2024 NBA Draft - Chicago Bulls select Matas Buzelis with the 11th pick

[sco]

As far as I know this is just a theory, but it has been posited by some people in NBA draft circles that the adjustment from the HS line to the NBA line in the G is potentially harmful to the development curve of a prospect's 3 ball. Shooting prospects are much more likely to emerge from collegiate game, which is of course a smaller jump from the HS line - caveat being that there are hundreds of times more NCAA draftees than GLI draftees, and that college players generally stay longer, especially shooters.

I'm not sure what to make of this information myself, but it could indicate a relatively longer journey for Matas to get up to league standards. At least we have Patton on the team staff

Interesting. What I heard was the big difference between college and g-league development is that college guys get better fundamental coaching where g-league guys get more experience against older/stronger players and NBA rules. I'll say, it was only 1 year in Matas' case, so not sure it's a huge impact.

[dougthonus]

As far as I know this is just a theory, but it has been posited by some people in NBA draft circles that the adjustment from the HS line to the NBA line in the G is potentially harmful to the development curve of a prospect's 3 ball. Shooting prospects are much more likely to emerge from collegiate game, which is of course a smaller jump from the HS line - caveat being that there are hundreds of times more NCAA draftees than GLI draftees, and that college players generally stay longer, especially shooters.

I'm not sure what to make of this information myself, but it could indicate a relatively longer journey for Matas to get up to league standards. At least we have Patton on the team staff

I'm sure it's much easier from a shooting perspective to go from HS to NBA if you're eventually going to be an NBA shoot vs HS to College to NBA. You need to change your form and muscle memory. There's no advantage to developing muscle memory and form geared towards the shorter shot if your goal is to eventually develop the longer shot.

If we were talking about jr high kids where strength to make the shot with good form is an issue that might be different, but that isn't the case here.

In the long run, I don't think it matters anyway, Matas is who he is and is an experiment of 1 at this point from our perspective, and the broader question is irrelevant since NIL changes made it so they're disbanding the G-League elite anyway.

[Chi town]

Need a 2025 Draft Thread!

This kid is good at what he does. Very insightful.

Folks are starting to see it for my guy Rocco.
Lefty Gobert.

https://youtu.be/ZieU5F8zQQU?si=7jBUaB8sdT1Tcb8P

[sco]

After seeing how our offseason shook out, I'm more optimistic that Matas will have the chance to get up to 25MPG in the second half of the season. I think 2 factors will impact it. First, how bad are we. While it is possible that Billy agrees with my genius and figures out that Ayo and Smith should start ahead of Coby and Vuc, and we somehow find the chemistry to be a .500 team, I doubt Billy will put winning ahead of entitlement. That's not a bad thing because I expect that he'll have us at something like 15 and 30 around the deadline. At that point, the season will be long over and Matas should have a path to bigger minutes. That said, Matas will need to be way down the learning curve in terms of not making dumb plays (ie stupid fouls and TO's - which are normal rookie things) and playing passable defense.

Maybe we are able to nab a decent young defensive C at the deadline. For example, a guy like Simms from NY. We roll out a young lineup of Giddey, Coby, Pat, Matas, Simms for a stretch at the end. Will it win games? Probably not, but it will allow us to go into next season with a better sense of who works well together and what holes need fixing.

[_txchilibowl_]

Anybody catch Matas sitting courtside with Shaq last night at the Fever/Sky game? Rubbing elbows with the greats.

[Chi town]

https://youtu.be/J_gZNynrHeQ?si=oi2Flr7dOcObk_Ez

Bus has a really good coach teaching him well. Great listen here.

[sco]

https://youtu.be/J_gZNynrHeQ?si=oi2Flr7dOcObk_Ez

Bus has a really good coach teaching him well. Great listen here.

Thanks. Very good listen. Sounds like he's focusing on the right stuff. I do agree that Matas will struggle because he's going to have to adjust to a smaller role and he may struggle to make shots when he isn't touching the ball as much as he's used to.

[Chi town]

https://youtu.be/J_gZNynrHeQ?si=oi2Flr7dOcObk_Ez

Bus has a really good coach teaching him well. Great listen here.

Thanks. Very good listen. Sounds like he's focusing on the right stuff. I do agree that Matas will struggle because he's going to have to adjust to a smaller role and he may struggle to make shots when he isn't touching the ball as much as he's used to.

Agreed. Giddey will get him lots of dunks.

[sco]

https://youtu.be/J_gZNynrHeQ?si=oi2Flr7dOcObk_Ez

Bus has a really good coach teaching him well. Great listen here.

Thanks. Very good listen. Sounds like he's focusing on the right stuff. I do agree that Matas will struggle because he's going to have to adjust to a smaller role and he may struggle to make shots when he isn't touching the ball as much as he's used to.

Agreed. Giddey will get him lots of dunks.

Interesting point. I wonder if they'll try to have them play together more than they otherwise would with Matas coming off the bench and likely getting 15-18MPG.

[kodo]

https://youtu.be/J_gZNynrHeQ?si=oi2Flr7dOcObk_Ez

Bus has a really good coach teaching him well. Great listen here.

Good stuff. I'm glad they're preparing him for a low minutes, bench role. I liked that he's preparing Buzelis for the reality of he's not going to be able to dribble, dribble, probe, and then get his shot. He's going to catch and he'll have to either immediately shoot, drive, or give the ball up to someone else.

There's going to be this Patrick situation again where he might barely see the ball. And we still have Patrick.

[Chi town]

https://youtu.be/J_gZNynrHeQ?si=oi2Flr7dOcObk_Ez

Bus has a really good coach teaching him well. Great listen here.

