Matas Buzelis Reality Check, Josh Giddey’s Breakout Signs & Bulls Turnover Woes

Matas Buzelis Reality Check, Josh Giddey’s Breakout Signs & Bulls Turnover Woes

One of the messages that Billy Donovan had after the Bulls win against the Pistons was that Modis Buzzales hasn’t arrived yet and there’s still a lot of things that he needs to work on before we can before we can say that he’s arrived. I want to talk a little bit about today. I want to dive deeper into that thought. So, we’re going to start there. Also talk about Josh Giddy and the strength that he found here with the Chicago Bulls that wasn’t OKC and how that’s going to be drastically important for this team this year. And lastly, we’re going to look at my biggest concern for the Chicago Bulls as a team coming out of their win against the Detroit Pistons. We’re going to get to all that and more right after this. What’s going on, Bulls fans? Welcome to another episode of Chicago Bulls Central, your number one spot for everything Chicago Bulls related. I’m the host, Hayes, but more importantly, you guys can follow the channel at Bulls Central Pod on every social media platform we happen to be on. With that said, let’s go and get into this content today, y’all. And uh yeah, I want to I want to talk about the the the quote from Billy Donovan. One of the things Billy Donovan said, and we played the quote on last on yesterday’s episode, was that Modest Booze Ellis has not arrived yet, right? And I I I know that that was kind of met with some, you know, several different responses from Bulls fans, and that’s perfectly fine. And I think that the journey of where Modis Balis is going to get to, the excitement over that journey has sometimes left people to think that we’re already there, right? And I want to be clear, no matter what Modis Baleis does this season, he’s not yet arrived as far as exactly who he can be in this league, right? Modis could average 20 points per game. If he does that in his second year, let’s be clear here, that means that the ceiling for him is still extremely higher. When you factor in his his age, the fact he’s only in his second year, and that’s that’s the that’s the good part of this, right? There were a lot of questions last season about how Billy Donovan managed Mattis Bzelis and Mis has even admitted that he was a little frustrated but then he kind of came to understand why Billy Donovan did it the way that he did it as far as Modis’s minutes last season and that’s good that’s a level of awareness and when you look at Modis and how his growth as as a player is coming I I I think that the the part that this us being in this part sometimes we can forget because again Bulls fans have been we we haven’t had a star that we’ve built homegrown for a while, right? I mean, and I don’t think that that’s unfair to say for anyone, but now you look at, for example, just how he’s growing as a player. And one of the things last season for Modis Bzelis, and a big thing uh for him was he didn’t create for himself. Almost 80% of his buckets were assisted. Now, we have one game of data to go off of. So, I’m going to give you the number just for fairness, but I want to be clear here. It’s one game of data, so take it for what you will. But 71% of his buckets were assisted when the B in the Bullse opener against Detroit. That’s a 9% dip right now. Kobe wasn’t there. Kobe’s gonna have the ball in his hands a little bit more. Those type of things. But I’d say this, the fact that Modis has already shown growth in as a as a as a ball handler in this year, right? Bentley Donovan used him a lot more as uh as far as him creating for himself, trying to take players off the dribble, those type of things. and and that’s an area of his game that is going to continually grow. And as you see that number for for for Modis, right? And I think with as long as he’s on a team with Josh Giddy, that assist number is always gonna that that assisted number, the number of his buckets that are assisted are always going to be a bit higher, right? They’re always going to be a bit higher. And that’s a good thing. It helps put him in a in a space where he is going to, you know, get easier looks because of the gravity of playing with a passer like Josh Giddy and the uptempo system that the Bulls run with. and and that’s going to be an important part of his game, right? I think another part that we’ve talked a lot about here is modest growing in the mid-range. Last season, um you look at him, 3% of his of his shots were in the mid-range. 