Chicago Bulls have traded Ayo Dosunmu to the Minnesota Timberwolves, sources tell ESPN.

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Ayo is a good get. But he's on an expiring deal. Can officially rule the Dillingham trade as one of Connelly's biggest failures so far.
 




can score, good 3pt shooter, plays pretty reasonable defense, good assist/TO ratio. this is an excellent upgrade at guard.

expiring deal is the only kicker but worth it for this year
 

Love it.

Anyone with a pulse for perimeter defense is good in my book.

He is athletic. We need atheticism
 







Last 18 games:

17ppg on 54% from the field

49% from 3pt

Again, I love this trade.

He's also a good defender.......not great, but good
 

This trade solved a huge problem. He can play a lot of minutes, provide a strong scoring threat, and play capable defense.
 




Bob_Loblaw said:
Getting his bird rights is massive for a team like us against the cap. It gives us a ton more flexibility in the offseason.
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This is a huge factor in the deal and allows us to go over the Cap to re-sign him. There is very little available Cap space this offseason around the league and I have zero doubt Connelly made this deal fully expecting to sign him to a new contract.

Ayo gives us:

* Positional flexibility (1, 2 & 3)
* Athletic & high energy player
* Decent POA defender
* 48% from 3 on 5 attempts/game
* Only 26 years old

This trade also highlights the initial error of choosing Conley and Dilly over NAW last offseason. It also further emphasizes the disastrous trade to draft Dilly. I do give Connelly some credit for cutting his losses but those proved to be terrible decisions.

Parting with Randle/Naz, Jaden & Beringer proved to be too steep of a price when you factor in what would've been left to support Ant and Giannis. It would've been fun adding the Freak but I think Connelly made the most prudent decision for this season and the future.
 
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So essentially they gave up Dilly, a likely retiring Conley, and a bunch of low-value second rounders for a legitimate guard and a 10-min/game bench young guy. I would say that's a resounding success. Hopefully they're able to re-sign him this offseason as he definitely fills a hole. Howl Wolves!
 

Slim Tubby said:
This is a huge factor in the deal and allows us to go over the Cap to re-sign him. There is very little available Cap space this offseason around the league and I have zero doubt Connelly made this deal fully expecting to sign him to a new contract.

Ayo gives us:

* Positional flexibility (1, 2 & 3)
* Athletic & high energy player
* Decent POA defender
* 48% from 3 on 5 attempts/game
* Only 26 years old

This trade also highlights the initial error of choosing Conley and Dilly over NAW last offseason. It also further emphasizes the disastrous trade to draft Dilly. I do give Connelly some credit for cutting his losses but those proved to be terrible decisions.

Parting with Randle/Naz, Jaden & Beringer proved to be too steep of a price when you factor in what would've been left to support Ant and Giannis. It would've been fun adding the Freak but I think Connelly made the most prudent decision for this season and the future.
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yep this was problematic. Still don't know why people thought losing NAW wasn't an issue. He's averaging 20, 3.5 reb, 3.5 ast, and shooting 38% from 3 playing 33min/game this year (and he's 27) with a cap hit of 15mil for 4 years and we held his BIRD rights.

Now with our space we're under (I think) the 1st apron. Just odd we went through all this to realize we basically just want another guy who's like NAW back
 

upnorthkid said:
yep this was problematic. Still don't know why people thought losing NAW wasn't an issue. He's averaging 20, 3.5 reb, 3.5 ast, and shooting 38% from 3 playing 33min/game this year (and he's 27) with a cap hit of 15mil for 4 years and we held his BIRD rights.

Now with our space we're under (I think) the 1st apron. Just odd we went through all this to realize we basically just want another guy who's like NAW back
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NAW's numbers are inflated because he's playing more minutes on a worse team, but the Wolves couldn't afford to keep him after last season. They needed to give TSJ, Clark, and Dillingham a chance to replace his production off the bench.

