Chicago Bulls: 3 bold predictions for Coby White for 2020-21 season

2) Bold predictions for Chicago Bulls’ Coby White

His play will lead front office to trade Tomas Satoransky

At the expense of the lengthy 6-foot-7 and 210 pound 29-year-old combo guard Tomas Satoransky, white got to start in his first career game in the Bulls de facto regular season finale to round out the 2019-20 campaign. The home win at the United Center back in mid-March over the divisional foe Cleveland Cavaliers was the only game last season that Sato did not get in the Bulls starting five.

But we also saw White and Sato have their games trend in opposite directions down the stretch last season. Sato came out of the gates hot, but his play really waned down the stretch. He wound up playing in all 65 regular season games for the Bulls during the shortened 2019-20 campaign (all but one of which he started in). 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.

If White’s play continues to trend up at the outset of this season, then Sato could be facing even more pressure to make his $10 million per year contract worth it to the Bulls new front office regime. Since he is likely to still hold a good amount of value on the trade market, there’s a decent to good chance that newly hired executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas could try and find a deal for Sato by the deadline.

Sato was one of those free agent signings from last offseason that looked really good at the time, but hasn’t worked out as imagined in the 18 months since. Maybe this is the year for Sato to find his role with the Bulls, but he’s likely best served to take his talents elsewhere. In all likelihood, that would be with a contender that needs an efficient secondary ball handler and underrated defender.