The NBA has reached the offseason, and with the draft nearing, players like former Illini Ayo Dosunmu are trying to figure out the next move.
It is pretty wild that the New York Knicks are NBA champs. They were one of those franchises that I never thought I would see win in my lifetime. But now that the chapter has concluded, the next chapter begins, and that is the NBA offseason.
Plenty of players enter the offseason as free agents, but most are not true free agents.
In a recent list of the top 40 NBA free agents, Dosunmu checks in at No. 10. That alone shows you the value of his game and the fact that an NBA team is going to write him a pretty big check when it is all said and done.
When you dive deeper into the list of names, you can see that Dosunmu actually might be the most valuable player when it comes to this free agency cycle. He has a tag that not many do.
Unrestricted free agent.
There is only one player ahead of Dosunmu on the list who is also an unrestricted free agent, and that is LeBron James. LeBron is going back to the Los Angeles Lakers without a doubt, so you can kind of forget that.
The other eight in the top 10 either have a player option they can opt into, or they are restricted free agents, which means their current team can match any offer that a team throws at a player.
Dosunmu is in an enviable position right now. He can do whatever he wants for however much he wants. Teams can negotiate with him without the worry of his current team matching. Dosunmu can look at the full landscape of the NBA, and he can do what makes him happy while also cashing in big-time.
A massive NBA Playoff performance should help the bank account for Ayo Dosunmu
Throughout his five-year NBA career, Dosunmu has been a very productive player in the NBA. Heading into the final year of his contract, he did put up some of the best numbers of his career.
Dosunmu finished the 2025-26 season averaging 14.8 points and shooting 43.9% from three-point range, both being the second-best of his career. It wasn’t those great numbers that set him apart, though.
It was the first round of the NBA Playoffs that will help Dosunmu cash in big this summer. He was called upon for big minutes against the Denver Nuggets due to injury. Dosunmu answered.
Dosunmu averaged 21.8 points, 4.0 assists, and 2.8 rebounds per game in the series upset over the Nuggets. This included a 43-point game four victory.
I believe Dosunmu is about to get a big payday this summer. While he is enjoying the sights and sounds of the new Obama Presidential Center, NBA teams are trying to jockey for position to sign one of the most valuable free agents on the market.
Add us as a preferred source on Google