If He's Going to Carry the Bulls, Buzelis Has to Learn to Put Himself First

As his teammates filed out of the United Center Tuesday night, Matas Buzelis sat at his locker sorting through a 32-point performance and a 32-point loss at the same time.

The box score screamed progress. The scoreboard said otherwise.

“The shots fell in, but we lost the game so it means nothing,” he said quietly. “We gotta figure out how to win games.”

His inclination to put the team first is endearing. It’s also why the next phase of his development may require something slightly uncomfortable.

Because the next step in his development isn’t a new move. 

It’s a new mindset.

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On the heels of a roughly 90-minute conversation with Billy Donovan at the Advocate Center, Buzelis offered his brightest performance yet in a 131-99 loss to the Charlotte Hornets. 

The timing wasn’t accidental.

“We had a really, really good talk actually [Monday],” said Donovan, whose message to the former 11th-overall pick was more about creation than volume.

“He’s gotta play more off the dribble to be able to score. That’s gonna be the growth for him offensively.”

For the first 138 games of his young career, the developmental guardrails were clear. Play within the flow. Prioritize rim attempts and threes. Don’t drift into midrange comfort. 

Earlier this season, Buzelis recounted a “welcome to the NBA” film session when a baseline pull-up was effectively tossed in the trash.

Now the message is more nuanced.

“You’re never going to go into a game and never take a non-paint two,” Donovan said. “But you can’t live in that as a team.”

The midrange itself isn’t forbidden. Just certain shots, especially the one-legged fadeaway.

Donovan wants craft. He wants shift. He wants manipulation.

“Get a little bit more herky-jerky,” he said. 

The league’s best scorers aren’t just efficient — they’re unpredictable.

“They’re hard to guard because you’re not quite sure what they’re gonna do.”

For stretches Tuesday, Buzelis looked like he was beginning to understand that.

He drove with purpose. He got two feet in the paint. He created separation before rising. The threes came in rhythm. The midrange attempts came after forcing defenders backward, not settling.

It wasn’t perfect. It was exploratory.

Since the trade deadline reshuffled the roster — and, in particular, sent Nikola Vućević to Boston, Ayo Dosunmu to Minnesota and Coby White to Charlotte — the ball has found Buzelis more often.

“I think it’s good for him to go through this,” White said. “The best teacher is experience. So now he has to be one of the go-to guys every single night.”

That’s the shift.

When asked whether off-the-dribble scoring is the next critical step in his development, Buzelis started to answer yes. 

Then he recalibrated.

“I want to win games. That’s what it’s all about.”

It’s how he’s wired.

But he’s the same person who has spoken openly about wanting to win Most Improved Player, about wanting to be coached like an All-Defensive Team player, about chasing the highest standards imaginable. 

The ambition is there. The competitiveness, too. 

But there’s a difference between wanting to be great and consistently playing like it’s your turn to control the game.

Buzelis rarely hijacks possessions. He doesn’t pound the air out of the ball. He doesn’t yet impose himself on an offense the way the league’s primary engines do.

And maybe that’s been appropriate. It isn’t now. 

The leap the Bulls most need Buzelis to take will come from him realizing that his aggression isn’t separate from winning. It may actually be the clearest path toward it.

For a team searching for direction, that realization matters even more than a box score.

The Bulls can’t undo a 10-game losing streak overnight. They can’t snap their fingers and clean up the 149 turnovers they’ve committed over the course of the last eight games. They can’t fast-forward through the growing pains of a reshaped roster.

What they can do is continue handing Buzelis responsibility, and the freedom to explore what comes with it.

Tuesday didn’t alter the course of this season.

But it did hint at a young forward not just reacting to the defense, but beginning to bend it.

If that continues, this stretch of losing may someday be remembered less for the margin and more for the moment the Bulls gave the 21-year-old his creative license.