Matas Buzelis needed to do less.
He felt it within the first month of the season. In his first season with the Chicago Bulls, Buzelis became accustomed to lengthy game days. He typically arrived at the United Center or a road arena at 3 p.m., barely three hours after the team bus returned to the hotel from morning shootaround. His pregame rituals took four hours.
That worked for a 20-year-old rookie still trying to inch his way into the rotation. But this season — as a starter averaging 28.3 minutes per game — those extra hours on the court took their toll. Even the Bulls player development staff began to urge Buzelis to slow things down.
So midway through November, Buzelis popped into the office of coach Billy Donovan to fix his pregame routine. The pair took the problem to Donovan’s whiteboard, writing out each step of Buzelis’ game-day ritual.
Donovan suggested that Buzelis arrive at the arena at 5 p.m. — two hours before tipoff — like the rest of the starting group. He cut out pregame sprints and drills that might weigh his legs down in the fourth quarter, streamlining the schedule to focus mainly on shooting.
It wasn’t a long or particularly life-changing meeting. But those minutes spent tweaking the forward’s routine reflected a belief held by both Donovan and Buzelis — every aspect of an athlete’s day can be perfected with the right attention.
“I’m trying to learn every day,” Buzelis said. “Every day you have a chance to learn something new. That’s what I’m trying to do. That’s part of basketball. Life, even. How to control on the court, how to control off the court. It all means something. That’s how you build a consistent life.”
Buzelis always has been a guy who didn’t want to take a single day off. He knows this isn’t realistic. From a young age, his father, Aidas — a former physiotherapist for the Lithuanian national team — drilled him on the importance of rest and recovery. But Buzelis can’t help it. He never wants to go a day without playing basketball.
He’s working on it. On an off day Sunday in Orlando, Fla., Buzelis tried to unplug. He took a nap, wandered around the hotel, threw on a movie in his room while eating lunch.
It worked well enough. For a bit. But sooner or later, his mind drifted back to basketball. The latest film session detailing the mistakes of the last three losses on the road. Highlights from the games he missed while on the court himself. Questions about his progression. Am I making the right reads on offense? How am I going to elevate as a defender? When am I going to make the next jump?
Bulls forward Matas Buzelis (14) is fouled by Pistons forward Tobias Harris during the first quarter of the home opener Oct. 22, 2025, at the United Center. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)
Things still haven’t clicked fully into place for Buzelis. Not quite. His rookie season was a success — despite barely playing before January, he ultimately won a starting role and earned a Second Team All-Rookie nod in the process.
This year came with heftier responsibilities. Buzelis is the X factor in an otherwise aimless season for the Bulls. Whether they were riding high from a 5-0 start or mired in a 1-5 slump entering Wednesday’s home game against the Brooklyn Nets, the general outlook for remained the same: This team’s ability to compete in the Eastern Conference will depend on how much (and how quickly) Buzelis grows.
Buzelis is still waiting to reach that next level. He averaged 13.6 points, 4.5 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.5 blocks in his first 20 games this season — almost identical numbers from his 31 starts in the final stretch of his rookie year.
It’s nothing to worry about. Yet. The kid still looks solid as he adapts to his role as one of the top players on the Bulls roster. And as he balances his eagerness to grow into a star, Buzelis still believes patience is his greatest strength in Year 2.
“I know it will happen,” Buzelis told the Tribune. “I don’t know when, but I know how. It will happen.”
It’s easy to get the wrong read on Buzelis.
On the surface, the 21-year-old might seem almost concerningly carefree, a common pitfall for players his age. He carries himself with an affable goofiness, skips and sashays through TikTok dances, terrorizes teammates during their walk-off interviews on CHSN. But this easygoing veneer obscures a vein of intense self-awareness.
Buzelis is serious about being an NBA player. He devotes significant thought to his habits, to his relationship with the media. Some players struggle with the foundational basics of diet and rest in their first handful of NBA seasons. (Queue up the oft-repeated story of Patrick Williams eating a whole plate of chicken parmesan barely an hour before a game as a rookie.) Not Buzelis, who spent most of the last year choking down protein shakes in an effort to add muscle to his slender frame.
None of it is perfect. Buzelis is still prone to frustration and mistakes and moments of detached attention. Still, it’s this meticulous interest in his weaknesses that made a strong impression on Donovan from his early weeks working with the forward.
Bulls forward Matas Buzelis goes up for a dunk during a preseason game against the Timberwolves on Oct. 16, 2025, at the United Center. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)
This is why Donovan never has been concerned about leaning into Buzelis after every mistake. Sure, the kid can practically jump over the basketball hoop. But Donovan wants Buzelis to be more than his talent. More than the brush-your-chin-on-the-rim, whip-the-ball-in-a-windmill, flex-for-the-camera dunks. More than the emphatic blocks and full-court sprints that often get clipped together in any Buzelis highlight reel.
