Prior to the Chicago Bulls last home game against the Orlando Magic, head coach Billy Donovan explained why, up until that point, Bulls rookie Matas Buzelis had only accumulated 24 total minutes over the team\u2019s first four games.<\/p>\n
As the Bulls announced, Buzelis has been assigned to the team\u2019s G League affiliate, the Windy City Bulls. Despite the rookie having spent last season with the G League Ignite, the Bulls have foreshadowed the potential for Buzelis to play in Hoffman Estates multiple times during training camp. More recently, Donovan hedged on those comments, clarifying that the organization would do whatever it could to help him develop, even put him in the G League if it came to that.<\/p>\n
The door was always left open.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis idea of taking him and throwing him in there and playing him 25 minutes, I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s the best thing for him,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cHe\u2019s got to understand the league and learn. Some of it may be moving down to the G League.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re totally committed to his development and helping him,\u201d Donovan added. \u201cBut people have to understand, at 19 years old, there\u2019s a huge learning curve for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
A trip to the G League should not be considered a demotion or punishment by any means. This is a chance to learn the game, adapt to the speed of the game and give him more room to learn on the fly than he\u2019s getting with the big team.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you when you\u2019re trying to you\u2019re trying to win, and then you\u2019re trying to develop at the same time, it\u2019s like hard to do those things,\u201d Donovan continued. \u201cBut I also think too, minutes \u2014 without question I\u2019ve said this before \u2014 is part of the development piece for him. But he\u2019s got to earn minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buzelis hasn\u2019t gone beyond nine minutes in any game so far. He was a DNP-CD in the team\u2019s most recent game in Brooklyn and got just four minutes in last week\u2019s game against the Magic.<\/p>\n
This was his main contribution:<\/p>\n
This is not a slight towards Buzelis by any means \u2014 his talent speaks for itself. His combination physical tools, skillset and potential are the most intriguing of any player on the roster and the Bulls, given their current timeline, should be exploring that.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of his development, his growth, is learning how competitively and how hard he needs to play on every possession,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cAnd if he\u2019s playing well, you can kind of extend him some minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The truth is, Buzelis hasn\u2019t earned a larger role. And it\u2019s difficult to do so in limited minutes. But he is far away from being able to contribute at this point, and it is best for him to get some reps with the G League team so he can keep working his way up \u2014 something he vowed to do during training camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m always going to listen to organization,\u201d the Bulls rookie said after his first day of training camp. \u201cSo if they tell me I got to be in the G League, I\u2019m gonna be in the G League. And you know, that\u2019s fine with me, but I\u2019m gonna work my way up to the to the top team of course.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also the playing time element \u2014 other wings like Patrick Williams, Julian Phillips and Dalen Terry are ahead of Buzelis in the rotation. With so many guards in the backcourt, the Bulls have been playing Zach LaVine and Josh Giddey at the small forward spot at times, further complicating Buzelis\u2019 path to minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cRotation wise, for me, it\u2019s trying to get him on the floor with some veteran guys, just where he\u2019s got some stabilizers around him,\u201d Donovan add. \u201cAnd then the other part of it too is you have three guys there at that position. You have Matas, you have Julian, and you got Patrick. And there\u2019s going to be a little bit of level of sacrifice for all those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even if he was being gifted a larger role, the team doesn\u2019t want to overwhelm Buzelis or make him lose confidence due to lack of minutes or lack of production in what few minutes he earns. This is a delicate balance they\u2019ll have to strike \u2014 and an opportunity to have the ball in his hands more in Windy City should help.<\/p>\n
It seems unlikely Buzelis spends too long in Hoffman Estates. Windy City is gearing up for training camp ahead of their season opener on November 8. With two days off between games, maybe Buzelis is back up with the Bulls ahead of Monday\u2019s matchup with the Utah Jazz.<\/p>\n
Either way, I wouldn\u2019t be sounding the alarm bells. The organization is fully committed to his development, and they\u2019re taking action the best way they can to make sure he hits his ceiling.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a great guy, great worker, total team guy,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cHe\u2019s got a lot of skills. But he needs to learn what is going his his identity is going to be as a player.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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