Matas Buzelis glides for windmill slam at NBA Summer League

Over the past couple of seasons, the Chicago Bulls have been a team that can’t quite seem to pick a direction in terms of whether they want to tank or make the playoffs. They’ve been a team stuck in the play-in. But the Bulls have some intriguing young players on the team such as Matas Buzelis whose windmill dunk on Friday was one of the early highlights of NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.

The highlight came in the second quarter of the Bulls’ summer league game against the Toronto Raptors as they came up with a turnover, Matas Buzelis grabbed control of the ball and shot out on the break for the dunk. Buzelis’ high-flying exploits were well-documented during his rookie season, and he was selected as a participant in the NBA Dunk Contest at All-Star Weekend.

The No. 11 overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft by the Bulls, Buzelis was among the final group of the G League Ignite before the NBA dissolved the team. A native of Chicago, the hometown hero put up a solid rookie season and was named to the All-Rookie Second Team.

Buzelis appeared in 80 games as a rookie, including 31 starts, at a little over 18 minutes per game. He averaged 8.6 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.0 assists with splits of 45.4 percent shooting from the field, 36.1 percent shooting from the three-point line and 81.5 percent shooting from the free-throw line.

Buzelis is among five players on the Bulls’ summer league roster that figure to be on the roster when the regular season begins. The other four players are the No. 12 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, Noa Essengue, and two-way contract players Jahmir Young, Lachlan Olbrich and Emanuel Miller. Young and Miller were on two-way contracts last season while Olbrich was the No. 55 overall pick in this past draft.

Whatever direction the Bulls end up choosing, they have a potential franchise building block in Buzelis.