Bulls Rookie Shines with Added Opportunity

The Chicago Bulls have been at the center NBA trade drama in the last few days, having offloaded longtime franchise star Zach LaVine to the Kings in the long-awaited De’Aaron Fox deal.

The team has long occupied the middle ground of the NBA, missing out on both Playoffs berths and the top draft picks for several consecutive seasons. Now, in trading LaVine, it seems they’re finally choosing a side and opting for a full-scale rebuild sooner rather than later.

Despite the noise surrounding the Bulls, its rookie Matas Buzelis is amidst the best stretch of his extremely fresh career. At around 6-foot-9, he was drafted at No. 11 in the most recent draft as a developmental project forward.

Despite some sparing success this season, Buzelis has yet to receive major playing time from Chicago. And his overall line reflects that inconsistency.

Buzelis had yet to eclipse 30 minutes played prior to Tuesday, but was finally granted just that in a matchup against the Miami Heat. In a bench-high 31 minutes, he added a game-high 24 points on a perfect 10-for-10 shooting from the field. He hit all four of his triples, adding two rebounds and two blocks to boot. 

The performance earned him a myriad of firsts, including the youngest player to score 20-plus points on perfect shooting, the first in Bulls’ history to so so on 10-plus shots, and just the sixth rookie ever to achieve the stat-line.

The performance also marked his fourth straight double-digit scoring game, as he scored 12 in the three contests prior.

It seems the former Ignite forward could be in line for a minutes boost, not just due to the team offloading win-now talent, but due to his increased productivity of late. While there are certain to be growing pains, there likely much more to be gained from getting him more minutes early if he’s showing improvement already.