Article: “Matas Buzelis is becoming unplayable for the Bulls early in his rookie season.” What do we make of this? Why do we think Matas is struggling so much vs NBA players?

47 comments
  1. pippenainteasy is the single most convincing argument I’ve seen on why freedom of the press shouldn’t exist

    but also Matas is one of the lowest floor lotto picks in years and this draft class sucks

  2. He needs to bulk up and in the meantime play in the G league where he can actually work on his game. He’s not able to compete with NBA physicality at the moment. Give him a year or two, I think he’s got a good skillset and mind for the game

  3. I don’t know if he is going to be good or not.. and in normal years, the NBA drafts produces what 30% (maybe?) of players picked become rotation/good NBA players. This past draft class was mentioned by many as one of the worst drafts in recent history.. After saying all of that, it is only been what 8-9 games into the season and Matas is 19 years old was always a developmental high risk high reward type of prospect. We need to chill and let the year play out

  4. We are living and dying by the 3 ball this year, and Matas isn’t quite the shooter just yet. Give it time

  5. He was already struggling in g league. So it’s not really surprising he’s not nba level

  6. He is young and very undeveloped from a strength perspective. Put him in the g-league and have him eat 10k calories per day, then let’s see what we’re looking at next year

  7. Shouldn’t come as a surprise. The NBA is a very, very, very skilled league. Players like Buzelis belong in the G-League or on campus. That’s not an indictment of the pick or the player.  He just turned 20. The actual 20 year olds who step on an NBA court and look like they belong quickly tend to be exceptional prospects. Buzelis is highly gifted, just not exceptional yet.  Worst thing the Bulls can do is kill his confidence early on. Let him run with the WC Bulls and find his groove for the second half of the NBA season.

  8. I mean how exactly is he meant to be useful playing 5 random minutes a game… Nobody would get into a rhythm that way.

    Try giving him 15 minutes for a stretch of games and see how it goes.

  9. WTF are we doing here?! Give him the rock! We lose every game, he gets better, and we draft that Duke kid everyone won’t stop yapping about

  10. I mean it’s not like we’re winning with our starters in so give the kid actual solid minutes. Rome wasn’t built in a day

  11. I mean one it’s 8 games into the season so we can relax on asking if he’s developing. But to answer the question why he struggles, his strengths are things that rely on size and physicality. He is a 20 year old playing against grown men. It will be a year or two before he can actually match them.

    What he needs to do is focus on his weaknesses until they get better. Throw him out there to jack up shots. Even if he has the worst 3% in the league let him get a feel for shooting distances and shooting against NBA defenders. That way he gets better at what he is bad at rather than worse at what he is good at.

  12. I made a post about this right after he was drafted, like every single lottery pick that came out of the G League Ignite has struggled big time, its a terrible program. So its nothing weird that he is struggling early on, it was the same for Kuminga, Jalen Green, Dyson Daniels, Scoot Henderson etc.

  13. I mean it’s multiple things going on. His body isn’t fully NBA-ready yet, it’s impossible to find consistent rhythm playing 4 minutes a game where you’re almost always the 5th option on the court, and being a good off-ball defender but a bad off-ball one, it’s more difficult to be effective defensively without other defensive personnel around you.

    He just needs time and opportunity

  14. He’s a rookie. Rookies usually struggle, and develop as they grow older.

    Remember when Coby White was untradeable because he was so bad?

    >[The rest of the league also knows exactly what White brings to the court, evident by the underwhelming trade packages that were being offered for him leading into the June NBA Draft and free agency.](https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports-saturday/2022/7/30/23285238/future-for-bulls-coby-white-cloudy-into-next-season)

  15. We go down and he gets put in with an unstable back up line up. Bill is putting him in bad spots. He also runs more to the corner and is out of most plays. Need to run baseline back door cuts from Giddey or Lonzo to Matas. Bill never knows how to utilize what we have. He plays this, you guys go do your thing, type of offense that just doesn’t work.

