such as DeMar DeRozan<\/a>.<\/p>\nBuzelis took only 19 non-paint, 2-point shots last season. (He took 17 as a rookie despite taking 408 fewer total shots.) Midrange shots accounted for 161 of his 963 shots (16.8%). In many ways, that was a healthy shot selection for a young player still learning to locate his spots on the court. But Buzelis feels the balance swung too far from his preferred shot in the heart of the half-court.<\/p>\n
Coach Tiago Splitter isn\u2019t ruling out the midrange shot for Buzelis just yet. But he also doesn\u2019t want Buzelis to shy away from the arc, an area where the Bulls need to vastly improve to keep up with the high-octane offenses of the NBA.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like good 3s,\u201d Splitter said. \u201cIf he\u2019s forcing 3s, that\u2019s not a good thing. I also don\u2019t think he cannot shoot midrange. That\u2019s not how I see it. But sometimes the midrange is a bad shot for that specific play. We\u2019re just going to be smart. He\u2019s overthinking it a little bit. Just play basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n
One thing is for certain: The Bulls need Buzelis to shoot more. He averaged the sixth-most attempts on the team last season, lagging behind both fellow offensive leaders such as Josh Giddey and midseason acquisitions such as Collin Sexton. If Buzelis is going to thrive in this rebuild, he needs to assert himself in the offense through shot-taking.<\/p>\n
Splitter doesn\u2019t believe in a set formula for selecting those shots. He wants Buzelis to improve his strength so he can finish through contact at the rim without relying on dunks. He also wants Buzelis to learn how to read close-outs so he can more efficiently move through all three levels rather than forcing shots behind the arc or in the midrange.<\/p>\n
Each of these improvements reflects a wider area of growth \u2014 an overall improvement in Buzelis\u2019 discernment.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes midrange is the best shot you take in a possession, but that\u2019s not necessarily the best PPP (points per possession) that you want to take in a game,\u201d Splitter said. \u201cIn general, layups, fouls, corner 3s, catch-and-shoot 3s \u2014 those are the best.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut sometimes you might have to take a pull-up 3 or a pull-up 2, so it\u2019s hard. You\u2019ve got to read every play and then make a decision of what\u2019s a good shot, what\u2019s a bad shot.\u201d<\/p>\n
This understanding of what defines a good or bad shot created a push-pull dynamic the last two years between Buzelis and Donovan\u2019s coaching staff. Buzelis wanted to take more midrange pull-up jumpers. Donovan wanted to work that tendency out of a young player with other options. Despite the pair\u2019s strong relationship, they never fully saw eye to eye on the issue.<\/p>\n
Splitter shrugged off this dynamic. It doesn\u2019t affect him, in his view, because he wasn\u2019t here last season. He needs to build his own relationship with Buzelis, one in which the forward can trust himself on the court.<\/p>\n
And for his part, Buzelis believes this could translate into a more diverse shot selection in Year 3.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I\u2019m going to have a little more leeway of how I play than last year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t mean complete freedom. Splitter doesn\u2019t plan to take a lax approach with his youngest players. He wants them to learn from mistakes, but he also doesn\u2019t intend to feed selfish or lazy habits. How he will enforce these expectations will be a learning process for both coach and players in the first year of their partnership.<\/p>\n
Still, the Bulls have more room for error this season. They\u2019re playing for long-term goals, not short-term gains<\/a>. That means Buzelis can spend the season figuring out his ideal blend of shots \u2014 while also learning his place in the greater scheme of Splitter\u2019s system.<\/p>\n\u201cThere\u2019s always a role that you play when you play sports,\u201d Buzelis said. \u201cEveryone\u2019s going to be playing their role, but there\u2019s going to be a leash as always. You can\u2019t go over your role. It\u2019s going to be very, very strict on what we have to do, and that\u2019s what it takes for winning basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matas Buzelis isn\u2019t satisfied with his shooting. This shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise to anyone who has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":848294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,3363,329,973,6,15840],"class_list":["post-848293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-basketball","tag-billy-donovan","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-matas-buzelis","tag-nba","tag-tiago-splitter"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117365382097477802","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848293","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=848293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/848294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Bulls](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/CTC-L-BULLS_8a131f.jpg\")
Bulls forward Matas Buzelis poses during media day at the United Center on Sept. 28, 2026. (Stacey Wescott\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n