Portland Trail Blazers: 5 players to trade into the NBA draft for
By Ty Delbridge
Players the Portland Trail Blazers should trade into the NBA draft for: 2. Ayo Dosunmu, Illinois
If you are a fan of basketball, then you have probably heard of Illinois guard Ayo Dosunmu. He was one of the most popular names in college basketball last year and was an All-American at the end of the season.
Dosunmu is a bigger guard at 6’5”, 200 pounds and a 6’10” wingspan. He is a hard-working player who got better every year and was the leader of his teams, and is the type of player teams should want to add to their locker room.
On offense, Dosunmu is excellent with the ball in his hands running in transition or in the half-court making plays for himself or others. He is a strong player with a good handle who can get to his spots on the floor to make things happen by attacking the basket or kicking it out to others.
The most significant question mark is if he will be able to knock down the 3-point shot at a consistent rate. Dosunmu is innovative and is the type of player to bring some energy to an offense.
On the defensive side, Dosunmu has a chance to be one of the better backcourt defenders in the league in a couple of years because of his willingness to defend, size, strength and physical tools. He is outstanding as an on-ball defender and uses his quickness and smarts to bother his opponents.
In college, he was asked to do a lot on offense and still significantly impacted the defense. Coming into the NBA, Dosunmu won’t be asked to carry as much of a load on offense and can focus even more energy on being a good defender.
The Blazers need a backup point guard to pair alongside Anfernee Simons coming off the bench, and Dosunmu would be a solid fit. This would allow Simons to run off-ball and have more of a scoring role than a facilitator in the second unit.
Dosunmu could also play alongside Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum or Norman Powell because of his size at the guard spot, comfortability with the ball and defensive versatility. I could see Dosunmu coming in and finding a role on this Blazers team as a defensive combo guard and eventually becoming a starter in this league or a high-quality 6th man.