Good stuff. I'm glad they're preparing him for a low minutes, bench role. I liked that he's preparing Buzelis for the reality of he's not going to be able to dribble, dribble, probe, and then get his shot. He's going to catch and he'll have to either immediately shoot, drive, or give the ball up to someone else.

There's going to be this Patrick situation again where he might barely see the ball. And we still have Patrick.

This should be his role to start the season and he should be able to expand it because he’s light years ahead of Pat as a rookie in skills and motor. He also has dog in him. He needs to learn to shoot 3s first though. Build everything around that 3D foundation.

[sco]

https://youtu.be/J_gZNynrHeQ?si=oi2Flr7dOcObk_Ez

Bus has a really good coach teaching him well. Great listen here.

Good stuff. I'm glad they're preparing him for a low minutes, bench role. I liked that he's preparing Buzelis for the reality of he's not going to be able to dribble, dribble, probe, and then get his shot. He's going to catch and he'll have to either immediately shoot, drive, or give the ball up to someone else.

There's going to be this Patrick situation again where he might barely see the ball. And we still have Patrick.

This should be his role to start the season and he should be able to expand it because he’s light years ahead of Pat as a rookie in skills and motor. He also has dog in him. He needs to learn to shoot 3s first though. Build everything around that 3D foundation.

The good news is that we are more likely to have him positioned as the 2nd scoring option off he bench, so that he will be touching the ball a bit more than he otherwise would have as a starter.

[MissileMike]

Read on Twitter

[Ccwatercraft]

https://youtu.be/J_gZNynrHeQ?si=oi2Flr7dOcObk_Ez

Bus has a really good coach teaching him well. Great listen here.

Good stuff. I'm glad they're preparing him for a low minutes, bench role. I liked that he's preparing Buzelis for the reality of he's not going to be able to dribble, dribble, probe, and then get his shot. He's going to catch and he'll have to either immediately shoot, drive, or give the ball up to someone else.

There's going to be this Patrick situation again where he might barely see the ball. And we still have Patrick.

This should be his role to start the season and he should be able to expand it because he’s light years ahead of Pat as a rookie in skills and motor. He also has dog in him. He needs to learn to shoot 3s first though. Build everything around that 3D foundation.

He does look to be a step ahead already just on general enthusiasm, his games in SL looked smoother than I was expecting, still raw but he shows great promise. If the shooting touch comes around, he's going to raise that ceiling.

I just hope he gets to move and cut, not get parked in a corner. he needs court time with Giddey for some showtime moves.

Just give him minutes and let him be a tall Javonte, trial by fire.

[sco]

Read on Twitter

White Sox missed an opportunity to just let him play on the team to distract the fans from the season.

[sco]

Good stuff. I'm glad they're preparing him for a low minutes, bench role. I liked that he's preparing Buzelis for the reality of he's not going to be able to dribble, dribble, probe, and then get his shot. He's going to catch and he'll have to either immediately shoot, drive, or give the ball up to someone else.

There's going to be this Patrick situation again where he might barely see the ball. And we still have Patrick.

This should be his role to start the season and he should be able to expand it because he’s light years ahead of Pat as a rookie in skills and motor. He also has dog in him. He needs to learn to shoot 3s first though. Build everything around that 3D foundation.

He does look to be a step ahead already just on general enthusiasm, his games in SL looked smoother than I was expecting, still raw but he shows great promise. If the shooting touch comes around, he's going to raise that ceiling.

I just hope he gets to move and cut, not get parked in a corner. he needs court time with Giddey for some showtime moves.

Just give him minutes and let him be a tall Javonte, trial by fire.

I agree but caution against reading anything into SL. I expect a season of low shooting % and high TO's...a slightly better version of Terry's rookie year. His 3pt shot won't likely be there this season either. I think his 2nd season his shooting % and TO's will improve, but I expect it will take more than just 1 year for him to develop a consistent 3 ball. The interesting question will be, if we assume Zach is gone next season, will the Bull bite the bullet after a statistically likely poor rookie season for Matas, and start him next season?

[kodo]

Hopefully next season it's
G Coby
G Giddey
F '25 Draft Pick
F Buzelis
C Cheap Rim Runner / Jalen

I think the team is still bad but just adding 1 high pick isn't going to make Chicago contenders. We'll need more talent. The draft after is also supposed to be good with the Boozer brothers. And assuming we trigger our pick protection this year, we'll still want to keep our pick the year after protected 1-8.

[Ccwatercraft]

This should be his role to start the season and he should be able to expand it because he’s light years ahead of Pat as a rookie in skills and motor. He also has dog in him. He needs to learn to shoot 3s first though. Build everything around that 3D foundation.

He does look to be a step ahead already just on general enthusiasm, his games in SL looked smoother than I was expecting, still raw but he shows great promise. If the shooting touch comes around, he's going to raise that ceiling.

I just hope he gets to move and cut, not get parked in a corner. he needs court time with Giddey for some showtime moves.

Just give him minutes and let him be a tall Javonte, trial by fire.

I agree but caution against reading anything into SL. I expect a season of low shooting % and high TO's...a slightly better version of Terry's rookie year. His 3pt shot won't likely be there this season either. I think his 2nd season his shooting % and TO's will improve, but I expect it will take more than just 1 year for him to develop a consistent 3 ball. The interesting question will be, if we assume Zach is gone next season, will the Bull bite the bullet after a statistically likely poor rookie season for Matas, and start him next season?

It makes sense to get him on the court, granted he has to earn it but it looks like he has the tools, so I hope he's not like Terry and can't put it together right away.

[DuckIII]

I don’t even understand this board sometimes. Why would anyone compare Matas to Dalen Terry. Matas showed more talent and skill in the first 30 seconds of summer league than Dalen Terry has shown in years.

[jc23]

Paul George seems to be a fan.