Getty Images Ayo Dosunmu
The Chicago Bulls are getting ready to play in their first NBA Playoffs in five years. Getting to the postseason in the first season with this newly constructed roster is a big accomplishment for the franchise as they try to return to being championship contenders.
For the Bulls, this season’s success stems from the several moves that the team made in the offseason. The Bulls were able to land DeMar DeRozan, Lonzo Ball, and Alex Caruso all through free agency. Chicago also looks like they struck gold with their second-round pick, Ayo Dosunmu.
Chicago Roots
The Bulls rookie is a Chicago native that played his college ball at Illinois. During his rookie season, Dosunu averaged 8.8 points, 3.3 assists, and 2.8 rebounds per game while shooting 52% from the field and 37.6% from three.
Ahead of his first career playoffs, Dosunmu took some time to reflect on his Chicago roots in a video posted to the Bulls’ Twitter account.
Chicago’s own @AyoDos_11 makes a hand signal when he celebrates on the court.
It’s a signal for “JetLife”, honoring his late childhood friend Darius Brown #JL4L
If you’ve watched Dosunmu play this season, you’ve probably noticed the hand gesture he does whenever he does something good. In the video, Dosunmu revealed that the hand signal stands for “JetLife” and is a tribute to his childhood friend Darius Brown, who was murdered while shooting basketball near his home in Chicago in 2011.
“When he was alive he always would say that he was a jet,” said Dosunmu, “that’s just what his motto was. It meant live life with no regrets, live in the moment. Every time we do something big, me and my brothers, my best friends we would just throw our jets up just him, make sure he understands that he’s right here with us.”
Dosunmu also says he doesn’t think he would have made it this far without Darius and that prior to the Bulls he wore the number 11 in his memory. Dosunmu also credits Derrick Rose for making him believe he could make it to the NBA from Chicago.
“When Derrick Rose was here, all the guards looked up to him because he was one of the first that was really in the city, like southside. So you know you see Derrick Rose do it if he can do it, he’s from the city, why can’t I do it?”
First Career Playoffs
With Dosunmu about to play in his first career playoffs, he’ll be under quite a bit of pressure. With Ball still out, Dosunmu will see a lot of action this postseason, which has been common since the Ball injury occurred.
Over the last ten games of the season, Dosunmu has been playing 30.1 minutes per game and his production has delivered averaging 10.6 points per game. While Dosunmu has had a good rookies season, the playoffs are much tougher.
Making things even tougher for the Bulls is that they drew the defending champion, Milwaukee Bucks, in the first round. Chicago and Dosunmu have struggled against the Bucks this season. Milwaukee swept the Bulls this season and in those four games, he’s averaged just 7.3 points per game on just 39.4% shooting.
If the Bulls are going to stand any chance in this series then they’ll need valuable contributions from everyone including Dosunmu. That will mean that he and the Bulls will have to find a way to be successful against the Bucks.