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Welcome to “Good Morning, Illini Nation,” your daily dose of college basketball news from Illini beat writer and AP Top 25 voter Scott Richey. He’ll offer up insights every morning on Brad Underwood’s team and college basketball at large:
Ayo Dosunmu will be back in Champaign on Sept. 13 to host a youth basketball camp at Leonhard Recreation Center. More details about the camp, which is for players ages 6-16, can be found here.
Whether or not Dosunmu is still a member of the Chicago Bulls when he makes the trip in two months is to be determined. The 6-foot-5 guard has spent the past four seasons with his hometown Bulls after being selected No. 38 overall in the second round of the 2021 NBA Draft.
But Dosunmu now has just one year left on the three-year, $21 million deal he signed after his second season in the league (the one benefit of being a second-round pick), and Chicago is likely headed toward a rebuild. Nikola Vucevic is reportedly on the trade market after the Bulls offloaded Zach Lavine this past February to the Sacramento Kings as a part of a three-team trade that also included the San Antonio Spurs.
Chicago keeping both Dosunmu and Coby White is apparently unlikely. Both might be moved given their status as upcoming unrestricted free agents after the 2025-26 season. That makes them legitimate trade assets for teams looking for young guards or looking to clear cap space after this coming season.
“I have not heard Coby White’s name,” Chicago Sports Network insider K.C. Johnson said on The Score at the end of June. “That’s all I can say. That doesn’t mean he’s not going to get traded. … In my conversations with people that I talk to around the league, I’ve heard Ayo Dosunmu’s name way more than Coby White’s name…I’ve got my antenna up over which guard is going to be moved, and I can just tell you from my conversations I’ve heard Ayo’s name more than Coby’s name.”
Dosunmu made 26 starts in 46 games this past season for Chicago before he was sidelined in March for the rest of the year with a fracture in his left shoulder. The Chicago native and former Illinois All-American averaged career bests in scoring (12.3 ppg), assists (4.5 apg) and rebounds (3.5 rpg) when healthy. While those were all improvements, his three-point shooting dipped to 32.8 percent after he hit at a 40.3 percent clip a season prior.