Joel Goodson
- it's all ball bearings, nowadays
Illini in the Pros (Basketball)
I mean that guy on the left looks like we cloned Lon Kruger so we may have the technology.
Looking at KJ's stats, he's really focused on improving his care of the basketball this past season. 2.5/1 is a really good assist to TO ratio for a rookie playing on a mediocre team. Looking forward to seeing how he grows from here.
He's playing off the ball.
At Illinois, he was the primary initiator on every play. It suited Keaton, which is a high bar, but KJ struggled.
pruman91
- interviewing new NL's daily....I really really am
For real, this is like saying Taylor Rooks is stuck being a beautiful woman
blackdog
- Champaign
Dang I thought I was a big TSJ fan...
Ayo is #1 on the list. $15M is not nothing, but I thought his market value was projected to be higher than that? That said, I do not understand all the inner-workings of the NBA salary cap, aprons, or any of the other finer details.
Ayo Dosunmu
G | Minnesota TimberwolvesUnrestricted free agent
Dosunmu arrived from the Chicago Bulls at the trade deadline and had an immediate impact, including a 43-point performance in a Game 4 win over the Denver Nuggets that came without injured stars Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo.
After the Timberwolves lost Nickeil Alexander-Walker last summer in free agency -- and after the 27-year-old guard was named 2026 Most Improved Player with the Atlanta Hawks -- Minnesota simply cannot afford to let Dosunmu walk. That's why sources around the league expect he will be back with the Wolves, but for a price slightly above the midlevel exception (roughly $15 million), which is what most rival teams could offer.
Doing so might require Minnesota to move off DiVincenzo, who will miss at least most of next season with a torn right Achilles, to avoid going into the second luxury tax apron.
Yeah, I kinda thought he'd get more.
The wrinkle is that almost every team is above the cap, so they can either sign him to the MLE, which limits them to about that $15 million, or they can clear cap space. Clearing cap space isn't as difficult as it may sound though, because teams have all kinds of cap holds they keep on the books for the in order to preserve Bird Rights and use the MLE. The Lakers for example are $95 million over the cap, but they have about $150 million in cap holds, mostly to outgoing FAs for whom they have Bird Rights ($60 million to LeBron alone). If they move on from LeBron and the other free agents and build around Luka, which kinda seems likely, they could very easily afford to pay Ayo $25 million a year, which from a production standpoint seems reasonable.
Just to add, the Timberwolves themselves can't clear enough cap space to sign Ayo to an extension above the MLE, because their roster exceeds the cap even if they were to renounce all of their cap holds. BUT, if there is no deal and he hits the open market on June 30, the T-Wolves will have full Bird Rights at that point, and can sign him to a better deal than anything he'd get on the open market. They could even sign him to a max deal (over $40 million/yr) without hitting the first apron - all they'd have to do is renounce their Bird Rights on Evan Turner, a dude who retired from the NBA in 2020, to clear his $28 million cap hold.
Right? It'd be less surprising to see a TJ tattoo of him in an Illini Uni, but for a team for which he has made a total of 3 regular season starts? Wild.
Dude must have lost a bet or something...
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
The question is, how much leverage can Ayo generate from a team or teams OTHER than the Timberwolves to force them to go above the MLE.
Any contender in the league would want Ayo on the MLE, but to go above that, then you're dealing with teams with cap space, which means teams that are tanking and who aren't actually that enthusiastic about a 27 year old complementary player who is annoyingly prone to actually winning games.
The NBA is in a weird place where the top players make an eye-watering amount of money, but player's control over their career path is way less than it was in decades past.
At least it’s not Texas Tech!
The Timberwolves have been tweeting about Ayo and only Ayo ALL DAY for seemingly no reason. Maybe they secretly came to some agreement??? Seems so random. Did I miss some news or something?
hooraybeer
- Peoria, IL
probably a pressure tactic to get him to sign a less desirable deal quickly unfortunately
They’re doing it for every player.
100%. He gains nothing by signing now. He should test the market. If Minnesota really wants him, they have the power to outbid suitors on the open market.
I get a little bummed out the way KJ is remembered here sometimes.
Sandwiched between two upperclassmen awesome teams that went to an Elite 8 and Final 4, I think clouds the year the kid had here. 15 ppg, 5.7 rebounds (actually better rebounder than Keaton), and 4.7 assists for a true freshman on a team that won a lot. Yes, it wasn't a final four or second weekend. But the best player as a true freshman putting up those numbers in a P4 conference and getting a 6 seed isn't exactly something to sneeze at.
I feel like if you're going to mention the 4.7 assists, you have to mention the 3.7 TOs. KJ did a lot of great things for us, but he just wasn't up for the offense-initiation responsibility we laid on his shoulders that season.
I just think the kid had a really good year as a freshman - a lot of it playing hurt too. He definitely wasn’t perfect though
i think so much of how we look back at players, and viewing them fondly or not, is heavily based on expectations of the team at the given time.