-and-trade in July, the Bulls had just two players left with at least 10 years of experience.
Dosunmu referenced “Heat culture” — the Heat’s ability to find gems, plug those players into their system and get positive results.
“We’re trying to establish a culture, establish an identity,” Dosunmu said. “And it starts with those small lunches and dinners.”
Dosunmu continues to try to improve as a leader, mainly by learning his teammates’ personalities and how each prefers to receive information.
“You have to understand you can’t talk to people the same way,” he said. “It’s all about talking and communicating to get the message across.”
Wherever he fits into the lineups this fall, he’ll play a larger role for the Bulls as a leader. There will be turnovers and disjointed play as the team shifts its style, but Dosunmu hopes to be a steadying force by playing this entire season the way he played the second half of the last one.
“I’m prepared for whatever,” he said. “The sky’s the limit because I know what I’m capable of, but I don’t know how high I can reach. That’s why I’m just going out there and reaching as far as I can and living with the results — because the work is there.”