The Washington Wizards are in something of a precarious position this offseason.
The team is right up against the salary cap already despite having not made the playoffs in 2018-19 and getting defeated handily in the first round of the 2017-18 playoffs by the Toronto Raptors.
Now, with franchise centerpiece locked up on a behemoth contract and likely out for much of the 2019-20 season, the Wizards are likely looking at an on-the-fly rebuild — especially if the team can get a solid haul of assets in a Bradley Beal trade.
For now, though, the team has opted to begin the process of retaining one of its key free agents: Tomas Satoransky.
Per league sources, the Washington Wizards have tendered a qualifying offer to Tomas Satoransky. Satoransky is now be a restricted free agent.@FredKatz reported earlier that Washington also tendered a qualifying offer to Thomas Bryant. Bryant is also now a restricted free agent.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) June 27, 2019
Sato easily had his most productive season in 2019-20 due to his expanded role after the John Wall injury. The 27-year-old guard from the Czech Republic put up 8.9 points, 5.0 assists and 3.5 rebounds per game in 27.1 minutes per contest — all of which were career-highs.
Now that the Wizards have extended a qualifying offer to Satoransky, he will enter into the restricted free agency process. In this scenario, Washington will be able to match any offer that Satoransky gets from another team, meaning they will have the final word on where he ends up.
Of course, seeing as the team already has a rather high payroll, Washington might get priced out of Satoransky’s market fairly quickly.
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