In a challenging spot in the midst of a long 2020 offseason, the Chicago Bulls have some decisions to make about their free agent signings from last year.
There was much scrutiny for the three major free agent signings that the Chicago Bulls made last offseason, which actually originally appeared to be positive ones. The Bulls were able to sign the likes of former New York Knicks center Luke Kornet and Washington Wizards guard Tomas Satoransky to relatively good value contracts off the open market last offseason.
They brought Sato in from the Wizards as part of a sign-and-trade deal that wound up being worth $30 million flat over the course of three years. But the final $5 million in the last year of Sato’s contract is not guaranteed, which works out to be pretty team friendly.
And the Bulls managed to sign the unheralded seven-footer and former Vanderbilt Commodores big man Kornet to a minimum deal over the course of two years.
The most expensive contract went to the ex-Indiana Pacers veteran forward Thaddeus Young. He got a three-year deal worth around $43 million in total. And he didn’t work out all that well either in his inaugural season with the Bulls. But there were more positives to Young’s first year in the Windy City than either Kornet or Sato.
Possibly the most disappointing of the three free agent signings in terms of total body of work in the season that was for the Bulls was Sato. To his credit, he was very durable playing in all 65 games (starting in all but one of them). The only game that Sato didn’t start in this season was came in the de facto finale in a home win back in mid-March over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
In those 65 games played, Sato averaged 9.9 points per game, 3.9 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 1.2 steals, and 0.1 blocks. He shot 43.0 percent from the field, 32.2 percent from beyond the arc, and 87.6 percent from the free-throw line.
That amounted to Sato registering a box plus/minus rating of -1.2, 0.4 value over replacement player rating, .090 win shares per 48 minutes, 3.5 total win shares, 53.3 true shooting percentage, and a 111 offensive rating/112 defensive rating. A lot of those advanced metrics were on the lower end in any season of Sato’s career.
Meanwhile, the other underwhelming free agent signing mentioned here, Kornet, played in 36 games for the Bulls in his inaugural season in the Windy City. He averaged 6.0 points per game, 2.3 rebounds, 0.9 assists, 0.3 steals, and 0.7 blocks. Kornet shot 43.9 percent from the field, 28.7 percent from beyond the arc, and 71.4 percent from the free-throw line.
That amounted to him registering a -1.1 box plus/minus rating, 0.091 win shares per 48 minutes, 53.9 true shooting percentage, and a 112 offensive rating/111 defensive rating. Even though he barely edged out Sato in a number of those advanced metrics, it is still worth noting that these two were even close in the first place.
The Bulls brought Sato in to be a more integral part of the rotation than Kornet. There was a school of thought that Sato could be the veteran starting point guard for the Bulls for at least a couple of years while rookie point guard Coby White at behind and was able to take his time and develop.
Hopefully the Bulls can see the play of all three of their 2019 free agent signings step up a notch. And that is if the new front office regime doesn’t trade any of these three. But Sato still has hope that he can be a productive and net positive guard for the Bulls for the remainder of his contract.