It wasn’t so much Ayo last season as it was oy vey, and he doesn’t even look Jewish.
The Bulls precocious and popular home grown guard who was an all-rookie sensation out of the U. of Illinois was, so how should we put this gently, well crappy. Not that Dosunmu’s shooting had regressed, but the Bulls were considering a hardhat giveaway night for fans close to the basket when he had the ball. OK, I may have exaggerated a bit there, though not much as everyone was mistaking that Patrick Beverley too small gesture for the direction of Dosunmu’s play and statistics.
But, and there’s a big one coming here, the third time, or at least the third season, has been proving a charm and a great big mazel tov for Dosunmu, who in the Most Improved Player shadow of Coby White is proving almost as much of a breakout player. And Saturday Dosunmu continued to show that chutzpah with a career-high 34 points in the Bulls emphatic 127-98 victory over the Washington Wizards.
Heck, the even better news was the Bulls have two games remaining with these guys who seemed to have called for the check on their season long ago. The Wizards lost their 19th in the last 21 with the head scratching over how they got the other two. The Bulls inched back toward .500 at 33-35, and Dosunmu also with nine assists, 4-of-7 threes and 14-of-22 field goals in yet another seemingly sweat-free 40-plus minutes effort may be another Bull like White growing into the most unexpected of stars.
“You always have room for growth,” the often understated Dosunmu was saying after the game. “I never really put a limit on what I can accomplish. As the season goes on, learn on the go is pretty much where I am at. I don’t set goals of where I want to be at. There are always ups and downs; you want to be consistent.
“I always try to be in attack mode,” Dosunmu explained about the new Ayo. “That’s the growth in my game. Not playing timid, always attacking whether I keep the dribble or kick out or attack or try to get Vooch a shot; always be in attack mode. That’s the most dangerous player to guard, someone who’s always in attack mode. Not just for the setup, but also to create. That’s something I try to hone in on.”
And yes, it also is written.
Not quite biblically, but Dosunmu says he keeps a journal about his play.
He didn’t quite write the Kite Runner or the Book Thief, but there has to be some sad entries from last year as Dosunmu became one of the poorest three-point shooters in the NBA, relentlessly deferential and basically down in every major statistical category from this rookie season. So he took note.
And plenty of notes.
“A lot of growth pretty much in my journal,” the 6-foot-5 guard explained. “I wrote down where I was at last year because I knew I wasn’t the player I wanted to be. I understood in order to get better it was going to take a lot of time and a lot of work, and I tried to write it down so at a time like now I could look back a year and say this is where I was at. And then, of course, the same this year for next year because you always want to get better. Pretty much get in the gym working, watching film, studying with the coaches, understanding I could get better and trying to go out there and do it.”
And hey even mentioning Nike.
Dosunmu sure has done it, and he continued to against a hapless Wizards team that was so poor they couldn’t afford to pay attention. Talk about a poor team. Reserves were asking to borrow the starters’ air guitars. OK, the truth was after the Bulls led 32-19 at the end of the first quarter, 67-45 at halftime and 95-69 after three quarters the media discussion was about the Washington Generals and how many games they actually won against the Globetrotters. Exhaustive research indicated it was either three or six, which is impressive since they were trying to lose every game.
Sort of reminded you of this Wizards team. Sure, they were missing a few guys, and Tyus Jones is a pro and might have helped. But most everyone else seemed anxious to get to the post game stuffed pizza waiting outside their locker room. Except some guy named Eugene Omoruyi. He was wearing No. 97, which should have set off some flashing emergency lights and a siren.
With about five minutes left in the game and the Wizards with their biggest run to within 17, Omoruyi stripped the ball from Vučević and went in for an emphatic slam dunk. He then came back on defense talking to Vučević, who said Omoruyi’s English was mostly inappropriate.
“He stole the ball from me and I was talking to Jaclyn (Goble), the ref, afterwards and he came down and said some things I didn’t like and I don’t think you should say to another man on the court,” said Vučević. “Especially being a young guy trying to make it against a player who has been around for a long time, an older player. He was playing hard, competing; I respect that. But you have to watch what you say and how you talk to people and you have to be respectful. So I said something back to him.”
Vučević received a technical foul, but immediately on the next Bulls possession in a dominant game in which Vučević had 29 points and 13 rebounds, Vučević rolled by the 6-foot-6 Omoruyi for a three-point play, turned and gave him the now too familiar "too small" gesture.
