Why I've always liked Tomas Satoransky
He was one of the only bright spots from watching the Lakers demolish the Bulls
Rather than focus on the ugly in a 101-90 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers that was not nearly as close as the final score might suggest, I wanted to highlight the performance of Tomas Satoransky.
Satoransky was one of my favorite players on the Washington Wizards as their backup behind John Wall and a guy that I thought might be able to scale up as a starter when the Bulls signed him. That didn’t work out at all last year under Jim Boylen.
Like everyone else on that team, it’s hard to parse out how much blame was on him and how much was on Boylen (probably a mix if we’re being honest). Whatever the cause, he had a bad year.
I thought that Satoransky would bounce back this season. He was looking great in the preseason before COVID-related stuff put him on the shelf. He’s finally getting back on his feet now, and I thought that his performance against the Lakers was a microcosm of his career. Nobody noticed his 12 minutes in a random blowout. His contributions fly under the radar unless you’re watching more than just the ball, so he’s used to it. But he’s constantly making small winning plays that in the aggregate make a solid impact. That’s why he’s generally rated pretty well in various all-in-one statistics.
Here’s what I saw from Satoransky as Billy Donovan tried to work him back into shape in his second game back from COVID quarantine.
Satoransky’s stat line of five points and three assists in 12 minutes does not seem like it would be worth going this deep into, and it’s probably not. But he does this stuff every game and it never gets highlighted.
With everyone else playing poorly, this seemed like a good time to give Satoransky his due. He gets a lot of grief from the fanbase for pedestrian box score numbers and erratic scoring, but he’s actually one of the more reliable players on the team in terms of finding ways to contribute every game. That may not be worth much on the fringe playoff teams that he’s been on, but I think he’d be a solid piece on a contender.