Projecting Chicago Bulls rotation for regular season
Seventh Man: Tomas Satoransky
The way that the former Washington Wizards lengthy 6-foot-7 and 210 pound 29 year-old Czech combo guard Tomas Satoransky played out of the gates last season for the Bulls looked to inspire confidence about his role in the rotation moving forward. But the hot start for Satoransky last season wound up very much slowing down as the campaign moved along.
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.
The playing time for Sato is very likely to drop this season. He got just shy of 29 minutes per game last season, and that should likely drop to around 23-25 this season.
Sixth Man: Otto Porter Jr.
A big looming question mark for Donovan and the Bulls at the outset of the 2020-21 regular season will be whether the starting small forward is the veteran 6-foot-8 and 200 pound 27-year-old Otto Porter Jr. or the rookie former Florida State Seminoles reigning ACC Sixth Man of the Year Williams.
There is some level of motivation for the Bulls to give Williams the start on the wing, and let OPJ come off the bench as a sixth man to contain more of his previous injury issues.
During the shortened 2019-20 regular season, OPJ played in just 14 games with the Bulls (starting in nine of them). And he averaged 11.9 points per game, 3.4 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.4 blocks. OPJ shot 44.3 percent from the field, 38.7 percent from beyond the arc, and 70.4 percent from the free-throw line.
If he’s able to consistently remain healthy, expect OPJ to get around 25-27 minutes per game off the bench. He might also get a lot of starts this season, depending on how Williams does out of the gates.