3% of them were when you had uh 47% being uh at either above the break threes and corner threes. And then when you look at the the other part of it, about 48% of that was um was in the paint or in the restricted area, right? and and and that trend kind of looks like it’s the same. Again, one game of data. We don’t exactly know, but the mid-range percentage went up to 16%. Right? So, more balance that you’re seeing for Modest Melis. Again, one game of data, and I say I say that to highlight this at looking at Modis’s growth, there’s going to be, you know, it’s not always linear. Now, I do think some of the better players in the NBA, it can be very linear where you’re just looking at it and you’re like, “Hey, they went from this to this to this to this as at, you know, over the first three, four seasons, whatever, before they maximized on that.” And that’s going to be perfectly fine. It it is what it is there. But I think when you when you hear people talk about even in Billy Donovan’s quote that we’ve gone back to, I think it just shows the the sign that hey, this kid ceilling is extremely hot. you know, Vovvich also quote on him after the game basically saying that he has the same he said that Modis has the same type of of of composure and the and the mental part that you look at as some of the better players in the NBA. Again, another thing that you want to hear from your young player that that that’s growing on your roster. There’s no doubt that Modis has all the potential in the world and that potential is going to get be great to see and I think getting to watch that journey here in a Chicago Bulls uniform is going to be special and it we haven’t really had somebody that has that type of potential here for he’s 21 years old. He just turned 21 11 days ago, right? That’s how that’s how early we are into who Modis is. There are players that were drafted that are that are older than Modis Buzzales in this past draft, a year after he was drafted. But then when you when you also look and factor in like one of the the the benchmarks that Modis has set for himself has been he wants to win most improved player, right? We’ve talked about it. The last player to win most improved player was uh Monte Ellis in the 2026 27 I’m sorry 20067 season. Imagine 20 years on that. It’s crazy. But then when you look at starting some of the odds, right, DraftKings right now has Manis Bellis listed as the as the fourth highest odds to win most improved player. Uh the people that are in front of him are Amen Thompson, Benedict Matan, Andrew uh Nimhard. And when you look at those players, um especially Amen Thompson, he’s going to be in an amazing place and a role to be in. I I have him pegged as one of the the candidates to win defensive player of the year. Benedict Matan is stepping into, you know, they’re hoping that he’s going to have this huge leap this season for Ben Math with Tyresese Hallebertton being out. He’s in, you know, Ben Math’s in the starting lineup. You know, that Pacers team just pushed the OKC Thunder to overtime last night, which was a great game, uh, where he Ben Math had 36 points, right? the competition for most improved players going to be really interesting this year because you have a number of players that are uh that are into roles that you know they they may be higher up in the pecking order than Modis Balis once you know Kobe’s back and everything goes out but as I’ve said before Modis Balis’s job is to make it right during this stretch where Kobe’s out his job is that when Kobe gets back Billy Donovan and say well hell maybe maybe we maybe 1 a 1B is Kobe and modest with you know Josh Giddy being a player that, you know, is going to still take his shots and still run the offense, but just talk about the scoring priority there. But that’s what you what you have there. You know, Thompson is also one of the top, like I said, as far as uh, you know, defensive player of the year, but that’s it. Dra FanDuel, for example, has uh Josh Giddy actually listed ahead as Mus Bales in the race. They also have a men Thompson, Ben Mathan, Nimhard, Josh Giddy, and then Mus Balis as well as people there. and Buzzelis is actually tied with Dinadvia who I think is gonna have a lot of opportunity as well. Shaden Sharp um you know and they’re both on the Portland Trailblazers also. So this this race for most improved player may have more competition in it than what you really looked at. Like of course you know a couple years ago came down to Tyrese Maxi and Kobe White. That was a fun you know when you look at their how their seasons went. But as Modest grows, I think the thing that we all and I think a lot of Bulls fans see this as well, the ceiling for the Bulls grow, right? Because when you have a player that’s as young as Modis and as versatile as what Modis is, and and and that’s the thing about Modis is that it seems like right now because of all the different things he can do with ball handling and, you know, shooting the three decently in preeason, didn’t make one in the regular season yet, right? um his ability to attack the rim, take players off the dribble, Modus can really fit in just about any type of team makeup. And so as as he grows and the the Bulls become more built around or he’s just factored in more into how they’re building things, it gives you a lot of flexibility with your roster. And that’s that’s how we’re seeing the best teams in the NBA really go right now, right? Is you want flexibility that way if you do need to call an audible, if a player becomes available, it doesn’t become so much a question of fit. right now. You’re still going to have that to a degree with any player in the NBA. Even the most versatile player, you still have to worry about fit to a degree. But but there’s a a wider margin there