Chicago Bulls should play Ayo Dosunmu more minutes in the NBA Playoffs

Ayo Dosunmu has made the NBA Playoffs in his first season with the Chicago Bulls.

That is an impressive feat, and I would venture to say any Bulls fan would say the Illini legend was an important piece in helping the team get to this point. But the No. 6 seed Bulls just happened to run into the defending champion No. 3 seed Milwaukee Bucks.

So far, through three games in the series, the Bucks hold a 2-1 lead. Despite the Bulls stealing homecourt advantage after winning game two, Milwaukee came back in game three and took homecourt back with a statement win, 111-81.

Throughout the first three games, there has been a noticeable change in the way the Bulls are approaching their lineup, particularly with the number of minutes Ayo is receiving on the court.

Ayo has played in nearly every game this season – 77 games to be exact – and he made 40 starts for the Bulls. Overall, he averaged 27.4 minutes per game for a 46-36 Bulls team, which is the most wins Chicago has had since Tom Thibodeau’s final season in 2014-15.

It is time for the Chicago Bulls to play Ayo Dosunmu more in the NBA Playoffs.

When you play Ayo for an average of 27.4 minutes per game in the 77 games he played during the regular season, one would think the rookie would see similar minutes to this in the playoffs. Well, that isn’t the case.

In the first two games of the series against the Bucks, Ayo has received 8:44 and 7:19 in games one and two, respectively. When he did see the floor in the first two games, Ayo was good as well.

Ayo checked in early in both of the first two games and had a +1 plus-minus in each contest. But the Bulls didn’t use him down the stretch of the game despite the positive play on the court. In the first two games combined, Ayo has played 16:03 and put up four rebounds and three assists in that time.

In game three, Ayo did get a chance to play 17:48, but it was basically garbage minutes the entire game. The first time he checked into the contest, the Bulls were already down 20 points. Even though Chicago lost by 30 points, Ayo’s plus-minus was only -11 for the game. He would finish game three with four points, five assists, and four rebounds.

For the Bulls, you see that Ayo was working in the first two games, so why not keep him in or give him more minutes throughout the game? You have a player who helped you to 46 wins this season despite the team going through some key injuries. Ayo can do everything on the court. Hopefully, game four looks different and Ayo gets his chance to shine.