Matas Buzelis is used to spending the second half on the bench.
So the Chicago Bulls rookie wasn’t surprised by the course of Monday’s win over the Los Angeles Clippers. He logged 12 minutes, 31 seconds in the first half, the most of any bench player. It wasn’t his best outing — five points on 1-for-6 shooting, four rebounds — but the Bulls were struggling as a whole to slow the Clippers.
Then the game changed. Zach LaVine led a decisive third-quarter flurry to place the Bulls firmly in the lead. And Buzelis got comfortable on the bench, never returning to the Intuit Dome court in the Bulls’ 112-99 win.
It was a familiar pattern from coach Billy Donovan. For the first two quarters of every game, Donovan lets Buzelis run the court. But in the second half, the 6-foot-10 forward is mostly relegated to the sideline, grasping at garbage time and early fourth-quarter rotations.
The disconnect between potential and playing time for Buzelis has only grown as the season progresses. Despite going 11th in the draft, Buzelis ranks 22nd among rookies in total minutes played and 32nd in minutes per game.
This was supposed to be a developmental season for the Bulls. So why isn’t Donovan giving Buzelis more minutes — especially in the second halves of games?
“A lot of people look down at the stat sheet and the first thing they look at is minutes and points,” Donovan said. “There’s just so much more to it — for me, from a development standpoint — that goes into it.”
It wouldn’t be unprecedented for the Bulls to give Buzelis playing-time priority — after all, Patrick Williams started all 71 games as a rookie in the 2020-21 season. But Buzelis appears to be operating on a particularly short leash.
In first halves, Buzelis is the seventh player on the depth chart, a perfect slot for a rookie still learning the ropes. But he has appeared in only 20 third quarters and logged only 219 second-half minutes — fewer than Dalen Terry, Julian Phillips and Talen Horton-Tucker.
If any of this is bothering Buzelis, he isn’t letting on. The rookie wasn’t surprised when the pattern repeated itself Monday in Inglewood, Calif. — not one bit.
“I deserved it,” Buzelis said. “I was minus-11, wasn’t making shots, defensively messed up, missed a few offensive rebounds. It’s part of the learning process. I can’t get frustrated (with playing time) when I’m the one not playing well.”
This is exactly what a coach hopes to hear from a rookie.
For Donovan, pulling Buzelis after a weak first half is a crucial part of the learning process. It’s not punishment; it’s a matter of preservation. If Buzelis is getting lost in a game — struggling with his off-ball defense, missing rebound opportunities, whiffing on shots — Donovan doesn’t believe the rookie will learn more by playing 15 more minutes of bad basketball.
There’s a chance Buzelis would work through the problem in real time. But for a 20-year-old in his first NBA season, it’s more likely he would keep floundering until the final whistle. Donovan obviously doesn’t feel that will help the Bulls win a game, but he also doesn’t feel repetitive mistakes will benefit Buzelis in the long run.
Buzelis is good for a highlight once a game — a soaring dunk, a ferocious swat of a shot. He leads the Bulls in blocks (35) despite ranking 11th in minutes. When Buzelis gets something right, it’s clear he has the potential to be something special in this league.
But more often than not, Buzelis is recovering from a mistake. He struggles with screen navigation and off-ball defensive rotations. He can outjump most opponents but still doesn’t time many of his rebound attempts correctly. Sometimes he gets lost in the shuffle of the offense. None of this is concerning to Donovan, but he doesn’t want to overload the rookie with those learning experiences.
“When you talk about carving out a role for a young player — it’s the consistency part of being able to be reliable night in and night out,” Donovan said. “They got to take care of the ball. They got to help us on the glass. They got to read defense in terms of screens. They got to know personnel. They got to know the game plan, what we’re doing, how we’re guarding certain players. All those things are factors. It’s a lot to download.”
Buzelis is trying to figure out the balance of this learning process. The pace of the NBA is breakneck. There was barely enough time between Sunday’s loss in Portland and Monday’s tipoff to sleep, eat and absorb the scouting report.
That means Buzelis can’t think too much about his past performances. He spends plenty of time in the film room, carefully studying his mistakes. But in the midst of a game, Buzelis can’t afford to linger mentally on the mistakes of the past.
“I don’t really think about it once I’m in the next game,” Buzelis said. “I try to correct myself. I think about it a little in here (the locker room) after the game, but these games come so fast, you just have to have a short memory.”
For a team in the Bulls’ position, playing time ultimately becomes a front-office decision. A coach doesn’t keep a lottery pick on the bench unless he has been directed that winning individual games is still their top priority.
Most executives will not intervene with coaching decisions. But in a season in which tanking is on the table, executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas would be well-positioned to instruct Donovan to maintain a steadier diet of minutes for the rookie — even if it means keeping him on the court in close-game situations.
It’s clear that edict has not been delivered. And Donovan still maintains he has not received any directive from the front office to change his approach to the season even with the Bulls teetering dangerously close to losing their top-10 protected draft pick.
So for now, Donovan and the Bulls are staying the course. But the next two weeks before the trade deadline could overhaul that approach — for Buzelis’ playing time and the Bulls as a franchise.