It didn't work out the way they hoped so they dumped Conley's salary and now have their replacement for NAW.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
NAW's numbers are inflated because he's playing more minutes on a worse team, but the Wolves couldn't afford to keep him after last season. They needed to give TSJ, Clark, and Dillingham a chance to replace his production off the bench.

It didn't work out the way they hoped so they dumped Conley's salary and now have their replacement for NAW.
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while i get what you're saying, but they couldn't afford to keep him, and everybody else. they absolutely could've moved Mike in the offseason as well as Dilly and/or Clark and kept him. I mean shit, Clark could've been worth something after last year in a trade and now he looks like he's forgotten how to play as Finch gives him no run (as well as many of the other young guys).

I'm mentioning his numbers because his splits did not drop at all with increased minutes and he could've eaten the minutes that you hope all of them could combined provide at worse efficiency. I get wanting to try, but this writing (particularly Mike's) has been on the wall for awhile. They signed him at the deal prior to trading him so it was a choice because of the 2nd apron.

i like who they ended up with, but this roster construction problem should've been obvious long before this. hopefully Ayo can fill this gap efficiently like we all hope as this team could be a really fun watch down the stretch if so.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
It didn't work out the way they hoped so they dumped Conley's salary and now have their replacement for NAW.
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The problem is that it cost us our Unprotected 2031 FRP and another Pick Swap to learn this hard lesson. That's certainly worthy of criticism.
 

upnorthkid said:
while i get what you're saying, but they couldn't afford to keep him, and everybody else. they absolutely could've moved Mike in the offseason as well as Dilly and/or Clark and kept him. I mean shit, Clark could've been worth something after last year in a trade and now he looks like he's forgotten how to play as Finch gives him no run (as well as many of the other young guys).

I'm mentioning his numbers because his splits did not drop at all with increased minutes and he could've eaten the minutes that you hope all of them could combined provide at worse efficiency. I get wanting to try, but this writing (particularly Mike's) has been on the wall for awhile. They signed him at the deal prior to trading him so it was a choice because of the 2nd apron.

i like who they ended up with, but this roster construction problem should've been obvious long before this. hopefully Ayo can fill this gap efficiently like we all hope as this team could be a really fun watch down the stretch if so.
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They could've made a move in the offseason but you can't make moves without a trade partner. The trade deadline often spurs teams to make deals that they wouldn't have made before the season for financial or roster construction reasons.

Chicago have suddenly become active and are now making other deals to balance the roster and books.
 

upnorthkid said:
while i get what you're saying, but they couldn't afford to keep him, and everybody else. they absolutely could've moved Mike in the offseason as well as Dilly and/or Clark and kept him. I mean shit, Clark could've been worth something after last year in a trade and now he looks like he's forgotten how to play as Finch gives him no run (as well as many of the other young guys).

I'm mentioning his numbers because his splits did not drop at all with increased minutes and he could've eaten the minutes that you hope all of them could combined provide at worse efficiency. I get wanting to try, but this writing (particularly Mike's) has been on the wall for awhile. They signed him at the deal prior to trading him so it was a choice because of the 2nd apron.

i like who they ended up with, but this roster construction problem should've been obvious long before this. hopefully Ayo can fill this gap efficiently like we all hope as this team could be a really fun watch down the stretch if so.
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Conley was a much loved vet, and it seemed reasonable that he'd hang around another year and then retire. Dilly at the time was just coming off his rookie season, and I have to assume they were hoping (as is validated by the roster construction) that he'd take a step forward with Conley providing one more year of mentorship with Dilly taking over for 26/27. However, Conley fell off a cliff and Dilly didn't progress, thereby making both of them expendable mid-season. They didn't know that in the offseason. NAW was a good piece (especially in the post season), and everybody was bummed when they weren't able to retain him. But you're looking at this with 20/20 hindsight. If they cut bait on Dilly last offseason and he took a big step this year, everybody would be shitting all over the front office for cutting bait too soon.
 