um as far as fit. And that’s what one of the hopes of Modis Bzelis and what he can become as well for the Bulls is that he’s the type of player that’s like, “Okay, cool. We have this fast uptempo team now, but if Modus grows as a point forward, who’s to say that he can’t handle the ball in the half court and then we can surround him with shooters? Maybe we fill our bench with shooters and three and D wings.” Like those type of things are there. So the hope for Modis is one that we all feel I think is Bulls fans. There’s a there’s a smaller community which I just like I guess I just became aware of like after Modis’ game. There’s like a small portion of Bulls fans that for some reason just don’t believe in Modis Bzelis and I’m still looking at those guys like what what more do you want from this kid? Like it maybe that’s just the old man in me, right? Maybe that’s just what it is. But watching Modest grow right now is is one of the most fun things of the season. Yeah, I have my hopes that the Bulls can be at 500 or above. I hope I have my hopes of that. And that’s rooted in something basketball-wise, right? Yeah, I want to see Noah Essen. Yeah, I want to see Josh Giddy and Kobe be great, right? All those things. But like just the the what Modus offers as far as hope for a franchise that hasn’t had a lot of it is Palpable. And we just got to hope that it’s going to continue to grow because Modis Mousellis is a dog and he has the right mentality. He has the skill set. Now we just got to see him put it together on the basketball court consistently. And uh yeah, that first game left a lot of people excited and people are talking about Mis talking about Modis around the NBA and that usually helps you as well when people take notice of one of your young studs. So let’s see what what goes in that one. But let’s move on from that to Josh Giddy. I want to talk about where Josh Giddy can grow. Like we know that Josh Giddy, he got better as the game went on against the against the Detroit Pistons. There were there were some shaky moments there. It is what it is. It happened. We’re not going to act like it didn’t. But by the end of the game, Josh Giddy still 11 assists. By the way, he created 28 points off those 11 assists to go along with the 19 points that he scored as well, right? So, like again, Josh Giddy showing himself to be hugely responsible and in organizing that Bull’s offense. But when you get into it, he had 11 free throw attempts, right? And I want to talk about that. We I came into the season talking about the importance of Josh Giddy getting to the free throw line. Josh Giddy averaged over three free throw attempts one time in his NBA career and that was last season with the Chicago Bulls where he did that where he averaged 3.2 per game and that was a pretty nice leap for him, right? Um when his time with OKC he never uh he he got there 1.9 times per game, right? That’s the highest that he had in 2022 23. So with Josh Giddy not necessarily being the best shooter. Now I am glad that Josh Giddy’s going to take open threes. We even saw that he went one of two. If you leave him open, he’s going to take it. He’s going to have to make defense as long as he’s hitting him at a decent enough rate, is going to have to make defenses guard him there, right? But the thing that Josh Giddy that has really added and evolved in this game, in his time here in Chicago, is because he has the ball in his hands more is his his driving to the lane. I talked a little bit about this towards the end of last season. Talked a little bit about it in the in the off in the offseason as well. Before last year with Zack Lavine on the team, he averaged 8.9 drives per game, right? He generated 3. uh six points and 4.6 passes off those drives. After the All-Star break, it increased to 16 drives per game. And he got 8 and a half points uh per game doing drives and 7.3 passes. Um and his field goal uh percentage went up four points with with him driving to the balcon more. Uh he so when you look at the 19 point 11 assist game uh and 11 free throws that he had um as well he uh went to the he he he had 14 drives in that game right which is is really good especially when you look at what he’s done for his career but it’s not quite how he finished last season which you know I I don’t really hold him to that. Those were great numbers and the Bulls were playing at a different spot, right? Um but he also had uh two free throw attempts off those drives which I think he’s going to be better than that when it comes down to it. Um but while Giddy Josh Giddy on this team with Modis Bullis stepping up with Kobe White once he gets back with Nicolus still being a big part of this Bulls offense, he’s not going to be the type of player that gets 18, 19, 20 shots per game. That’s just not who he’s going to be as a player, right? which you know it Josh Giddy’s role is not to be there as a scorer and I and I want to be clear here. I’m not saying that Josh Giddy can’t score. I’m saying that Josh Giddy’s role is not to be come in here and be a scorer for the Chicago Bulls. It’s to run the offense. Now that’s going to mean that he is going to still