Buzelis Striving for Greatness, While Bulls Wrestle with Status Quo
- Drew Stevens (@Drew_H_Stevens)
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
CHICAGO -- Drunk with emotion as words spilled from his heart shortly after he was drafted, Matas Buzelis told members of the media gathered at the Advocate Center about his intention to someday win a championship for his hometown team.
No one batted an eyelid, but my heart hasn’t stopped bleeding for the Hinsdale native ever since.
Whereas he is nothing if not ambitious, the Chicago Bulls are anything but, content to fill the league’s largest arena with fans who haven’t seen their favorite team advance past the first round of the playoffs since Buzelis was in middle school.
That Michael Reinsdorf decided to give a second round of extensions to executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas and general manager Marc Eversley after three successive play-in tournament losses to the Miami Heat isn’t exactly evidence to the contrary.
Of course, Karnišovas, who's overseen one winning season since he took over five years ago, begged to differ at media day on Monday.
“We’re building a strong foundation that will continue to develop while learning to win together.”
With no premium assets on hand or a market as attractive to wandering eyes as Los Angeles, New York, Golden State, Miami, Phoenix, Houston, Boston, Dallas and Atlanta, Karnišovas continued to peddle internal development to Bulls fans because, well, what else is he going to sell?
To that end, only the Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves underwent less roster turnover this offseason, which is to say Karnišovas re-signed Josh Giddey and Tre Jones, held onto impending unrestricted free agents Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu and, predictably, fooled himself into thinking whatever groundwork he laid in February would pave the way for him to trade Nikola Vučević this summer.
So for all intents and purposes, the team that lost to the team that lost to a team in four games in the first round of the playoffs by an average of 30.5 points is present and accounted for.
"We learned a lot from losing to Miami. The way we couldn't handle the physicality of Miami in that game. I think those are the lessons that they have to take into the season."
Add Isaac Okoro and, maybe, a dash of Noa Essengue to the mix and Vegas sees a recipe for the fifth-worst record in the league.
Clearly, the oddsmakers grossly miscalculated this organization’s commitment to the bit.
After all, Karnišovas didn’t decide to pay Giddey $100 million over the next four years to improve his odds of drafting Cameron Boozer, Nate Ament, A.J. Dybantsa or Darryn Peterson next summer. He did so to ensure the charade of competitiveness continues.
To hell with raising the ceiling, the Bulls just want to maintain the floor.
“We’re gonna focus on winning every game without putting any goals on the team besides getting better and growing together.”
While Karnišovas refused to set a single solitary expectation for this season, Buzelis let it be known he wants to be crowned most improved player.
“My mentality is always to be the best, to help the team win,” Buzelis said. “I always think of it like this: if somebody’s done it, I can do it too; and if nobody’s done it, I’m gonna be the first one to do it.”
And as far as a benchmark for team success goes?
“Win a championship. "That’s the benchmark. For me at least.”