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With six games left in the regular season, the NBA Rookie of the Year Award is out of reach for Bulls forward Matas Buzelis \u2014 unlike a lot of things, given his 6-10 wingspan.<\/p>\n
However, through the combination of becoming a starter this past winter, then getting more shooting opportunities after veteran scorer Zach LaVine was traded to the Kings on Feb. 3, Buzelis has done enough to arguably make the All-Rookie First Team in what surely will be a close decision.<\/p>\n
The shoo-in selections \u2014 Spurs guard Stephon Castle, Wizards forward\/center Alex Sarr and Hawks guard\/forward Zaccharie Risacher \u2014 have been more consistent throughout the season. But Buzelis, who dropped 31 points on the Lakers on March 22 and 28 points on the Mavericks a week later, has been the most impressive rookie the last few months.<\/p>\n
Since LaVine was traded, Buzelis is tied for fourth in scoring among rookies with 13.1 points per game, shooting 48% from the field and 34.1% from three-point range. Since mid-March, he\u2019s averaging 14.6 points per game, and his three-point shooting has jumped to 43.8% as he\u2019s taking smarter shots and making better decisions overall.<\/p>\n
\u201cShots are going to go in,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re not going to hit all the time, but the one thing you can control is how hard you play. I\u2019m always going to do that when I\u2019m on the court.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just reading the game when I\u2019m out there. I\u2019m not overthinking it. It\u2019s a very simple game.\u201d<\/p>\n
That wasn\u2019t necessarily the case early in the season, when Buzelis, the 11th overall pick of 2024, was in and out of the rotation, getting quick hooks and learning from coach Billy Donovan that his minutes are a reward and shouldn\u2019t be expected.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything for him is a first, and the one thing we\u2019ve tried to maintain a focus on is what he can control,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cHis intensity, his energy, his competitiveness, his toughness \u2014 those are the things he\u2019s got to bring every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the most part, Buzelis has been doing that since the Bulls\u2019 two-game Florida trip in early March in which the Magic and Heat tested his physicality and toughness. He cracked double digits in scoring in both of those wins, but what stood out to his teammates and Donovan was how he went toe-to-toe \u2014 mostly not budging \u2014 with frontcourt players who like to throw elbows and forearms. He has largely kept up that physical approach since, and on possessions where he hasn\u2019t, Donovan has reminded him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to hold him to because he\u2019s very talented \u2014 no one is going to dispute that \u2014 but if he\u2019s not going to play with a great motor, great energy, great intensity, sometimes that talent gets neutralized, quite honestly,\u201d Donovan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s things he\u2019s going through for the first time, and it\u2019s learning experiences, so you don\u2019t want to overload him so much on offense and defense where he\u2019s out there thinking. You want to try and keep it to a point where he knows what\u2019s expected of him. I think when he\u2019s fallen short of that, which we all do, he\u2019s been great to learn from it, grow from it and try to get better from it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
He will undoubtedly fall short for the Rookie of the Year award, but Buzelis has shown since the Zach LaVine trade in early February that he is a top-five talent in the 2024 rookie class.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":49715,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"yoast_head":"\n