Ayo Dosunmu has played in five (rather meaningless) playoff games. He has never been on a team with championship aspirations. Still, when Dosunmu speaks, he sounds like a 10-year vet who was a key part of an NBA Finals run.
The Minnesota Timberwolves brought Ayo Dosunmu in to provide a jolt of scoring off their bench, and the Chicago Bulls let Dosunmu go because they have undergone a full rebuild. When Dosunmu first landed in Minneapolis, he was most excited about being a part of the pressure-packed run that winning teams go on late in the season.
Twenty-two games in, the Timberwolves are 13-9 with Dosunmu. He is playing — and acting — like a player who understands what it takes to win a championship. His teammates, however, have struggled with that all year.
And now, with four games left in the regular season, the Wolves are limping into the playoffs, and their margin for error is razor-thin. Dosunmu knows what the Wolves must do to finish the season strong and return to a championship-threatening level. Can his teammates, most of whom have won more than Dosunmu in the NBA, adopt his mindset?
Minnesota’s fate this season likely hangs on that question.
Since the start of March, the Wolves are eighth in the Western Conference with a 9-9 record. In that span, they rank 27th in offense. But it is hard to know what to make of that slump because the Wolves are digging through the most injury trouble they’ve had in two years.
- Anthony Edwards has missed eight out of the last 10 games — the most games he’s missed in a 10-game span in his career — with a right knee injury and an illness.
- Jaden McDaniels has missed the last five games with a left knee injury.
- Naz Reid is battling through a painful shoulder injury in his shooting arm.
Injuries are inevitable. The Wolves have been among the healthiest teams in the NBA over the last two seasons, but now injuries have piled up. Ideally, the Wolves would have handled business better early in the season and given themselves a cushion in the top four of the Western Conference.
Instead, they were moody and disconnected for long stretches of the season, and now they are banged up and sixth in the West with an offense lacking direction.
Friday in Philadelphia, the Wolves hoisted 101 shot attempts and connected on 38% of them. They also shot 33% from the 3-point line. The Philadelphia 76ers beat Minnesota 115-103. Edwards played but looked sluggish and was not 100% healthy, finishing with 8 points on 3-of-15 shooting in 28 minutes.
It was one of those games for the Wolves. Every team has them. Placing a 28.5” ball through a 56” rim 10 feet in the air with the best defenders in the world flanking your every move is difficult enough. In some games, it seems nearly impossible.
“When that happens, you have to dial into the controllables more,” Ayo Dosunmu said postgame. “I think for the most part, in the second half, we went away from that sometimes. … We’ve just got to stay with it. Even when our shots are not falling, we’ve got to lean together, get more stops, get to the free throw line, [and] generate turnovers. Just do more of the controllables.”
Ayo Dosunmu prides himself on reading each game and letting them dictate what he does. For the most part, he has been as complete a player as Chris Finch could ask him to be. He’s averaging 15 points on 52% shooting since March 1. And since Edwards’ injury, which promoted Dosunmu into the starting lineup, he is playing at a near All-Star level — giving Finch 18 points per game, 7.6 rebounds, and 5.4 assists on .49/.44/.95 shooting splits with a +6.5 plus/minus.
It doesn’t matter that Dosunmu hasn’t won much in the NBA. He knows how important it is for the entire team to play with complete, focused effort, especially when the rotation is thin and the offense is missing firepower.
Finch has struggled to get the rest of his players to understand that.
“I wanted to see movement,” Finch said postgame in Philly. “I wanted to see [them] going somewhere with force. I wanted to see next-action basketball. I wanted to see good screens. It all just kind of bogged down to super slow, and [the Sixers] were able to blow up everything. We were just kind of looking for the shortcut.”
On a good day, it’s difficult for the Wolves to win games when they are looking for shortcuts, either on offense or defense. But right now, those shortcuts are fatal and will be in the playoffs.
Edwards’ injury timetable is still uncertain. McDaniels may not play for the rest of the regular season. And when he returns, he will also need time to ramp up. Reid is shooting 27% since Feb. 1 as a result of his shoulder injury. Randle has struggled to return to the All-Star-caliber player he was early in the season. DiVincenzo always plays hard on defense and is a threat to drain five triples in a game. Still, he isn’t a consistent volume shooter.
These Wolves, battered and bruised, have a very thin margin for error.
The Wolves were again without Edwards and McDaniels against the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday. Reid also struggled (6 points on 3 of 14 shooting), and DiVincenzo shot 2 of 8 from deep. Still, the Wolves led by five at halftime against a Hornets team that entered Sunday winners in eight of their previous 10 games. But Charlotte outscored the Wolves 67-48 in the second half and handed Minnesota its third-straight loss.
“It feels like we’re a million miles away from the team that we can be and that we are,” Finch said. “And we gotta get that back with our connectiveness and our spirit.”
Edwards will be back in time for the first round. McDaniels probably will, too. Maybe Reid will find a groove. The Wolves will likely finish sixth. Still, they won’t be anywhere near 100% healthy by Game 1.
Ayo Dosunmu has the fewest playoff games under his belt of anyone in Minnesota’s rotation. Yet, his teammates need to adopt his mindset if they hope to make another postseason run, because there is a good chance any run they make will begin with a wounded squad. The Wolves can’t look for shortcuts. They need to focus on the controllables, something many players have struggled with all season.
If they don’t, this team is headed for an early playoff exit.
