Matas Progress Tracker

[drosestruts]

Joel Embiid went from playing for Cameroon to deciding between playing for USA and France.

It's all pretty irrelevant.

I'd rather see Matas get development as the best player on Lithuania than ride the bench for team USA

[Muzbar]

But he is American. Plus Lithuania is never a factor in the medal rounds in the Olympics . If he breaks out this year he could be on Team USA Radar

He's also Lithuanian.

But he is not from there . His parents are from there

So Kyrie Irving shouldn't play for team USA?

[Lexluthor]

Joel Embiid went from playing for Cameroon to deciding between playing for USA and France.

It's all pretty irrelevant.

I'd rather see Matas get development as the best player on Lithuania than ride the bench for team USA

Lithuania usually ends up in the fourth to eight place range . Why do you want to be mediocre ?

[Muzbar]

Joel Embiid went from playing for Cameroon to deciding between playing for USA and France.

It's all pretty irrelevant.

I'd rather see Matas get development as the best player on Lithuania than ride the bench for team USA

Lithuania usually ends up in the fourth to eight place range . Why do you want to be mediocre ?

So Matas should request a trade to the Thunder?

[drosestruts]

Joel Embiid went from playing for Cameroon to deciding between playing for USA and France.

It's all pretty irrelevant.

I'd rather see Matas get development as the best player on Lithuania than ride the bench for team USA

Lithuania usually ends up in the fourth to eight place range . Why do you want to be mediocre ?

I don't really see any correlation between what country someone plays for in international competition and how good they are at basketball

[sco]

Joel Embiid went from playing for Cameroon to deciding between playing for USA and France.

It's all pretty irrelevant.

I'd rather see Matas get development as the best player on Lithuania than ride the bench for team USA

Lithuania usually ends up in the fourth to eight place range . Why do you want to be mediocre ?

I don't really see any correlation between what country someone plays for in international competition and how good they are at basketball

I haven't been following whatever the current Eurocup tourney is going on, but I just wanted to know if Matas played in that tourney for Lithuania or if this is for some future thing?

I tend to doubt that Matas would even make the Team USA, so there's that dynamic that factored into his choice. Also, maybe he wants to honor his parents and heritage. That doesn't bother me either. I just don't want the kid to get hurt playing a tournament that is meaningless to me, but I respect others feeling the risk is worth it to them.

[dougthonus]

Cowley saying he thinks Buz will be finalist for MIP.

Also think Vuc gets traded early, Bulls get 7th seed and lose to ORL.

His biggest obstacle is Donovan.
When Matas played 29min+
18 ppg 5 rpg, 64% TS.

Imagine if he played 33 or 34 minutes.

The most common response from Billy on why Matas gets benched is "defensive rotations" when is insane when he still gives Vucevic full starter minutes.

This has a high probability of being a tail wagging the dog argument. It's more likely that Matas gets big minutes because he's playing really well than he plays really well just because he gets big minutes. It's also the case that generally speaking that his minute trend line went way up as the season went on. Which also makes sense for a guy whom was learning the schemes over time and adapting to the NBA over time, and getting better over time.

[DASMACKDOWN]

“I always think of it like this: If somebody has done it, I can do it too. If nobody has done it, I'm going to be the first one to do it,”

https://www.bleachernation.com/bulls/2025/09/29/bulls-matas-buzelis-quote/

When I heard it live, the first person I thought about was Derrick Rose. I believe that statement is Matas version of Derricks' why cant I be the MVP.

But in terms of personalities, Matas is more Joakim Noah than Derrick in terms of how he expresses himself.

We havent had a young guy like this in a long time. And I am here for all of it.