  16. He can’t shoot and isn’t filled out yet for the physicality of the NBA game. I have faith we’ll get him fixed

  17. For all yall saying he was a bad pick, he was projected to be top 6 before injury. He showed hella potential in the summer league and expecting him to make an impact as a rookie playing 5 min is absurd😂😂we aren’t even 20 games into the season

  18. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen it, but I’ve always considered “unplayable” as a player who is too good to play against, in reference to sports anyway. That being said I originate from the UK and watched a lot of football so it might not be an NBA terms.

    Anyway hope Matas gets better, it takes time, probably needs G league reps

  19. He’s gonna be fine. Until he puts on some more muscle and can play the 4, he’s going to get buried in the depth chart as a wing. I’m more interested to see what we get out of guys like Phillips, Pat and Dalen this season. It’s put up or shut up time for those guys. (You could argue that’s been the case for Pat)

  20. He’s unplayable because this franchise is fucking trash and wants to win now. Let the kid fail, learn from mistakes and develop. Stop trying to be the fucking 10 seed it’s embarrassing and insulting

  21. This article is trash. He needs minutes, either in the G league or on the big team. Spending time driving to Hoffman Estates and back doesn’t do anything

  22. I’m not concerned about a 19 year old rookie 4 weeks into the season. . . .

    Let me see him in 100+ nba minutes before I draw any conclusions.

    Also, people on this subreddit swear we should be throwing every single player on the court just because they’re young. Remember how mad this sub was because Simonivic wasn’t getting time?

    Obviously AKME and Billy make some boneheaded fucking decisions, but I think they’re generally pretty good at gauging who is ready to touch an NBA court or not.

  23. Pace of play, he’s a rookie and the Bulls are playing a very fast system. 
    It’ll take him time to develop 

  24. This sub is hilarious.

    “P-Will just needs time”

    “P-Will SUCKS!”

    “P-Will is worth what we paid him”

    “P-Will SUCKS ASS!”

    I get it that we need time for Matas, but it’s amazing anyone thinks we are going to solve this teams issues with him or anyone on this roster and I don’t have faith that the FO will right the ship.

    It’s the same thing as the Cubs. Just gotta be competitive enough to rope people in and get them to pay $20-30/month to watch games, lose out early, keep payroll low for a team in this market, and reap the profits.

    Not sure what anyone thinks is going to happen without change from the top.

  25. Because we don’t allow him to develop by playing his actual game and we just make him a spot up 3pt shooter which he’s struggling with. Modern NBA

  26. Our development staff have always been low tier sadly it’s known for this org and when players leave to other clubs they thrive

  27. He’ll get 20 tonight.
    But seriously. It’s weight room and Coach Patton for Matas. He’ll be fine.

  28. Why? He’s a rookie less than 10 games into his pro career. Since when is it reasonable to expect a first year player to be pro this early? The media really need to be more responsible in what they write about.

  29. G-League Ignite players are taking longer to adjust to the league from what I’ve seen.

    Jalen Green has inconsistency isssues but year 4 now he’s starting to look like the player he was drafted to be

    Kuminga is just not getting is opportunity to start but there were reports that the Warriors organization was split on him iirc (I think he’ll be a good player)

    Scoot Henderson was really bad to start last year like really really bad. It’s early this year but so far his numbers have actually gone down slightly, I don’t think the trend will continue but he hasn’t adjusted well to the league yet.

    Dyson Daniels seems like he’s found his spot in Atl but he struggled initially as well his first few seasons.

    Ron Holland has been good defensively so far.

    Matas will improve but I wouldn’t expect him to just break onto the scene, we’ll probably see a more steady and gradual development for him, if Zach and or Vooch get moved it might open time for him but there shouldn’t be any pressure on him to be good right away and with the teams goals I doubt we see him play much

Leave a Reply