“You have to understand that your talent is being neutralized,” Donovan said. “They’re all good players up here. And he’s really talented — I’m not saying that he’s not — but what you don’t want to do is have your talent be your curse.”
Buzelis is at his best when he cuts without the ball in his hands, but it’s a challenge at times to assert that strength in the blueprint of the Bulls offense. His 3-point-shooting efficiency dropped with a higher volume as a starter, averaging 34.4% on 4.7 attempts per game. His handles have improved, but not enough to dodge past the league’s best perimeter defenders with consistency.
Fans might want him to shoot more 3s or take more defenders off the dribble. But Buzelis is wary about forcing bad shots or learning bad habits. He also knows Donovan won’t hesitate to yank him off the court over an ill-advised decision. This is a careful dynamic the coach battles to maintain — encouraging Buzelis to be himself while enforcing strict expectations.
Buzelis gets it. He doesn’t want to be defined as a dunker or an athlete. His greatest goal is to be known as a hooper — pure, through and through — a designation that will come only with a complete game on both sides of the ball. But even on defense, he’s still learning not to chase the highlights.
Buzelis leads the Bulls in blocks — already logging 30 on the season, the 10th-most in the league and fifth-most for a non-center. But Donovan wants him to readjust his perception of rim protection, shifting focus toward deflecting and affecting shots rather than always going for the knockout punch.
Bulls forward Matas Buzelis dunks the ball during a preseason game against the Timberwolves on Oct. 16, 2025, at the United Center. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)
“The highlights just come,” Buzelis said. “Obviously I’m God-gifted with athleticism, so that’s just going to come naturally. But it’s the little things you’ve got to see — the charges, being in the fill, communicating on defense. But I’m also a basketball player. I know how to play the game. I don’t need much flashiness.”
In the early minutes of Monday’s second quarter against the Orlando Magic, Buzelis looked a little lost.
This still happens more often than he would like. Sometimes, Buzelis gets stuck on the pace of the game, watching the current pass him by rather than dictating his own game flow. In November, he went on a seven-game streak of scoring 13 points or fewer. And for a brief stretch of Sunday’s game in Orlando, Buzelis found himself caught up again.
Nikola Vučević noticed. So as the Bulls settled into their half-court offense, the center cleared out to the corner, threading his fingers together above his head before jerking his arms outward to simulate cracking an egg open. It wasn’t a formal play call. Vučević describes it more as a safety valve, a mechanism to open up the floor and encourage a player to call his own shot.
As Buzelis gathered the ball at the top of the key, Vučević’s eyes flashed between the forward and the yawning canyon of space directly in front of the rim, beaming a wordless message to the younger player: The paint is open. Go do your thing.
Buzelis didn’t need much encouragement. The forward sprang into his drive, tucking his shoulder into Tristan Da Silva and leveraging his off-arm to carve a tightrope trajectory toward the low block. His first step was just quick enough to trap the Brazilian on his hip, his reach just lengthy enough to scoop the ball over his defender’s arms.
The ball snapped through the net. The whistle blew to signal an and-one foul. In the corner, Vučević pumped his fist. And as the pair’s paths crossed on their way back to the other rim, the center slapped his palm on Buzelis’ chest in another silent reassurance: That’s it. Now do it again.
“He can do those things,” Vučević said. “All of it, he can do. It’s just a matter of how we get him there.”
The offensive side of the game has been hard this season. If Buzelis thinks about it, that might be an understatement. The forward cites how he routinely receives the toughest defender — or the second-best, depending if Coby White is on the court — an opponent can offer. Teams know how to scheme against Buzelis, employing the worst of their length and strength to keep him uncomfortable around the rim.
Buzelis expected this adjustment. And some nights, he figures it out — like in Orlando, where he had 21 points and four assists without turning the ball over once. But Buzelis is still figuring out how to crack the newfound attention of becoming an NBA starter.
“It’s crazy,” Buzelis said. “But that’s what comes with it and that’s how I’m going to grow. If you don’t have an X on your back, how will you get better?”
In his second season, Buzelis is defined by his fixation on consistency. It’s why he nitpicks his routine. It’s why he regularly seeks out advice from mental coaches and veterans around the league. And — Buzelis believes — it’s why he will be great. One day.
Buzelis just needs that one day to come. He’s not idle. He’s following the plan. And even on the off nights, he believes — has to believe — that this diligence will be rewarded.
“Waiting is the right word to use,” Buzelis said. “It’s all just part of the process. No one can predict it. There’s always going to be ups and downs. You’re not always going to shine in the limelight. But you continue to work, you continue to get better. That’s what I’m doing.”