One play in Wednesday\u2019s loss encapsulated what makes Matas Buzelis so tantalizing.<\/p>\n
In the third quarter, the second-year Bulls forward blocked Pistons forward Paul Reed\u2019s shot and chased down a quick outlet pass from guard Tre Jones to the right corner. After he corralled the pass, Buzelis quickly set his feet behind the three-point line and knocked down a three-pointer.<\/p>\n
Buzelis possesses immense two-way potential, which is partly why coach Billy Donovan brought him along incrementally last season.<\/p>\n
While there\u2019s more on the bone with Buzelis\u2019 offensive game, his defense improvement has been impressive. That end of the floor is one of the hardest for young players to grasp with the speed and complexity of nBA schemes. It can take a while to acclimate to the speed and athleticism of NBA players.<\/p>\n
After taking his lumps as a rookie, Buzelis\u2019 defensive awareness is starting to catch up to his athletic gifts, which is especially seen when he\u2019s the low man in pick-and-roll coverage. He tied a career-high in blocks (4) on Wednesday. He entered Thursday in the 100th percentile in block percentage (2.4).<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s seeing it happen before it\u2019s happening, and he\u2019s pulling in [and] putting himself in a position to make those plays,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cThat\u2019s probably been the biggest growth I\u2019ve seen in him so far. Defensively, there are times where we talked about some of the isolation stuff, where he gets overwhelmed physically, which he\u2019ll get better at. But the one thing about his shot-blocking is he can\u2019t be there to shot block if he\u2019s not there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Donovan wanted Buzelis to grasp the less glamorous aspects of the NBA game \u2014 boxing out, running the floor hard \u2014 before assuming a major offensive role.<\/p>\n
After one shootaround, Buzelis practiced post defense, a testament to becoming a well-rounded, two-way player. After Buzelis has taken on a larger offensive load after injuries to Josh Giddey and Coby White, Donovan said that Buzelis is playing more decisively, but that there\u2019s even more offensive responsibility he can assume.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs great as [Bulls guard Tre Jones] is at taking care of the ball, and as just an [assist-to-turnover ratio] guy. And I think as much as [guard Ayo Dosunmu] has improved, there are times with their size, with coverages that are aggressive, them seeing over, you know, or around coverages, right? Matas can do that for us.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got the size where, if it is an aggressive coverage, he has the ability to kind of see it and throw it over the top a little bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n
White returns<\/p>\n
Guard Coby White (right calf management) returned to the lineup after missing the front end of a back-to-back against the Pistons on Wednesday. Donovan said that White\u2019s minutes restriction would remain in the 24-26 minute range.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything coming out of the last game was totally fine,\u201d Donovan said of White. \u201cThere [were] no setbacks in his workouts and things that he was doing. [The medical staff] is going to try to slowly start to move [White\u2019s minutes] up, hopefully relatively soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Injury report<\/p>\n
Guard Kevin Huerter missed Thursday\u2019s game with back tightness. Donovan said he felt the injury during Wednesday\u2019s game, and it didn\u2019t improve after the game or this morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One play in Wednesday\u2019s loss encapsulated what makes Matas Buzelis so tantalizing. In the third quarter, the second-year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3773],"tags":[7,296,188,3860,6,297],"class_list":{"0":"post-526246","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-pistons","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-detroit","10":"tag-detroit-pistons","11":"tag-detroitpistons","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-pistons"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115862754201283978","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526246","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=526246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}