LAS VEGAS — Matas Buzelis is just different. Three parts cocky, two parts swagger, a sprinkle of nasty.
And that’s why the 11th overall pick in last month’s draft might be the perfect addition at the perfect time for the Bulls, who are caught somewhere between a youthful resurgence 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.
It’s not just the skills Buzelis brings — which he showed Tuesday night when he finished with 18 points on 7-for-18 shooting and four blocked shots in an 85-77 Summer League loss to the Pistons.
It’s also his fearless disposition. One of the main knocks on the Bulls the last decade has been a lack of toughness. Former coach Jim Boylen saw it and called it out. So has current coach Billy Donovan.
Now comes Buzelis, a 6-9 guard/forward who already seems capable of posterizing defenders and making sure they know about it. Case in point: a dunk in the second league game over the weekend in which Buzelis took off for the rim against the Warriors’ Daeqwon Plowden, dropped Plowden off and finished with a one-handed slam. Afterward, he stared at Plowden dismissively.
On Tuesday, he had a savage putback in the first quarter, which he followed with a stare and a few choice words.
“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. “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, but it’s definitely there.
“If you’re in this league, you have a little bit of a swagger to you,” the younger Donovan said after Tuesday’s game. “You have to have an ego. But for [Buzelis], 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’s still a laundry list of things the Bulls want Buzelis to work on heading into training camp this fall, but there’s no doubt he already has a lot of versatility. Before his performance Tuesday, he exploded for 28 points and five rebounds against the Warriors after finishing with 15 points and seven rebounds in his debut against the Bucks.
Don’t expect Buzelis to be overly excited about much of that — the Bulls are now 1-2 in Summer League play.
“I want to win everything, but it was never really my mentality when I was growing up,” he 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.”