Minnesota Timberwolves guard Ayo Dosunmu would be an excellent fit alongside Luka Doncic on the Los Angeles Lakers, and Dosunmu is an unrestriced free agent this summer. He's been described as a "dream target" by Lakers fans for a reason. Dosunmu is a big guard who offers defensive versatility, length, athleticism, and elite secondary scoring, with a head-turning 43.9 percentage from 3 in 2025-26 (38.0% in his career).
Lakers fans were rightfully upset when the Wolves -- not the Lakers -- traded for Dosunmu, and now that disappointment is about to be re-lived, because Minnesota isn't about to let Dosunmu out of its sight in free agency.
The Timberwolves are going to do absolutely everything necessary to retain Ayo Dosunmu
If the Wolves weren't over the moon about Dosunmu before the playoffs (they already were, full disclosure), his 43-point masterclass in Game 4 against the Denver Nuggets pretty much made Ayo untouchable in Minnesota. As ESPN's Tim Bontemps wrote about this week, the Wolves are going to do everything in their power to re-sign Dosunmu this summer, even if it takes cutting ties with Donte DiVincenzo to do so.
"After the Timberwolves lost Nickeil Alexander-Walker ... Minnesota simply cannot afford to let Dosunmu walk," Bontemps asserted. "That's why sources around the league expect he will be back with the Wolves ... Doing so might require Minnesota to move off DiVincenzo ... to avoid going into the second luxury tax apron."
Bontemps also specified that Dosunmu should land a deal with Minny for a figure slightly higher than the approximately $15 million midlevel exception.
The Lakers don't have the cap space artillery to overpay Dosunmu away from Minnesota
If the Lakers were entering an offseason in which cap space wasn't an issue, general manager Rob Pelinka might throw caution to the wind, put on his bold face, and throw $25-$30 million at Dosunmu in a funny (but sort of defensible) overpay to steal Ayo away from the Western Conference rival Wolves.
Sadly, Pelinka isn't in a position for such thievery, seeing as the Lakers are entering an offseason already kind of bogged down with new deals for Austin Reaves (of the max variety) and (potentially) LeBron James. Pelinka needs to make sure he finds an upgrade at the center position, too, and by the time he's dealt with all of the above, there's no way there'll be room for a surprise overspend on Dosunmu. Ayo will be back with the Wolves, and hopefully, he doesn't haunt the Lakers too much in the years to come as a player they should have traded for but never did.
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