The Detroit Pistons have a desperate need for a guard who can take pressure off of Cade Cunningham as a shooter, shot creator, and playmaker. Thankfully, Ayo Dosunmu checks all three boxes and is hitting the open market with a rumored price point of roughly $15 million.
With a skill set the Pistons need, a reasonable price for his next contract, and the opportunity to create cap space, Detroit must sign Dosunmu.
Dosunmu, 26, is entering unrestricted free agency just as he enters the athletic prime of his career. The Minnesota Timberwolves will likely put up quite a fight to re-sign him for that very reason, but even as the favorite to land him, the price point they're expected to meet him at opens the door for competition.
According to Tim Bontemps of ESPN, Dosunmu is expected to re-sign with the Wolves at an annual salary that's just above the mid-level exception, which comes in at around $15 million.
"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."
If that's the starting point for a competition for Dosunmu, then the Pistons must move mountains to bring in the perfect supporting guard to play alongside Cunningham.
Ayo Dosunmu is a reasonably priced perfect fit for Pistons
Detroit's need for three-point shooting is the first box Dosunmu would check. He's a career 38.0 percent three-point shooter who buried 43.9 percent of his attempts in 2025-26. He achieved the latter mark on 4.1 attempts per contest.
That alone makes Dosunmu a player worth prioritizing when one considers that the Pistons ranked No. 28 in three-point field goals made in 2025-26.
The biggest reason to go all-in on Dosunmu, however, is that Detroit struggled all season to find a consistent source of secondary shot creation. Dosunmu, meanwhile, is a proven shot creator who averaged 13.2 points per game and 16.5 per 36 minutes on .505/.398/.833 shooting over the past three seasons.
Dosunmu also finished the 2025-26 season shooting 53.4 percent on drives. By comparison, the only Piston who averaged more drives per game than Dosunmu aside from Cunningham was Daniss Jenkins, who shot 38.5 percent in said scenarios.
Furthermore, Dosunmu would fit the Pistons like a glove with how committed he already is on the defensive end of the floor. In 2025-26, he ranked third in the NBA in ball screen navigation and finished in the 87th percentile in off-ball chaser defense and the 67th percentile in perimeter isolation defense, per Basketball Index.
If the price truly is in the range of $15 million per season, it simply can't be overstated how desperately the Pistons need to sign Dosunmu.
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