{"id":225419,"date":"2025-08-12T00:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T00:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/225419\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T00:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T00:56:10","slug":"central-notes-hunter-langdon-buzelis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/225419\/","title":{"rendered":"Central Notes: Hunter, Langdon, Buzelis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/huntede01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-11_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">De\u2019Andre Hunter<\/a> started on a regular basis during his first five seasons in the league with the Hawks. In 64 combined games with Atlanta and the Cavaliers last season, he started just nine games in 64 games.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cleveland.com\/cavs\/2025\/08\/should-the-cavs-move-deandre-hunter-into-the-starting-lineup-hey-chris.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Cleveland.com\u2019s Chris Fedor<\/a> argues that Cleveland should keep Hunter in a reserve role (subscription required). He notes that with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jeromty01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-11_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ty Jerome<\/a> signing with Memphis, the Cavaliers need another high-scoring sixth man. Hunter is the most logical candidate \u2014 he averaged 17 points in 27.2 minutes per game last season.<\/p>\n<p>Hunter is probably more talented than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/strusma01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-11_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Max Strus<\/a>, the other candidate to start at small forward, but Hunter is not the best stylistic fit with the starting five, Fedor opines. The Cavs beat writer also points out that Hunter is comfortable coming off the bench, as he receives more freedom and has an expanded offensive role.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s more from the Central Division:<\/p>\n<p>In his second season as the Pistons\u2019 president of basketball operations, Trajan Langdon has continued to make personnel decisions with the desire to keep his options open for future moves, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/pistons\/news\/on-optionality-and-how-langdons-patience-plays-to-the-pistons-benefit\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Pistons.com\u2019s Keith Langlois<\/a> writes. Langdon added <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/robindu01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-11_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Duncan Robinson<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/l\/leverca01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-11_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Caris LeVert<\/a> to fortify his bench without sacrificing future flexibility and it\u2019s likely that he\u2019ll only reach rookie scale extensions agreements with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/i\/iveyja01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-11_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jaden Ivey<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/durenja01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-11_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jalen Duren<\/a> before the October deadline if the contract numbers match their on-court contributions.<br \/>\nBy all accounts, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/buzelma01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-11_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Matas Buzelis<\/a> wants to be a special player and is doing what is necessary to reach that status, according to <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/chicago.suntimes.com\/bulls\/2025\/08\/10\/eyes-matas-buzelis-ceiling-remains-sky-high-for-the-forward\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun Times<\/a> writes. With contract issues surrounding <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/whiteco01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-11_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Coby White<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/giddejo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-11_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Josh Giddey<\/a>, the second-year Bulls forward has become the most important player on the roster. After averaging 22.5 points and five rebounds in two Summer League contests, Buzelis has been busy in the weight room and on the court, looking to expand his game.<br \/>\nFormer Magic guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/anthoco01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-11_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Cole Anthony<\/a> spoke about his excitement to join the Bucks. Get the details <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hoopsrumors.com\/2025\/08\/anthony-excited-to-play-for-bucks-after-bittersweet-departure-from-orlando.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"De\u2019Andre Hunter started on a regular basis during his first five seasons in the league with the Hawks.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3772],"tags":[7,3882,306,305,193,3846,963,406,1219,4958,1018,912,965,973,872,6,6244],"class_list":{"0":"post-225419","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-cavaliers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-caris-levert","10":"tag-cavaliers","11":"tag-cleveland","12":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","13":"tag-clevelandcavaliers","14":"tag-coby-white","15":"tag-cole-anthony","16":"tag-deandre-hunter","17":"tag-duncan-robinson","18":"tag-jaden-ivey","19":"tag-jalen-duren","20":"tag-josh-giddey","21":"tag-matas-buzelis","22":"tag-max-strus","23":"tag-nba","24":"tag-trajan-langdon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115013077321536315","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}