Proposed trade not enough for the Bulls to move Ayo Dosunmu

If you look at the Chicago Bulls’ current roster, there aren’t a whole lot of reasons to be excited about the future. 

The Bulls do have two 24-year-olds in Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu who had breakout seasons, and both are on team-friendly contracts. 

White has more or less been deemed untouchable, but what about Dosunmu? Would the Bulls consider moving him? 

Chicago Bulls rumors: Trading Ayo Dosunmu 

A recent article in Bleacher Report proposed a trade in which the Bulls send Ayo Dosunmu to the Milwaukee Bucks: 

This would help the Bulls stockpile some much-needed young talent, but if I were Chicago, I’d hang up the phone. 

The Chicago Bulls need shooting 

You might not think that Ayo Dosunmu is a better shooter than Paty Connaughton, but you’d be wrong. 

Connaughton is just a 35 percent 3-point shooter for his career and has never had a season of 40 percent or above, a mark Dosunmu reached last season. Did I mention Ayo is seven years younger? He hasn’t even hit his peak as a 3-and-D wing while Connaughton’s peak was three seasons ago. 

The Bulls were just 20th in 3-point percentage last season and 26th in 3-point makes per game, so why would they want to worsen this weakness by trading away the better shooter? 

Defense, defense, defense 

The Bulls were just 21st in defensive efficiency last season and the only reason they were even that high was because of the defenders they had on the perimeter in Alex Caruso and Ayo Dosunmu. 

Dosunmu is versatile positionally on defense and uses his wingspan to disrupt everything. 

Connaughton is not a good defender, so this would weaken the Bulls significantly in an area where they were already weak. You think Vucevic was bad on defense last season? Wait until he doesn’t have Dosunmu holding down the perimeter. It could get very ugly. 

Two picks in a bad draft 

The Bulls would also get the 23rd and 33rd picks to add to the 11th, so this would offer them a real chance to add young talent. 

But is this the draft you want to do it in? The 2024 NBA Draft may have some value outside of the lottery but it’s even more of a crapshoot than usual. What are the chances the Bulls will find even one player of Dosunmu’s caliber with those three picks? They'd be targeting the same type of player in the draft when they already have him on the roster.

It’s possible the Bulls could use all three to move up, but that would be a big risk considering the unknowns surrounding this draft. 

Dosunmu is the type of player all good teams need, as he can slot into just about any lineup and excels at his role. He’s also on a team-friendly deal that extends for two more seasons, so he’ll be an asset regardless of the direction the Bulls take. 

Productive players on low contracts aren’t easy to come by, so the Bulls can’t trade Dosunmu for rolls of the dice in a bad draft and a nearly washed “shooter” who can’t defend and isn't that great of a shooter.