Report: Donovan Discusses Factors Behind Young Player’s Limited Action

Five games into the 2024-25 NBA season, the Bulls sit at a respectable 3-2. Once again the Bulls appear to be valuing the competitiveness provided by some of their top veterans—like Zach LaVine, Nikola Vucevic, and Coby White—over the development of some of their younger prospects. As a result, some of the Bulls’ younger players are missing out on valuable on-court reps. More specifically, Matas Buzelis—the Bulls most recent lottery pick—is hardly seeing any run. Through five games, head coach Billy Donovan has awarded Buzelis a grand total of just 28 minutes of action.

With Buzelis being viewed as one of the more raw players taken in the 2024 lottery, his ability to be able to develop on the court is paramount. Buzelis may be a ‘project’, but his upside is immense. While the Bulls may be in pole position to challenge for a play-in spot in the East, they lack any real upside. Incorporating Buzelis more and more into the rotation is a must for Donovan—at least if the Bulls as an organization ever hope to share the same level of immense upside as their most recent lottery pick.

Billy Donovan Sheds Light on Young Prospect’s Lack of Playing Time

How Matas Buzelis Can Earn More Court Time

For many young players, effort plays like rebounding, hustling back on defense, and diving on loose balls are their ticket to early playing time in their career. Apparently, forDonovan, a few more of those types of plays would be nice to see from Buzelis. More specifically, it appears as though if Buzelis could make more of an impact on the glass, he could be in line for increased opportunities. Fortunately for Buzelis, he has great positional size and length. Unfortunately for Buzelis, no one would describe him as a particularly physical or stout player. Standing at 6-foot-10, Buzelis would greatly benefit from adding a bit of weight to his 209-pound frame.

Of course, rebounding isn’t the only area in need of improvement for Buzelis. Due to the nature of his play style, he can be both erratic and inefficient at times. He’s also not immune to being sped up, which in many cases can lead to some ugly turnovers. Donovan has made it fairly clear that he wants Buzelis to be surrounded by a healthy support structure when he’s on the court, which is understandable for many reasons. Having Buzelis not be the sole offensive creator during his minutes seems like sound logic, at least in the early going. Buzelis needs on-court reps, but wanting to have savvy veterans around him to show him the ropes during those minutes is understandable. However, while Donovan’s thought process makes sense, his actions—allotting Buzelis with only 5.6 developmental minutes per game—don’t.

Final Words

Five games into a young player’s rookie season is hardly a big enough sample size to make any sort of real judgments. But Buzelis’ lack of involvement in the regular rotation is, at the very least, curious. More than likely Buzelis’ opportunities are destined to slowly and steadily increase as the season goes on. Regardless of the Bulls’ perhaps overly optimistic playoff hopes, Donovan is going to have to release the reins of Buzelis at some point. And with more opportunity should come more production for Buzelis.