Matas Buzelis will do plenty of good things in the NBA. If passing can be among those things, he’ll unlock an even higher ceiling.

Playmaking for others wasn’t part of Buzelis’ game last season, which is fine. He wasn’t expected to get anyone else involved, as most rookies aren’t! The Bulls were mostly seeing what they have in Buzelis in year one — and from February onward, when Buzelis averaged 13 points per game, it became clear the Bulls have something.

His versatility at 6-foot-10 is astounding. The mix of driving ability and rim protection (he averaged nearly two blocks per 36 minutes) already pop off the screen, and both should only improve with more court time.

But if Buzelis wants to achieve the point forward label that fans were anxious to tag him with before the draft, a facilitation leap will be necessary at some point. Maybe it happens this year! But Buzelis will likely play more off the ball, where he’s already solid, instead of as a facilitator of the offense, which will likely keep his assist numbers down (he averaged exactly 1 per game as a rookie).

Even if that leap doesn’t come this year, that doesn’t mean Buzelis isn’t capable of creating chances for others. His vision is solid, especially on fast breaks; he just hasn’t been tasked with being an offensive hub yet, but that’s likely less because the team doesn’t think he can play that role, and more because his best fit right now is as a play-finishing forward.

What is Matas Buzelis’ playmaking ceiling?

I never like to make declarations about players after one season, so I won’t do that with Buzelis. But I will say that a comparable player to the Bulls forward — Franz Wagner of the Orlando Magic — wasn’t much of a facilitator in his early days, either. And his transition into an offense hub (which he now is for the Magic) didn’t happen overnight. He slowly became a better playmaker, evidenced by his small yearly jump in assists per game, and now he is the point forward that Bulls fans dream of Buzelis one day becoming.

So, the answer to this question right now is “I don’t know.” None of us do! But I do know that a Matas Buzelis who at least brings the threat of high-level passing is a scary proposition, and any improvement in that regard this season will be a positive sign that he has plenty of room to grow as a playmaker.