Pat Bev would have loved it.
Vučević completed the three-point play and the Bulls built their lead almost back to 30 before these Wizards disappeared. And talk about a sports desert in DC with these guys, the Commodores or Commanders or whatever they call the football team now, and the equally detached baseball Nationals. Good thing they get all the good vibes from Congress.
“That was my way of talking back,” Vučević said about the too small. “I normally don’t get involved in those things. You can trash talk or whatever, but you’ve got to be careful with the choice of words you use. The one he used is one you should never be using. He said (to) shut up and used the B word. I think that’s very disrespectful to say to anybody. As a young player, you’ve got to know better than that.”
That also should be your answer about a blow-it-up strategy.
How about five more years of the Omoruyi's of the world? Gonna be fun to be a Wizards fan, eh?
It was sort of laughable, though, with a few Wizards five-second inbounds violations, one sequence when DeMar DeRozan was called for a flagrant foul, essentially giving the Wizards three straight possessions. They missed three of four free throws and then Kyle Kuzma threw the ball out of bounds. Alex Caruso drew them into charges, there was virtually no resistance anywhere near the rim where Andre Drummond added 13 points and nine rebounds mostly dunking Wizards through the basket in 15 minutes, and the Bulls had 68 points in the paint as Wizards played I-Pass lane.
Caruso had 16 points and DeRozan cruised to a half day of school with 13 points, six assists, two steals and two blocks.
Which also may raise some questions for the Bulls once this season concludes.
White, who missed his second straight game with a hip injury but should return late next week and was seen moving well in the locker room, obviously benefitted and was able to grow and develop with Zach LaVine’s absence. So, too, can Dosunmu if he continues to get the opportunities? Though will he if the principal perimeter scorers remain? They’ve proven they’ll score and eat up a lot of shots and playing time. Is it time for the Bulls to begin thinking about that next core?
Dosunmu broke out as a rookie with Lonzo Ball’s knee surgery, and it remains unclear if Ball will return for next season, and if he does at what level. Then last season, Dosunmu surrounded by All-Stars and scorers pretty much turned passive, dribbling the ball up in a titular point guard role, handing off and then going to stand in the corner. It wasn’t a very good look, and to the Bulls’ benefit apparently not to Dosunmu as well.
So he began to hammer at his rock, the famous Stonecutter’s credo that the Spurs and Gregg Popovich quote so often. It comes from New York crusading journalist Jacob Riis, who wrote, “When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”
I know about Popovich’s use of the theme, though I heard it long before while growing up in Brooklyn where one of my first summer jobs was at Riis Park, the Park Department beach just across the bridge from Brooklyn in Queens. I had the dawn shift as a bag-and-stabber man (kid?) picking up garbage (and being it was New York the occasional dead body washing up) for the beach to open. The foreman used to tell us about Riis and the rock, and it frankly didn’t seem that inspiring at 6 a.m. Though it did help my hand eye coordination for baseball and golf.
Perhaps also for Dosunmu, who went into his own personal laboratory, and out has come a player.
Dosunmu this season is averaging 11.2 points after 8.6 last season. His three-point shooting is a career best 39.4%, tied for first on the team with Caruso with Patrick Williams barely a fraction ahead but out for the season. Dosunmu’s overall shooting is 48.8%, the highest on the team other than Drummond, who mostly only dunks.
Though his shooting has improved, Dosunmu scores most of his points on layups with his speed beating opponents off the dribble. In transition he’s becoming one of the more feared players in the NBA.
“I try to pretty much live in the paint and not only when I am shooting it, but where I can kick it out and they can drive or create for their own (teammates) offense,” said Dosunmu. “With Coby out I try to bring a little of that. Look at my mistakes and grow from them. That’s pretty much how you create consistency in the league.
“I never really set specific goals,” said Dosunmu. “Always being aggressive, always reading closeouts. If I have a shot, shoot it. If I don’t, pass it. Being the best level of myself and go out and try to make the right play, be aggressive, be the best player you can on both ends of the court. That’s when you can see your true game and worth, so I never want to set a goal. Just put a lot of work into it and whatever happens I go out there and get 15 points and 10 assists, I’m cool with that. I get 34 points, I am cool with that. I just want to know I put the work in so whatever comes with that. I always have ways to get better. That’s the exciting thing about my growth.”
Talk about a mensch.
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