Ayo Dosunmu is going to get paid.
Before the mega Giannis Antetokoumpo trade news broke last night, what preceeded it was a salary dump trade sending Julius Randle to the Brooklyn Nets, allowing the Minnesota Timberwolves to clear up some finances as they navigate what will surely be a critical offseason period. The first step of that process was set in motion not long after as ESPN's Shams Charania would report that free agent guard Ayo Dosunmu intends to sign a five-year, $112 million extension to remain in Minnesota.
Given his emergence as a key Wolves fixture amid an adversity-filled postseason, it only made sense that Minnesota locked down the 26-year-old guard (who they acquired at the 2026 trade deadline) for the long term.
Last offseason, the Wolves found out the hard way about letting an underrated player leave in free agency, as Nickeil Alexander-Walker signed with the Atlanta Hawks and went on to become the NBA's Most Improved Player. There was a good chance a similar breakthrough could happen with Dosunmu, but now to Minnesota's delight, they have secured his services for another five years.
In 24 regular season games with the TWolves, Dosunmu averaged 14.4 points on 52.1 percent shooting, including 41.4 percent from deep, along with 4.2 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 1.0 steals. Those numbers remained impressive in the 2026 playoffs, where Dosunmu averaged 15.6 points on 50.0 percent shooting, including 42.5 percent from three, along with 3.6 rebounds, 4.1 assists, and close to a steal (0.9) per game.
This sets up Dosunmu for an annual salary of about $22.4 million over five years, which might look like a bit of an overpay to some, but in my opinion, it seems like a justifiable number for a guy who fought hard to earn it. ESPN's Bobby Marks noted in a recent YouTube video detailing the Giannis trade and other hot NBA news (including this extension), that he perhaps underestimated Dosunmu's value, as he only anticipated a price tag of about $62 million over four years (about $18 million annually).
Instead, Dosunmu sees himself cracking over the $100 million mark, which mind you, a similar contemporary like Nickeil Alexander-Walker was only able to secure $62 million over four years (that magic Bobby Marks number) in last summer's free agency.
Tying all this back to the Toronto Raptors, you have to think looking at the opposing market of guards on a similar playing field as Immanuel Quickley makes the team a bit regretful of being too trigger-happy in the 2024 offseason, when he signed a five-year, $175 million extension (about $32.5 million annually).
Dosunmu extension only serves as further proof that Raptors overpaid for Immanuel Quickley
Now, I can't knock a guy for getting paid (hats off to you IQ) and we do have to consider how little appeal Toronto has as a long-term destination, so it's a bit understandable that the Raptors wanted to maybe overpay a bit to retain Quickley.
At the same time, as it's been alluded to in the past, Toronto wasn't exactly expected to be in a bidding war for IQ during that free agency period, so they also could've afforded to simply wait it out a bid and see if that number decreased ever so slightly. If we were talking anywhere from a $22 to $25 million price tag (similar to what Dosunmu earned), perhaps the discourse around IQ in the present would be completely different.
Recent reports have also suggested that Quickley's contract (alongside Jakob Poeltl) have been met with resistance in the trade market, and it would likely take Toronto throwing in draft assets to move their salaries going forward. Quickley is by no means a burden of a player (perhaps his health has been, but skill-wise, he's very important to this Raptors core), though, it's his hefty salary that makes things a lot more difficult.
Toronto tied up a lot of their cap to a single player, who in all honesty, they could find what he provides at either a lesser price or used that cap space instead on multiple guards. Look at what ended up happening with the free agency talks around similar guards like Cam Thomas and Josh Giddey in the aftermath of what the IQ deal did to the RFA market last year. Thomas ended up getting no payday at all (and now he's out of the league completely), while Giddey had to settle for a base $25 million salary over four years.
Now we look at deals for players like Dosunmu and NAW last offseason, and it just makes the Quickley extension look even more like a blunder for Toronto.
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