New Bull Tomas Satoransky lit it up in the FIBA World Cup

There has technically been Chicago Bulls basketball going on over the last month, as FIBA World Cup action has been playing out since Aug. 31. The Bulls had no players on Team USA after Thad Young was cut in camp (perhaps in error as the Americans didn’t medal), but they had a star international player in Tomas Satoransky.

The Bulls new point guard hasn’t just been the best player on a darling, underdog Czech Republic team. He’s been one of the best players in the whole freaking tournament.

15.5 points per game. 5.6 rebounds per game. 8.5 assists per game. 48,1 percent from 3-point land on over three attempts per game. 2.8 turnovers per game which gives him an over 2:1 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Like, even when he isn’t scoring he still finds ways to contribute. A 1-for-8 shooting performance against Turkey? No problem....let’s just grab seven rebounds and dish out seven assists. He’s also been fantastic at stuffing the stat sheet flirting with a triple-double twice—13-9-13 against Australia and 13-8-9 against Greece.

He probably isn’t going to reciprocate these numbers come the NBA season, but Satoransky has to be the most complete point guard the Chicago Bulls have had on their roster since Derrick Rose, right?

You can get more Sato-FIBA analysis today on Mark’s podcast that just went up.

Cristiano Felicio

Now that we’re done drooling over Satoransky, it’s time to come back down to earth a little bit and talk Felicio.

There’s him getting stuffed by 6-foot-4-inch Marcus Smart.

...And there’s him showing an inability to guard the perimeter against Jaylen Brown.

Obviously, these are lowlights and I could string together a parade of lowlights because people love picking on Felicio on Twitter. His numbers haven’t been bad in FIBA play: 6.2 points on 59.1 percent from the field and 5.6 rebounds to boot.

The problem is that he’s an NBA player that is playing like a reserve at best in an international tournament where there are more players that don’t play in the NBA than do play in the NBA. He also will make over $8 million this year.

Felicio didn’t show anything to put him ahead of guys like Wendell Carter Jr., Daniel Gafford, nor Luke Kornet on the depth chart for next season.

Other Notes:

• It was kind of a bummer Finland didn’t make it otherwise we could have injected Lauri Markkanen highlights into our veins these last three weeks.
• Our old friend Paul Zipser: 5.0 points on mid-30’s percent shooting. 3.8 rebounds.
• Our other friend...an older but more prominent name Marco Belinelli is averaging 15.0 points per game while nailing one of every three 3-point field goal he attempts.
• Am I missing other former Bulls? Checked Argentina’s roster and no 39-year-old Andres Nocioni.