forever a gopher said:
Conley was a much loved vet, and it seemed reasonable that he'd hang around another year and then retire. Dilly at the time was just coming off his rookie season, and I have to assume they were hoping (as is validated by the roster construction) that he'd take a step forward with Conley providing one more year of mentorship with Dilly taking over for 26/27. However, Conley fell off a cliff and Dilly didn't progress, thereby making both of them expendable mid-season. They didn't know that in the offseason. NAW was a good piece (especially in the post season), and everybody was bummed when they weren't able to retain him. But you're looking at this with 20/20 hindsight. If they cut bait on Dilly last offseason and he took a big step this year, everybody would be shitting all over the front office for cutting bait too soon.
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i mean i was fully on the keep naw bandwagon prior. Finch didn't trust Dilly last year. Finch didn't trust him this year. We all knew Mike's legs were failing at the end of last year where he was basically unplayable in the playoffs but Finch played him as we had no guard depth.

I'm not putting this all on the GM, but it sure did not seem they went into the season expecting those guys to start. I think TSJ was much more who they were thinking would fill that role but he's been hurt. If your coach isn't going to play them, either you need to tell him he needs to or find a different path forward. Who knows, Dilly may still do that as we never played him enough to actually know fully as he played garbage time or got pulled regularly if he made a mistake.

Mike is also an adult. So are all the players. I largely expect he ends up back on the roster on the vet minimum. They could've done this in the offseason to some non-contender for a 2nd to eat the money. Mike is 38 and a true professional and has seemed pretty honest about how he knows its the end. It's ok to be real about that

It was just poor roster management thinking this guard lineup was going to work

but hey water under the bridge now, we're still in contention for a good seed, and the meat of the season is coming. I like Ayo. I hope this works out, he plays well, and sticks. We need young guard depth/help and ball handlers. He fits the bill very well.
 


Trade grades per The Athletic:

Wolves grab guard help​

Wolves get: Ayo Dosunmu, Julian Phillips
Bulls get: Rob Dillingham, Leonard Miller, four second-round picks

Minnesota has been desperate to find quality point guard minutes this season, and the Wolves think they’ve found their solution, giving up a recent lottery pick in the process.

Wolves grade: A-
Bulls grade: B-

www.nytimes.com

2026 NBA trade deadline grades: Reviewing every major move made

After a slow season, the moves really started to flow two days before this year's deadline.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

Howl Wolves!!
 


upnorthkid said:
while i get what you're saying, but they couldn't afford to keep him, and everybody else. they absolutely could've moved Mike in the offseason as well as Dilly and/or Clark and kept him. I mean shit, Clark could've been worth something after last year in a trade and now he looks like he's forgotten how to play as Finch gives him no run (as well as many of the other young guys).

I'm mentioning his numbers because his splits did not drop at all with increased minutes and he could've eaten the minutes that you hope all of them could combined provide at worse efficiency. I get wanting to try, but this writing (particularly Mike's) has been on the wall for awhile. They signed him at the deal prior to trading him so it was a choice because of the 2nd apron.

i like who they ended up with, but this roster construction problem should've been obvious long before this. hopefully Ayo can fill this gap efficiently like we all hope as this team could be a really fun watch down the stretch if so.
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In addition to the budgetary constraints, I think they thought they were going to get more out of Conley and I've read there was tension between NAW and DDV over playing time.
 

jamiche said:
In addition to the budgetary constraints, I think they thought they were going to get more out of Conley and I've read there was tension between NAW and DDV over playing time.
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if that last part is true, then makes perfect sense. hadn't heard that
 

The trade is a smart move. It shores up the team this year. It puts the wolves in a position to sign Ayo if they like him and it enables roster flexibility for bigger trades this summer.
 

Yes, Jokic was a brilliant (damn lucky!) draft move. As a wolves draft magician, Connelly would get booed off the stage. None of his draftees have secured a steady spot in the rotation. Kwesi got fired for his drafts but he runs rings around Connelly. Our POBO has given away more draft picks than Mike Lynn. Dilly, as an eighth, has a first step quick enough to arrive at the swat shop. Other than that, he wasn't second round material.
 

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