It started out with a bang when the Chicago Bulls won their first five games for the first time since 1996-97.
Matas Buzelis was on a roll, Nikola Vučević looked like he’d found the fountain of youth, and with a productive bench and the imminent return of injured star Coby White, the future looked much brighter than anyone had anticipated.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBut the season has since turned into a bust, and now the question of who will still be around after February’s trade deadline is being debated ad nauseam.
White and Vučević look like the two most likely departees, and the only one seemingly safe from the trade talk is Buzelis, who is still growing into his role as a starter but lacking the consistency he needs to be a prime-time player.
In last Sunday’s loss to the New Orleans Pelicans, Buzelis took only five shots in 23 1/2 minutes, finishing with 9 points as the Bulls fell for the eighth time in nine games. The Bulls need him to grow up quickly, but they understand that it’s all part of the growth process.
Coach Billy Donovan said he’s seen a lot of growth and development from Buzelis, though he believes some of it doesn’t register on the stat sheet.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“A lot of times you look at the performance or shooting percentage or how many points he scores, but I don’t really look at it that way,” Donovan said before Wednesday’s game at the United Center against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“He’s doing a lot more this year with the ball in his hands than he did a year ago, and is having to guard a totally different player, going against much, much better players guarding him than a year ago. Those are growth opportunities for him.”
Buzelis just turned 21 in October and only began getting minutes about halfway into his rookie season, following the trade of Zach LaVine. This is his first full season as a starter, and it’s not fair to judge him on the first 25 games.
But if the Bulls want fans to look at Buzelis as a core player who will lead the rebuild, he’ll need to become a more productive scorer and improve on his 3-point shooting, along with getting better on defense.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementEntering Wednesday, he was averaging 13.6 points per game and shooting 32.4% from beyond the arc, despite taking the second-most 3 attempts (36-of-111) on the team behind Vučević (44-of-116). The Bulls are tied with the Cavs for 20th in 3-pointing shooting and 26th in points per game, so he’s obviously not the only one who needs to step up.
And perhaps Bulls fans may have gotten too excited over his 27-point night against the Sacramento Kings in the fourth game of the season, when the team was still riding its early-season wave. LaVine basically passed him the torch, saying: “Matas, this is just the trajectory he’s going to be on. The athleticism and the mindset were already there.”
But he’s been up and down since, and over his last 11 games entering Wednesday, Buzelis was shooting 22.4% from 3-point range and averaging 12.2 points.
Donovan isn’t concerned about Buzelis’s confidence, which has never waned.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“I think he’s handled things very, very well because of what’s been thrown at him, and there’s been a lot thrown at him,” Donovan said.
The ability to fight through the struggles is nothing new for a young NBA player, even for first-round draft picks like Buzelis, who came in with the label “project,” like so many of executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas’s first-rounders.
Related Articles
Las Vegas and Seattle are the front-runners if NBA expansion to 32 teams happens
Is it time for the Chicago Bulls to move Coby White? Is there still a market for Nikola Vučević?
Chicago basketball report: Angel Reese on ‘young and turnt’ Team USA — and Bulls’ numbers tell a bleak story
3 takeaways from the Chicago Bulls’ latest loss, including dueling bigs and a quiet night from Matas Buzelis
Could Nikola Vučević lose his starting job with the struggling Chicago Bulls? ‘We all have a part in this.’
Donovan compared Buzelis’s up-and-down start to the beginning of Joakim Noah’s college career at Florida, when Donovan was Noah’s coach.
“I saw Joakim Noah go through an amazing and incredible struggle his freshman year — really, really rough,” Donovan said. “And I’ve never seen a player go through that and then come back the next year and go from where he was as a freshman to maybe being the No. 1 player in the draft (before) electing to come back.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement”It’s definitely about these (learning) experiences. I’ve said this for him before the season started — it’s going to be this (way) for him. It’s just him. To me, it’s all how he internalizes it and comes out of it. If he doesn’t come out of this better, then (the struggles) were for nothing.”
Donovan said Buzelis is a smart player and looks at things the right way, which is what matters most. Last year, Buzelis was averaging 5.3 points per game over his first 25 games and playing only 13 minutes off the bench as Donovan treated him with kid gloves.
One year later, the Bulls need Buzelis to grow up in a hurry or else face the likelihood of a long and grueling rebuild.
“I always say there’s a bull’s-eye on the problem, and you have to really address it,” Donovan said. “If you can address the problem correctly, you can really grow from that, and I do feel from my conversations he’s really internalizing a lot of stuff … It’s a lot for him, and I give him a lot of credit for what he’s had to handle these first 25 games, and he probably realizes how hard it is from where he was a year ago to where he is now.”
AdvertisementAdvertisement