score some for sure. But I think the sweet spot for Josh Giddy is probably going to be between 12 and 15 shots per game. I think that’s going to be the sweet spot for Josh Giddy. Right. But the the thing that you have to get there is getting to the free throw line and that has to be the part that Josh Giddy really has to take pride in. And it seemed like he did last uh last game as well. I do think that there there are times where Josh Giddy creates contact early. And by that I mean when you’re in the paint and in that restricted area, create all the contact you want. Right? There are certain times when Josh Giddy is basically one step in from the free throw line where he tries to draw contact and then goes to these weird kind of awkward off-balance floaters and and and and he doesn’t always get calls in that. I just want to see Josh Giddy kind of eliminate that part. Like if you’re going to take a floater, take a floater. Don’t try to take the contact to take the to take the floater because then that’s going to throw you off. Take the floater or drive it to the lane and then try to get that contact. And that’s going to be the spot where if Josh Giddy can start doing that consistently, that’s going to get him to the free throw line more. That’s going to extend his ranks. That’s going to extend how teams have to play him as well, as well as putting the the the opposing teams in in foul trouble. Right. Josh Giddy’s role for this season that I want to see him, especially while Kobe is out, is Josh Giddy has to play so well that it forces them to put their best wing defender on Josh Giddy because then that’s going to take them off Modis Buzzel. or if they put their best wing defender on Mannis Mousellis, Josh Giddy then is going to have the mismatch with a guard that more than likely he’s going to be bigger than and then you take that player to the paint again, force them to try to to change the way that they defend you. That’s my challenge for Josh Giddy in this season. And like I said, he did a pretty good job at it uh in in um you know, Tuesday’s game. He did a pretty damn good job at it or Wednesday’s game. He did a pretty damn good job at it. and having uh Trey Young out there as an additional ball handler also created that because then when they did um you know press him he still had a really good ball handle and distributor out there which Kobe’s going to be able to do some of that just in a different way when once he’s back but we’ll talk about that once we get closer we got to get through these next five games before we really start talking about how Kobe can come back for this team but that’s where I want to see this see Josh Giddy get to and I think he has the potential to do we’ve seen it right it’s just a little little slight tweaks and I compare it to For my old Bulls fans, right, some will remember that when Tom Tibido took over this team as head coach, one of the things he first did and established what was with Lu Dane and said, “Luo, stop taking those long mid-range shots and just take a step back, take him as a three. That way, if it does go in, which is going to be about the same percentage, you get an additional point.” He he Tom Tibido literally stopped practice one time when Lu Aleng took a long three and was like, “Hold on, this not what we going to do.” And then you saw Lu Aleng have some of his best scoring seasons, right? And and that’s just a little tweak. He just took an additional step back and that was before the the the rise in three-point shooting around the league. Similarly for Josh Giddy, if you’re going to go to the floater, go to the floor. If not, go a couple of steps in before drawing that contact. Make the refs have to look at, oh well, man, we’re in the restricted area. They can’t be touching them anyway, right? Or or take that drive. Don’t settle for putting your shoulder into a player when you’re in still too far out on the perimeter. Take that extra step in, then you draw and feel that contact, right? He’s big enough to do it. He’s strong enough to do it. And that’s just an added wrinkle that can really make Josh Giddy’s game go to the next level. Make scoring a lot easier for him. And that’s really what I want to see. And that’s just in kind of surveying and looking at some things from last season into this year. I think that’ll be a big thing for Josh Giddy. So, let me know what you guys think on that down below. With that said, let’s get into the last topic that I want to get into today. And that is my biggest concern for the Bulls after the Pistons game. And so, I don’t I many people for people that do have Synergy, right? Um, which is a great um website to to kind of break things down, you can go into that and you can look at you can narrow everything down by possessions, right? And so I went and looked at every one of the Bulls possessions that ended in a turnover. And out of the Bulls 17 turnovers, uh, sloppy passes were some of them. Even though if you look at it, the Bulls rank, I have another app as well where you can look at turnovers and you can look at those type of things and you can look at um, you know, by um, what’s rated as a bad