{"id":152954,"date":"2025-07-31T16:03:01","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T20:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=152954"},"modified":"2025-07-31T16:03:01","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T20:03:01","slug":"ayo-dosunmu-remain-with-bulls-along-vucevic-giddey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/07\/31\/ayo-dosunmu-remain-with-bulls-along-vucevic-giddey\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Bulls To Give Recent Additions More Time to Gel As Major Trade Unlikely To Happen"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chicago Bulls<\/a> appear to be running things back this season following a relatively quiet offseason. The Bulls<\/a>, who were part of one of the biggest 2025 trade deadline deals, have made just three changes to their 15-man roster with one spot remaining. However, reserve guard Ayo Dosunmu<\/a> is likely to be back in a Bulls uniform, per KC Johnson of the Chicago Sports Network.<\/p>\n

“I reported earlier this offseason on this very segment that I had heard far more chatter about Ayo Dosunmu in terms of the trade market than I had about Coby White,” Johnson said on The Fastbreak yesterday<\/a>. “I can now tell you that chatter has largely died down, at least as of late July, and I do expect Dosunmu to be back in a Bulls uniform for next season.”<\/p>\n

“The Bulls did have substantive talks \u2014 I’m told \u2014 with a Western Conference playoff team<\/a> earlier this offseason regarding Dosunmu, but the two teams could not find common ground on a trade package,” Johnson continued.\u00a0 All signs for now point to Ayo returning.”<\/p>\n

Report: Bulls To Give Recent Additions More Time to Gel As Major Trade Unlikely To Happen<\/h2>\n

Dosunmu<\/a>, one of the best two-way guards in the league, missed the final six weeks of the season due to a shoulder injury. Before his season ended prematurely, the 25-year-old was having a career season. He compiled 12.3 points, 4.5 assists, and 3.5 rebounds while shooting 49.2\/32.8\/78.5 last season.<\/p>\n

Dosunmu scored in double-figures in 30 of 46 contests, topping the 20-point mark six times, in 2024-25. The 6-5 guard also recorded one double-double while posting his first triple-double of his career. He is a career 50% shooter and drains 1.1 treys a game at a 36.1% clip.<\/p>\n

Johnson’s report came after Clutch Points’ Brett Siegel<\/a> proposed two trades involving Golden State Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga<\/a>.\u00a0 Siegel suggested that the Warriors trade Kuminga<\/a>, who has rejected every overture from Golden State, and Trayce Jackson-Davis<\/a> to the Bulls for Dosunmu and Jalen Smith<\/a>. Siegel also said the Bulls would send a 2028 second-round choice and a lottery-protected 2029 first-round selection (that would become two 2nd-round picks in ’29, ’30 if not conveyed).<\/em><\/p>\n

What About Josh Giddey<\/h3>\n

Chicago’s roster additions for the 2025-26 season include drafting Noa Essenge<\/a> with the No. 12 pick in June’s draft. The Bulls re-signed Tre Jones<\/a> and traded for Isaac Okoro<\/a>. They sent Lonzo Ball<\/a> to Cleveland in exchange for Okoro<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Chicago has 14 players on standard deals with salaries with a cap hit of $178. 92 million. $25.05 million of that cap hit is due to the cap hold on restricted free agent Josh Giddey.<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking of Giddey, Joe Crawley of The Chicago Sun<\/a> says the 22-year-old Australian is in a stalemate with the Bulls. Crowley did add that both sides are interested in working out a mutual deal.<\/p>\n

So, what would a new deal for Giddey, who has a standing $11.1 million qualifying offer, look like? According to \u00a0Fred Katz and Joel Lorenzi of The Athletic,<\/a> NBA executives value him at between $20 and $25 million over four and five seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re offering a four-year contract, you have to be correct,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>one executive told The Athletic.\u00a0\u201cBut Giddey, you could offer a four-year deal.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cGiddey is the anomaly because he might be good enough to be a four-year player. Nobody wants to go with long-term contracts because everyone wants flexibility. You wanna have the ability to (say), \u2018You know what? My team\u2019s not very good. Let\u2019s pivot.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Crowley added that Chicago is in no hurry to get Giddey back into the fold. The qualifying offer doesn’t offer until at least October 1.<\/p>\n

Nikola Vucevic Info<\/h3>\n

Chicago has missed the playoffs in each of the last three years and seven of the previous eight. However, the Bulls have made the NBA Play-In<\/a> game in each of the last three seasons. So, the Bulls have had at least a shot at the playoffs. Besides their roster moves, the Bulls re-upped with coach Billy Donovan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Chicago finished last season with a 39-43 record. However, the Bulls won 17 of their 30 games after the NBA trade deadline with a +1.7 scoring margin. Coby White<\/a>, Vucecevic, and Giddey led the way for the Bulls. Kevin Huerter<\/a> and Tre Jones<\/a> were also valuable contributors after their acquisition, while Matas Buzelis<\/a> stepped up his production in the second half of the season.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Johnson said that Nikola Vucevic<\/a> will likely be on the roster. Johnson mentioned that there were rumors that the Bulls would buy him out, but he said that isn’t going to happen. Johnson added that the Bulls would like to move the 34-year-old for assets.<\/p>\n

“There was speculation that the Bulls might be buying him out, and then that got twisted and aggregated into reports that the Bulls were imminently buying him out,” Johnson said.”That is not happening. I can tell you unequivocally \u2014 that is not happening. Not only is Nikola Vucevic coming off his best season as a Bull, but the Bulls would also love to turn his contract into some assets eventually. I do believe he will have trade value as we get closer to the February 2026 trade deadline. It\u2019s already well documented that the Bulls shopped him at the February 2025 trade deadline. They couldn\u2019t find common ground with any team. I was told the most substantive talks were with the Warriors regarding Vucevic, but that interest has cooled.”<\/p>\n

Photo Credit:\u00a0 Patrick Gorski, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Chicago Bulls appear to be running things back this season following a relatively quiet offseason. The Bulls, who were part of one of the biggest 2025 trade deadline deals, have made just three changes to their 15-man roster with one spot remaining. However, reserve guard Ayo Dosunmu is likely to be back in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3146,"featured_media":152972,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,8,2,62,3,4721],"tags":[3967,545,4276,1382,474],"class_list":["post-152954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-bulls","category-featured","category-nba","category-news","category-trade-rumors","tag-ayo-dosunmu","tag-billy-donovan","tag-josh-giddey","tag-nba-trade","tag-nikola-vucevic"],"modified_by":"Daniel Benjamin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152954"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152973,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152954\/revisions\/152973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}