Column: Chicago Bulls rookie Matas Buzelis is ready for his close-up. He credits Billy Donovan's tough love.
The doubts ran through the back of Matas Buzelis' mind early in the Chicago Bulls season.
Artūras Karnišovas' touted first-round pick wasn't getting any minutes and was quickly sent down to the G League for a little fine-tuning. A 20-year-old trying to make a name for himself on the team he grew up watching was suddenly entering a world of uncertainty.
'I was thinking, 'Am I good enough? Can I compete with these guys?'' Buzelis admitted Tuesday after practice on the West Side.
For someone with as much self-confidence as Buzelis, it was a different feeling. But the answer, he soon discovered, was a simple 'yes.' He not only was good enough to compete in the NBA, he could become a vital cog on a young, exciting Bulls team that began to figure things out once Zach LaVine was traded.
Josh Giddey improved, Coby White assumed a leadership role and coach Billy Donovan allowed Matas to be Matas.
The slow rollout is now a thing of the past. Buzelis will get his first chance to show what he can do on a bigger stage Wednesday when the Bulls take on the Miami Heat at the United Center in a do-or-die play-in game.
Buzelis was sent to the Windy City Bulls of the G League after only five games, in which he averaged one point in five minutes and shot 2-for-11 from the field and 0-for-5 on 3-point attempts.
It was just a brief opportunity for Buzelis to get more playing time. But for someone chosen with the No. 11 draft pick, it was a blow to his self-esteem.
'It was tough for me at first, of course,' he said. 'But these challenges come with being successful and being a better basketball player. I didn't take it personally.
'When I went down there, I went down there and proved that I belonged with the (Bulls). It takes a lot of mental focus to go down to the G League … but I adjusted.'
Since becoming a starter in February, Buzelis has averaged 13 points and 4.5 rebounds in 31 games with 34 blocked shots. He isn't the focus of the offense, but he opens the floor and provides defense and rim protection that was missing when LaVine was in the lineup.
This is a different Bulls team than the one that lost to the Heat in the last two play-in tournaments, with White and Nikola Vučević the only core players left from those losses. It's also a team going into the postseason on a hot streak, unlike the last two years.
After an adjustment period with LaVine gone, the Bulls went 15-5 in their last 20 games, with two of those wins coming against the Heat. The Bulls went 12-8 in their last 20 games in 2022-23 and 9-11 last season.
'Matas has really grown,' Donovan said Tuesday. 'It's good to see him grow the way he has. Josh is a new player. He wasn't here last year. Bringing in Kevin (Huerter) and Tre (Jones) and Zach (Collins), they're new. This team is different from any other team. I give them a lot of credit coming out of the All-Star break and trade deadline because we had to incorporate three new players.
'Certainly Alex Caruso and Zach (LaVine) and DeMar (DeRozan), those guys were key contributors to our team. Now, because we are a lot younger, there are opportunities for some new guys.'
Buzelis said he never lost faith in himself or his game, but the early season issues marked his first real experience dealing with failure at the professional level. He credited Donovan for keeping him 'accountable' on every play.
'I remember one play at Golden State, he took me out when (Andrew) Wiggins posted me up and scored,' Buzelis said of a Jan. 23 game in San Francisco. 'It's little stuff like that. He challenges me in practice, and I thank him for that. He's been a huge part of my development and probably the best coach I've ever had.'
Buzelis played only 11 minutes in that 131-106 blowout loss at the Chase Center, but his time was coming. LaVine played his final game for the Bulls on Jan. 27 before leaving for family reasons, then was dealt to Sacramento during a road trip.
When the Bulls returned to the United Center on Feb. 4, Buzelis came off the bench in a 133-124 win over the Heat, scoring 24 points on 10-for-10 shooting. When he sank a 3 in front of the Bulls bench at the end of the first half, Buzelis was mobbed on court by his teammates like he'd won a playoff game.
Donovan inserted Buzelis into the starting lineup after that game, and the rookie began to play with more confidence. Buzelis was always ready for a challenge, Donovan said, and understood that making mistakes was part of the growth process.
'He's starting to see that his talent level is what got him here, but his talent level is not enough to be the individual player he wants to be,' Donovan said. 'He's taken a real serious look, a hard look at himself as it relates to rest and nutrition and hydration, the game plans and watching films and scouting reports. And not having a younger-player mentality, because he's so gifted, of (thinking), 'All I have to do is just show up and it's going to be OK.'
'Early in the year, when he got exposed to a lot of different things, he understood, 'There is a lot more to this than me running and jumping and shooting.' And he's done that.'
Donovan's tough-love approach has paid off.
'You come in and you have to earn their trust,' Buzelis said. 'That's what Billy was doing. He was always on me, and I thank him for that. Every coach I've had has been very difficult, very tough on me. That's what molded me into the player I am. He's always on point with me, and I feel I can always be better. He feels I can too. That's his specialty.'
After he drove past Jimmy Butler on the baseline for a dunk Feb. 8 at the United Center, Buzelis was asked if that was a prime example of his improved playmaking skills. He just laughed.
'You guys don't really know me,' he said. 'I've always had offense. It's funny you think it's new, but I've always had it — all the guard skills and everything.'
The development from sitting on the bench to the G League to gradually increasing minutes to starting and participating in the Slam Dunk Contest has been fun to watch — and a lesson in coaching that doesn't always get noticed when a switch is flipped in a young player's game.
After playing against Buzelis for the first time in late February, Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant was impressed, telling The Bigs that Donovan put him in 'attack, attack, attack' mode and was watching it pay off.
'His team is encouraging him to do that, so playing underneath that is just going to make you a better player,' Durant said. 'Like the rest of Chicago, I'm going to sit back and watch and see what happens from here. I've got high expectations, just like you guys do.'
No matter how the Bulls fare in the play-in tournament, Chicago is ready to sit back and watch what happens to Buzelis in the coming years.
He's ready too.
'I was put into difficult situations when I was growing up, so it's nothing new to me,' he said in early February. 'My mother always emphasized putting me into difficult situations, and now I feel like I've grown into a player who doesn't fear anything and is ready for whatever.'
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