Ever since Brad Stevens delivered a fiery, half-hour-long press conference centered around the Boston Celtics’ roster not being good enough, fans and media have spent weeks brainstorming possible offseason targets.
Free agency has stood out as the most intriguing pathway to acquiring new talent. The Celtics have the full mid-level exception, worth roughly $15 million, available to them for the first time in years.
Few teams have cap space that spans beyond the MLE to play with, so Boston should be able to compete with most teams for the top available players. One of the most intriguing of which is Minnesota Timberwolves guard Ayo Dosunmu.
Dosunmu caught the world’s attention with his impressive first-round series against the Denver Nuggets this spring, highlighted by his 44-point Game 4 performance. That’s an impressive feat, regardless of how it’s accomplished -- nevermind that the 26-year-old did it while only shooting five three-pointers.
His ability to get downhill when catching off screens would provide a unique layer to the Celtics’ offense, which can get stale when the three-pointers aren’t dropping.
Unfortunately, it sounds like we’ll never get the chance to see it. According to ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, league sources expect Dosunmu to be back with the Timberwolves next season on a deal worth slightly more than the MLE.
“Minnesota simply cannot afford to let Dosunmu walk,” Bontemps wrote Thursday. ”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.”
Though unlikely, it's still possible that the Celtics could land Dosunmu
Though it puts a serious damper on the hopes of landing Dosunmu, the intel on Minnesota’s offer doesn’t completely rule out the possibility of the dynamic guard landing in Boston this summer.
The Celtics created a $27 million traded player exception when they traded Anfernee Simons to the Chicago Bulls (Dosunmu's former team, ironically) back in February. They could decide to offer draft capital and perhaps Sam Hauser to the Wolves as part of a sign-and-trade move for Dosunmu.
By doing so, they’d be able to pay out more than the MLE, while also enabling the Timberwolves to avoid the second apron threshold, which they’d likely be going over by signing the guard to a new deal.
According to Bontemps, Minnesota could look to offload Donte DiVincenzo’s contract as a way to avoid the apron while retaining Dosunmu. DiVincenzo, of course, is expected to miss significant time as he recovers from a torn Achilles tendon.
The Wolves don’t quite seem ready to give up on their current core, which means that getting Dosunmu to Boston will be difficult, if at all possible.
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