Zach LaVine #8 and Ayo Dosunmu #12 of the Chicago Bulls.
The Chicago Bulls are going through the first two weeks of training camp in Belmont, Tennesee at the behest of the players in an effort to foster a closer bond amongst themselves. If their first night out is any indication, they are well on their way to doing just that.
They enjoyed a team outing at the popular driving range, Topgolf.
“Zach [LaVine], let me see your clubs, blood,” Ayo Dosunmu can be heard saying in a clip shared on Instagram on October 3. “To top golf? Try-hard. That’s how you know he a try-hard.”
The two-time All-Star heading into his 10th NBA season, LaVine, can also be heard telling Dosunmu – a third-year player – that the clubs were “something you ain’t never used before” and that he would call it being a “competitor” before the video cuts out.
Ayo teasing Zach for bringing his clubs to Top Golf. #Bulls #BullsNation
LaVine, like teammate Alex Caruso, is an avid golfer and the former even competed in the American Century Championship in July.
“I think golf is one of the most skill-based things I’ve tried,” LaVine said, per Sam Smith of Bulls.com on July 12. “You want to be extremely athletic in sports. For me, I can get away with something and make up for mistakes with being athletic. With golf it’s different. Sports require size and speed and strength. But you can’t outathletic golf, which is why it’s such a hard sport.”
Bulls general manager Marc Eversley revealed that the players did not feel like a team last year.
Activities such as this – and the softball event at US Cellular Field in September which was organized by LaVine – are things they hope will help build that bond they hoped their push for continuity would help foster.
Ayo Dosunmu Trained With Zach LaVine This Summer
This past offseason, Bulls youngsters Dalen Terry and Patrick Williams trained with DeMar DeRozan in California. But DeRozan, who has been close with Dosunmu since the two became teammates, noted that Dosunmu had a pass for missing the sessions.
We may have gotten a potential reason why from LaVine on media day.
“Ayo is great, man,” LaVine said via the team on media day on October 3. “One of the hardest workers. Great guy. Comes in, competes each and every day. Keeps our spirits up. … [He] came out to California, said what’s up to me a couple of days, went through some workouts. So to see his improvement is great. … I think he’s just going to continue to get better and better.”
Intercepted by Ayo.
Dosunmu is set to compete for the Bulls’ starting point guard spot in training camp, a role he held at the start of last season but struggled with while charged with running the team.
He would lose the spot twice during the campaign. But Chicago still has enough faith in him to reward the former second-round pick with a three-year, $21 million contract in restricted free agency this offseason.
Even with Dosunmu’s improvement, the Bulls will only go as far as DeRozan, LaVine, and Nikola Vucevic can take them.
Zach LaVine Bulls Need to Produce Results, Zach LaVine Says
“For how explosive we are as individually, it hasn’t been shown as a unit,” LaVine said during his media day availability when asked why this year will be different for the Bulls. “So we have to do a better job with that, and it’s been three years of it. It’s time to put pen to paper and actually see some results.”
The Bulls’ top trio played together more than any other trio last season, per NBA.com. But their minus-0.4 net rating is the lowest out of the four combinations around the NBA to see at least 1,500 minutes.
No other unit posted a rating below plus-5.5.