2) Chicago Bulls bound to disappoint
Another one of the three major free agent signings for the Bulls from last offseason, former Washington Wizards sizable 6-foot-7 and 210 pound 29-year-old combo guard Tomas Satoransky, could be on his way out of the Windy City in the near future. There’s a lot of viable trade destinations that could make good use of Sato, or at least better than the Bulls have.
The Bulls landed Sato through a sign-and-trade deal with the Wizards last offseason. He’s on a pretty team-friendly contract with two years remaining, worth $10 million this year. And then he’s got a partially guaranteed clause in his contract for the 2021-22 season that only pays him half of that $10 million base salary.
In the final game of the 2019-20 regular season for the Bulls, in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic, Sato started out on the bench for the first time. He’s likely to lose minutes again this season to second-year former North Carolina Tar Heels point guard Coby White. And maybe he will be more efficient this season with less pressure on him to run the offense, but we will just have to wait and see with that.
During the shortened 2019-20 regular season, Sato played in all 65 games for the Bulls (starting in all but the final one of them). And he averaged 9.9 points per game, 3.9 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 1.2 steals, and 0.1 blocks. Sato shot 43.0 percent from the field, 32.2 percent from beyond the arc, and 87.6 percent from the free-throw line.
Sato is still a very capable guard in almost any NBA rotation. The fit with the Bulls just didn’t appear to be the best last season.