It’s not hard to discern what makes rookie Matas Buzelis stand out on the Chicago Bulls.
All it takes is a little bit of space around the basket.
“He’s the most athletic guy on our team,” guard Ayo Dosunmu said after the second day of training camp on Wednesday. “I could just have him come out here and dunk right now and you’d be like, ‘Oh my god.’ That’s just a God-given talent.”
Dosunmu ceded that Zach LaVine — a two-time NBA dunk contest champion — is excluded from any debates over athleticism. But the compliment still stood.
Buzelis is unflinchingly aggressive, a characteristic that has been absent at times for the Bulls in recent seasons. He wants to get to the rim. That’s been fairly obvious since he made his intermediate debut for the Bulls in the NBA Summer League, where he showed a healthy appetite for hunting down bigger opponents and crushing ferocious dunks on their heads.
For coach Billy Donovan, however, there needs to be more to Buzelis’ rookie year than flashy highlights above the rim.
“How many times is that going to happen?” Donovan said. “Probably not a whole lot. But he’s going to be on defense a whole lot.”
Donovan voiced enthusiasm about aspects of Buzelis’ game — his ability to run in transition, interior rim protection, always-running motor and eagerness to learn. But he also gave Buzelis a description unsurprising for a 19-year-old: very, very raw.
Buzelis, who grew up in Hinsdale, embraces that as the only teenager on the Bulls training camp roster.
“I’m not the best — like, I’m a rookie,” Buzelis said. “I’m not going to be taking over the team right away, but I’m working.”
For Buzelis, the key to the rookie season is finding an identity on the roster.
That works in the G-League and, to an extent, in the Summer League. But the NBA is a different monster. Defenders are a little bigger and they move a little quicker. In early scrimmages with the Bulls, Buzelis often found himself stuck, struggling to pass out of a jam after failing to reach the rim on a drive.
All of this is standard for a rookie. Donovan isn’t concerned about Buzelis hitting roadblocks on the way to the rim. But the next step is developing his counters — taking more 3s to force defenders to rush him more earnestly at the perimeter, spraying the ball back out when he’s thwarted on a drive.
“Everybody can see the athleticism,” Donovan said. “I think he’s got to find a game for himself.”
While Buzelis has a focus for his rookie season, his roadmap isn’t entirely clear to earn consistent playing time.
The Bulls will be juggling a packed backcourt this season with the addition of Josh Giddey and the return of Lonzo Ball. In past years, the Bulls opted to keep rookies like Julian Phillips and Dalen Terry with the first team for the majority of the season to instill professional habits such as game preparation into their draft picks.
With Terry and Phillips bunching up the long line of players looking for a spot in the rotation, Donovan has expressed a willingness to send Buzelis to the Windy City Bulls for some G-League action this season. This would slightly stall Buzelis, who already spent a year in the G-League with the Ignite program before declaring for the draft.
Donovan emphasized on Tuesday that the G-League will only be utilized if Buzelis needs to increase his minutes load. But regardless, Buzelis said he’s unfazed by the idea of returning to the G-League — the rookie just wants to play.
“I’m always going to listen to the organization,” Buzelis said. “So if they tell me I got to be in the G-League, I’m gonna be in the G-League. That’s fine with me. But I’m gonna work my way up to the top team.”
