Ayo Dosunmu's Playoff Eruption Leads Bulls Fans to Complicated Emotions

The Chicago Bulls blew up their core at the trade deadline, sending away their expiring contracts for future assets and young talent.

Bulls fans have experienced a whirlwind of complicated feelings since then. On one hand, those fans have spent years rooting for players like Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu and Nikola Vucevic in Chicago, and watching them succeed in their new homes still largely yields positive emotions.

But on the other hand, those emotions have also been bittersweet because that success has occurred in a different uniform. There's been no better example of this than Dosunmu, who has posted historic numbers through four playoff games with the Timberwolves.

No. 6 seed Minnesota has been banged up against the No. 3 seed Denver Nuggets, with superstar guard Anthony Edwards battling a knee injury and key role-player Donte DiVincenzo tearing his Achilles in the opening minutes of Game 4. Dosunmu has stepped up massively in their absence and is a significant reason why the Wolves lead the Nuggets in the series, 3-1.

In Game 3 on Thursday, the former Bulls second-rounder took over with a playoff career-high 25 points on 10-of-15 shooting, as well as nine assists and three rebounds. Dosunmu's encore performance was even better. In a 16-point Game 4 victory, Dosunmu made eight of his 12 two-pointers, all five of his three-pointers and all 12 of his free throws to total a whopping 43 points.

That's the most points Dosunmu has scored in a game during his five NBA seasons — playoffs or otherwise. It's also a stat line that stands alone in the league's prestigious history. Nobody in the NBA has ever eclipsed 40 points on 75% shooting, taken at least five three-pointers without a miss and taken at least 10 free throws without a miss in a single game.

Dosunmu achieved that off the bench, in the playoffs, without his team's best player to help draw some of the defense away.

The fact that Dosunmu has been as fantastic as he's been begs the question: what were the Chicago Bulls doing with him all this time? Fans, media members and even his new teammates are surprised by the production he's had in Minnesota.

"I didn't know he was that damn good, I ain't gonna lie to you," Wolves forward Julius Randle said after Saturday night's Game 4 win. "When I was in the East and he was with Chicago, that was like those DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine teams. I don't know if the opportunity was there as much, but damn, I'm glad we got him."

Dosunmu, a Chicago native who attended Morgan Park High School, was a star at the University of Illinois before the Bulls drafted him with the No. 38 overall pick in 2021. He started 40 games as a rookie on the DeRozan/LaVine/Vucevic Bulls team that made the playoffs and his role slowly increased over the next few years.

The 2025-26 season was his best yet. In 45 games for the Bulls (10 starts), the hometown guard averaged 15.0 points on a stellar 51.4% shooting, 45.1% from deep and 85.7% on free throws. Chicago traded Dosunmu and Julian Phillips to the Timberwolves for Rob Dillingham, Leonard Miller and four second-round picks at the February deadline.

It's not that the Bulls were unable to unlock Dosunmu's fullest potential. It's just that nobody was watching a terrible Chicago team. And now, playing a critical role for Minnesota in the playoffs, the world's eyes are on the talent that Dosunmu is — and always has been.

So then why would the Bulls trade away a 26-year-old fan favorite for pennies on the dollar?

Dosunmu is in line for a massive pay increase when he hits free agency this summer. Knowing that he's an incredibly talented player, the Bulls certainly could've given him whatever contract he desired. Dosunmu values winning, though, and Chicago could not offer him that any time soon. There's a very high likelihood that Dosunmu would've departed Chicago as a free agent anyway, in which the Bulls would've received nothing in return.

The Bulls needed to tear their roster down to the studs. They did that, and the plan moving forward seems to be to build around 23-year-old Josh Giddey and 21-year-old Matas Buzelis. As good as Dosunmu and White are, there's a much bigger difference between the timeline that those 26-year-olds offer, compared to that of Miller (22) and Dillingham (21).

Dosunmu is a winning player. He may not be a superstar, but he makes all the right plays on both ends of the floor, and it's understandable for Bulls fans to have complicated feelings now that Dosunmu is playing his best basketball elsewhere.