3 Chicago Bulls players who have earned contract extensions this season
Chicago Bulls players who have earned a contract extension this season: Ayo Dosunmu
As difficult as it is to resist using the phrase, “Chicago, born and raised,” every time when discussing the Bulls rookie Ayo Dosunmu, it’s easy to see the impact he’s had on this city in such a short span of time.
After leading Illinois to their best college basketball finish in quite some time, Dosunmu fell to the Chicago Bulls at No. 38 overall in the 2021 NBA Draft. From the very start, it felt as though he’d have every opportunity to surpass the low expectations on his shoulders. It didn’t take him long to do so either, after just a handful of appearances in the NBA, many fans were already calling for Ayo to supplant former 2019 lottery pick Coby White in the guard rotation.
Obviously, this would have been a very knee-jerk reaction and unfair to Coby in the grand scheme of things, but it wasn’t all unwarranted. Dosunmu has been extremely effective in his limited showing in a stacked guard rotation, making for an unexpected but welcome surprise.
As a second-round draft pick, Ayo did not go the traditional route of inking a four-year guaranteed deal, instead opting for a short two-year contract with the Bulls. This means Dosunmu could leave in free agency as early as the summer of 2023, so while his contract may not be expiring just yet, the Chicago Bulls should still be doing everything in their power to prevent these events from manifesting.
Given today’s market in the NBA, players that do the things that Dosunmu can do at a high level are compensated fairly. Take, for instance, Boston shelled out $77 million across four years to retain Marcus Smart, in a role very similar to what the Bulls can potentially expect from Ayo in the future.
That’s a lot of money to be paying out when the Bulls already have a significant amount of cash tied up in the guard rotation of LaVine, Ball, Caruso, and White. This is why I think the Bulls would be wise to jump the gun and re-sign Dosunmu as early as possible, similar to how the Oklahoma City Thunder managed to lock down their own defensively-minded guard Lu Dort early on.
With as much fanfare as Dosunmu has received, it’s highly unlikely the Bulls get him to sign a minimum contract like Dort, but he should still be able to be signed for fairly cheap if they get the ball rolling early.