pass, right? That that’s what you you look at. You want to look at what’s rated as a bad pass. And even though the Bulls had a number of turnovers, the bad pass rating on that wasn’t as high as what you would think even with the Bulls having quite a bit of um of turnovers in that game and and that’s fine, right? But there were some bad passes there that the Bulls really got to tighten up out of out of so if they can do that that that helps strengthen the game, right? Six of the Bulls 17 turnovers were rated as bad passes. It’s not too bad, right? Uh bad passes are something that you can control, but you you want to get that underway. But when you look at the Chicago Bulls and the turnovers that they gave, and this is something that that that went over to last year as well, the Bulls have to get the turnovers down. Last season, the Utah Jazz averaged the the most turnovers in the league, and they averaged 17.2. The Chicago Bulls had 17 uh turnovers in their first game. You cannot allow that. You can’t allow that. And that’s where it gets to you have to as a team really buy in to limiting those type of things. And I think the Bulls can do it, right? Uh and we allowed 20 points off turnovers to the Detroit Pistons in yesterday’s in in uh Tuesday’s game, right? Was it Tuesday? Wednesday’s game. I I my whole thing is is is off. Um in Wednesday’s game, in the season opener, we’ll say season opener. That’s a that’s that’s a concern because especially when you look at the Bulls having a 23-point lead at one time, you want to limit things that you can control. Now, for what it’s worth as well, the Bulls had 13 points off turnovers themselves. That was a difference of plus seven in favor of the Detroit Pistons, but you don’t want to allow that. Now, the Bulls did dominate in second chance points. We had 16 second chance points to only five for the Detroit Pistons in that game. Good. The Bulls, while being known as a as a quick pace team, the Detroit Pistons actually outscored us in fast break points 19 to7. They had 12 more than us in that. So, they just got to get that stuff together. And this just one of the things to watch out for, especially as the Bulls, now they’re going to be taking on the Orlando Magic coming into the next game in the stretch for the Bulls. You’re facing some pretty solid defensive teams. And if the Bulls can’t get the turnovers together, that’s something that will eventually catch up with them. Um, so that’s just something I want to watch. Uh, the Orlando Magic are good defensive teams. They’re going to get turnovers. The Atlanta Hawks, hell, they got Tyson Daniels. He’s a a takeaway machine by himself, right? They added to kill Alexander Walker. You got to watch out for that in that one. So, these next two games, I really want to see how the Bulls deal with turnovers, how many points off turnovers that they give up before I really start worrying about it too much. But that was one of the biggest concerns for me. Physicality wasn’t a concern. Defense wasn’t really concerned outside of that 15 that that 30 to 15 run we gave up, but I think the Bulls played some pretty solid defense throughout the game was pretty good. Shooting was solid throughout that game as well. So, it’s just that that part of it that I really want to see get better. And you know, a lot of the heavy lifting coming off the bench is going to be done by Kevin Herder and I Dumu, but I think those guys are kind of up to the test. I don’t think they’re always going to combine for 29 points off the bench, but if you can get 20 points, 20 to 25 points off your bench a game, that’s a really good spot for the Bulls to be in. Uh especially with considering that a guy like Trey Jones is going to be in the starting lineup instead of being on your bench, right? And you’re missing Zack Collins as well. If you can hover around that area, I think that’s going to be really smart for the Bulls to be able to do that. But that’s my takeaways. You guys can let me know how you feel down below. Make sure you guys are following us at bull central pod. You can send us any feedback, questions, comments, concerns. Bullropodgmail.com. And lastly, if you want to leave a text message and our voicemail for the mailbag, the number to do so, 773-270-2799. We are the number one spot for everything basketball, for everything Chicago Bulls related. Like I like to end every episode on, go Bulls. Love you guys. See you right if you can, y’all. Peace. This has been a presentation of the break media.

The Chicago Bulls’ young star Matas Buzelis is making waves, but head coach Billy Donovan cautions that he hasn’t “arrived” yet. This episode explores Buzelis’ growth, including his improved ball-handling and mid-range game. Josh Giddy’s impact on the Bulls’ offense is dissected, with a focus on his driving ability and free throw attempts. The analysis delves into the team’s turnover issues in their season opener against the Detroit Pistons, highlighting areas for improvement. Tune in for an in-depth look at the Bulls’ promising start and the key factors that could shape their success this season.

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