Bulls coach Billy Donovan sees no ceiling in Ayo Dosunmu's climb

Bulls coach Billy Donovan believes there’s more in Ayo Dosunmu.

It wasn’t a dig at Dosunmu, especially after his 34-point, nine-assist night. It was Donovan simply reflecting on the amount of time he would find Dosunmu at the Advocate Center last summer working on his craft. That’s why he has a cup-half-full approach with the former Morgan Park standout.

“I still think there’s a lot of room,” Donovan said when asked about a ceiling on the third-year guard. “I give him credit. He worked really hard this summer. He was going twice a day. Because he is from Chicago, he used our facility all the time. He’d come in the morning and come back in the afternoon. He worked on a lot of different things. I do think there’s a lot more room for improvement for him. I think he’s solved some things for himself. Watching film, doing more of what he had to do, being a threat, but there’s room.”

And there’s motivation. Not just personal motivation, either.

That was evident after the one-sided win over the Wizards on Saturday, when Dosunmu first discussed the importance of the victory, then the nine assists and finally the scoring.

That’s how he’s wired.

“It means a lot,” Dosunmu said of the assists. “Just try to learn on the go, pretty much look at my mistakes and grow from them. I think that’s how you create consistency in this league. That’s pretty much what I did, look at the film and try to find ways that I could get guys easy shots or create closeouts for guys.”

A skill he has continued to get better at this month.

In his nine games in March, Dosunmu has two nine-assist games — both wins — and is averaging 5.8 assists per game. He had averaged 4.7 assists in February and just 2.7 in January.

His rebounding has also climbed each of the last four months, and his scoring in February and March have marked career highs for those months — 15.8 points per game in February and 15.6 so far in March.

Sure, having Zach LaVine sidelined for the year after foot surgery has given Dosunmu increased minutes and more shots, but he also has taken advantage of them.

“You always have room for growth,” Dosunmu said. “I never really put a limit on what I can accomplish. As the season goes on, learn on the go is pretty much where I am at. I don’t set goals of where I want to be at. There are always ups and downs; you want to be consistent.”

Those are the kind of words Dosunmu jots down in his journal.

While he didn’t get into detailed specifics of his entries, he did explain that it’s not about putting pen to paper and listing goals like “40-point scoring night.”

It’s more about individual improvements to his game so he can reflect and build.

“I wrote down where I was at last year because I knew I wasn’t the player I wanted to be,” Dosunmu said. “I understood in order to get better it was going to take a lot of time and a lot of work, and I tried to write it down so at a time like now I could look back a year and say this is where I was at.

“And then, of course, the same this year for next year because you always want to get better. Pretty much get in the gym working, watching film, studying with the coaches. That’s the growth in my game.”