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My surprising prediction for the Bulls is that Sato gets some votes for MIP this coming year. I think/have a gut feeling/hope he's played a little too under control in the past and coming to a new team without two established stars he's going to be more aggressive and show off his skillset and bball IQ. His play in FIBA against NBA players is probably also going to help his assertiveness.

I'm thinking a high efficiency 16 & 7 with solid D is not at all out of the realm of possibility.

Am I crazy?

I don't think you're crazy, but he already played decent amount of minutes and had solid production. In order for him to be able to contend for the award, he would probably need to get to around 15 and 8, on really good effeciency, and for the Bulls to have some success.

Not impossible, but with all the other players added who can actually produce, I think he will end up at around 13 points and 7 assists range, which would be great for us, but not enough to get the award.

I think he was like 12-7 per36 with good efficiency last season. His biggest obstacle in winning MIP is that he played well last year.

there is a 0% chance he wins MIP because he is not the type of player that wins it

paul george, goran dragic, jimmy butler, cj mccollum, giannis, victor oladipo, pascal siakam...tomas satoransky?

He's playing well but FIBA ball is vastly different to the NBA, it just suits some players game.

He'll be good for Chicago but he's not going to be putting up the numbers he is at the World Cup.

People need to reign back their expectations.

Dez wrote:He's playing well but FIBA ball is vastly different to the NBA, it just suits some players game.

He'll be good for Chicago but he's not going to be putting up the numbers he is at the World Cup.

People need to reign back their expectations.

Going by tournament stats, the MIP will be Dennis Schröder. Evan Fournier has also been really good.

That Antetokounmpo kid, Giannis? Great physical tools, defends well. He might yet develop into something, some NBA team should take a chance on him on the cheap.

He'd have to suddenly become our second best player. I am pretty keen on the guy, but I think this is an extremely unlikely possibility.

I think he will break out the way Otto did. Oddly, they are both from the same team and it looks like they deferred way too much for the sake of the team. Once they are granted freedom to do whatever they want, I think they hit their primes.
15/8 on a playoff team will make him a strong candidate to MIP, 6th man maybe.

Showtime23 wrote:I think he will break out the way Otto did. Oddly, they are both from the same team and it looks like they deferred way too much for the sake of the team. Once they are granted freedom to do whatever they want, I think they hit their primes.
15/8 on a playoff team will make him a strong candidate to MIP, 6th man maybe.

Totally agree.

Because the Wiz are in the middle of a Lux Tax revamp the Bulls got really lucky.

Pax said that it was actually the Wiz that contacted them about the OPJ trade, so there is good will between the two teams, and the Sato Sign-andTrade was, in effect, a follow-on to OPJ.

The result is that the Bulls got a lot of talent, and the Wiz got some major Lux Tax relief.

We have already seen that OPJ was "unleashed" after deferring for those years, and I expect to see the same happen with Sato.

He is the team leader for the Czech team and will be happy to be given the chance to have the same role with the Bulls as a PG (Zach and Lauri are our Alpha-Dogs).

The end effect is that we can expect to see a continuation of OPJ's "unleashed" performance, and we can also expect that Sato will be "unleashed" in the same way.

That the Bulls got two such talents in their prime is a demonstration of what the CBA and the Lux Tax is causing to happen in the NBA. But similar to what happened in Toronto, we can't expect the benefit to last for long, so the Bulls have to make the most of it while it lasts.

No chance because he's not selfish enough, and that's a good thing. His other challenge will be nabbing the starting job away from Dunn - it shouldn't happen, but we've seen so many stupid starter decisions from the Bulls, I worry.

transplant wrote:I think he was like 12-7 per36 with good efficiency last season. His biggest obstacle in winning MIP is that he played well last year.

I don't think people look at per 36 stats. I think lots of guys who've won it have done so by playing a lot more minutes and only slight elevations of their per 36 stats.

I think his biggest problem is that most winners in my memory are guys with big scoring boosts and Sato doesn't seem like a guy who will become a 20/10 player. He might become a 15/10 player, but that probably won't get it done.

I think the most likely Bull to win it is probably Carter, followed by Dunn.

Jesus. I think people are gonna be really disappointed with him when he basically replicates his last few seasons- which would be a fine outcome.

Zero, Nada. He will be solid vet till Coby doesnt take ropes

League Circles wrote:I think the most likely Bull to win it is probably Carter, followed by Dunn.

I'm on board with Dunn if elsewhere. If Felicio doesn't play a single minute, could that be a consideration for him?

sco wrote:

League Circles wrote:I think the most likely Bull to win it is probably Carter, followed by Dunn.

I'm on board with Dunn if elsewhere. If Felicio doesn't play a single minute, could that be a consideration for him?

You wouldn't want Dunn being the most improved player in the league for us?

I actually do expect Felicio to be improved and possibly solidify himself as the clear #2 center, but that wouldn't be enough for MIP.

League Circles wrote:

sco wrote:

League Circles wrote:I think the most likely Bull to win it is probably Carter, followed by Dunn.

I'm on board with Dunn if elsewhere. If Felicio doesn't play a single minute, could that be a consideration for him?

You wouldn't want Dunn being the most improved player in the league for us?

I actually do expect Felicio to be improved and possibly solidify himself as the clear #2 center, but that wouldn't be enough for MIP.

I would be happy if Dunn somehow magically became that guy, but don't like the opportunity cost of giving him the chance, because I have higher expectations from Sato and White, and want them to get the majority of PG mins.

I expect Felicio to continue to play like #2 as a back-up center - we just mean different things by #2. His playing would take away important minutes from Kornett and Gafford. That said, I'd be happier seeing Shrek out there at C than Lauri at C.

League Circles wrote:I think the most likely Bull to win it is probably Carter, followed by Dunn.

Not sure if serious.

Sheesh, some people are REALLY projecting on Carter. Over the last few months, he's been talked up here as the best playmaker of the team, best defender, best prospect, a future offensive hub... and now the most likely MIP! Wow.

Trouble is, he's literally showed us nothing like that. I don't know where all this is coming from.

As for Dunn...

ZOMG wrote:

League Circles wrote:I think the most likely Bull to win it is probably Carter, followed by Dunn.

Not sure if serious.

Sheesh, some people are REALLY projecting on Carter. Over the last few months, he's been talked up here as the best playmaker of the team, best defender, best prospect, a future offensive hub... and now the most likely MIP! Wow.

Trouble is, he's literally showed us nothing like that. I don't know where all this is coming from.

As for Dunn...

Not sure if you understand the concept of most IMPROVED. You're basically making my case.

League Circles wrote:

sco wrote:

League Circles wrote:I think the most likely Bull to win it is probably Carter, followed by Dunn.

I'm on board with Dunn if elsewhere. If Felicio doesn't play a single minute, could that be a consideration for him?

You wouldn't want Dunn being the most improved player in the league for us?

I actually do expect Felicio to be improved and possibly solidify himself as the clear #2 center, but that wouldn't be enough for MIP.

Most improved players are traditionally guys who have considerably improved their scoring and usage. That is literally the opposite of what we need from Dunn.

If he ends up actually playing real minutes for us this season - and that should be a HUGE IF - he should show he's able to cope with a humiliating demotion to a 3rd string PG, stay in his lane and not cause any trouble. If he does that, I'll give him my personal Most Improved Attitude Player award.