LAS VEGAS – Matas Buzelis is just different.
Three parts cocky, two parts swagger, and a sprinkle of nasty.
That’s why the 11th overall pick from last month’s NBA Draft might actually be the perfect addition at the perfect time for a Bulls organization caught somewhere between youth movement and stuck in the mud with lingering veterans.
And it’s not just because of the skillset he brings to the floor. That was again on display in Tuesday’s 85-77 Summer League loss to the Pistons in which Buzelis finished with 18 points on 7-for-18 shooting, as well as adding four blocked shots.
No, it’s the fearless disposition that comes with the 6-foot-9 rookie.
The knock on the Bulls the last decade has been a lack of toughness. Former coach Jim Boylen saw it and called it out, and Billy Donovan followed suit. There’s been a demand for far less choir boys and more Cobra Kai.
Enter Buzelis.
While he obviously has no black belt in martial arts, he is already showing the art of posterizing opposing defenders and then making sure they know about it.
Case in point was the dunk he had in Game 2 over the weekend, in which he took off for the rim against the Warriors’ Daeqwon Plowden, dropped the Golden State defender off on floor No. 12 and finished at the penthouse with a nasty one-handed slam.
The kind of finish that takes another man’s soul. But just in case, Buzelis then stared at Plowden dismissively, letting him know he made a bad business decision.
Then came Tuesday, and a nasty putback in the first quarter against the Pistons, followed by the Buzelis stare and a few choice words. Earmuffs, kids.
“You can get exposed really fast out here, so you have to be ready every day and if you’re not 100% energy you’re going to get whooped,” Buzelis said of his edge. “I don’t really say anything nice to anybody.”
That includes his own teammates in practice, according to Summer League coach Billy Donovan III.
It’s not the kind of stuff that hurts feelings when he’s practicing in-house, but it’s definitely there.
“If you’re in this league you have a little bit of a swagger to you,” Donovan III said of Buzelis after the Detroit loss. “You have to have an ego. But for him I think he’s got to earn it a little bit more, especially with the veteran guys, but once he gets on the floor and starts playing, especially once training camp comes around … he’s a competitive kid. That’s what makes him who he is. He definitely brings that edge and that tenacity.”
There is still a laundry list of things the Bulls want their rookie to work on heading into that fall camp, but there’s no doubt that he already has a lot of versatility.
Before his 18-point showing on Tuesday, he exploded for 28 points and five rebounds against Golden State, and had 15 points and seven rebounds in his Summer League debut.
Just don’t expect Buzelis to be overly excited about much of it, especially since the Bulls dropped to 1-2 in the first week of play.
Because beyond the stares and bleeps dropped on opposing players, there’s an ultra-competitiveness in Buzelis to win. That’s his priority since being drafted by the Bulls – bring home a seventh Larry O’Brien trophy.
“I want to win everything, but it was never really my mentality when I was growing up,” Buzelis said. “Now I’ve built that mentality from learning from the best players in the world, and that’s what I want to be.
“I want to compete, and the people that missed out on me (in the draft) … I feel like I’m playing even harder against them, but at the end of the day wins are all that matter.”