Matas Buzelis loves to dunk.
This might seem obvious. Most NBA players can dunk and most like to do it. But in his first three NBA Summer League games in Las Vegas, the Chicago Bulls’ first-round draft pick showed he’s in a slightly different class.
Buzelis always is looking at the rim and needs little provocation to launch. Contact is welcome — invited, even. His elevation and wingspan do plenty of the work, but Buzelis finishes with an angry edge honed by a year of playing against professionals with the ill-fated G League Ignite team.
Matas Buzelis RISES UP for the and-1 POSTER
He's up to 25 PTS in #NBA2KSummerLeague action on ESPN2! pic.twitter.com/ZngqLsxeoR
— NBA (@NBA) July 15, 2024
And he doesn’t want it to be casual or coy. Buzelis wants to flex. He wants to shout. He wants to stare down an opponent for a few seconds too long. It’s personal. It’s mean. And it’s the kind of thing that can make a 19-year-old rookie feel a little bit electrifying.
By no means is dunking the biggest need for the Bulls. It’s not even the most important tool in Buzelis’ skill set. But the way the No. 11 pick meets opponents at the rim captures something intangible he will bring to the roster: a lack of reservation paired with a hunger to challenge opponents head on.
“My dad always told me to be humble, but I feel like I work harder than anybody in this draft class,” Buzelis said Tuesday in an interview with HoopsHype. “That’s where the confidence comes from. I’m not one of those guys that just talks for no reason. I really work hard on my game, so that’s why I’m confident in my abilities.”
Buzelis backs up that braggadocio with a team-first focus. Ask him any myriad of basketball-related questions and his answer inevitably winds up in the same place: “I want to win.”
But it’s clear he won’t be content with a return to the G League this season. Buzelis is using his summer-league outings to make the case for a spot on the Bulls. Is he ready for it?
He put on a promising performance in his first three games in Las Vegas, displaying athleticism and aggressiveness while averaging 20.3 points, five rebounds, two blocks and 1.3 steals.
While he’s most comfortable floating above the rim with his arm pulled back for a hammer dunk, Buzelis has showed flashes of potential in other areas. He reads the court with a notable intelligence, especially when the ball isn’t in his hands, allowing him to chase down rebounds and excel in put-back scoring opportunities.
His flashes of on-ball creativity might be the most intriguing part of Buzelis’ performance in Las Vegas so far.
Sometimes he is too eager to drive into traffic, resulting in fumbling shots that are blocked or wildly ricocheting misses. Other times he dashes between defenders to get to the rim. In all of these, however, he shows a clear vision for how he likes to put pressure on defenses.
The rough edges still need to be smoothed down. Buzelis must work on his 3-point shot. He makes plenty of poor decisions with the ball, limiting his efficiency as a creator.
And despite collecting a handful of blocks and steals, his summer-league showing reflects a need to develop his defense. But these are the same areas of improvement the Bulls cited when they drafted him.
It makes sense that Buzelis looks comfortable in summer league. This is relatively the same level of competition he faced in the G League last season, albeit missing some of the more veteran talent that cycles through the supplementary league.
And that makes it difficult to fully assess these early outings. Does he look better than some of his rookie peers — more confident, slightly more efficient — because of talent? Or is he just in his comfort zone?
Summer league is one thing. The NBA is another. And Buzelis will have to test how well he can fare in the air with the league’s grown veterans — a challenge he’ll gladly welcome this fall.