Limited options have forced Billy Donovan to use Matas Buzelis at power forward, but the Bulls coach has been finding ways to move him back to his natural position of small forward, writes Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times (subscription required). Buzelis continued to start at the four in Friday’s win at Cleveland, but he saw time at both spots as Donavan employed a double-big lineup for much of the game.
“In fairness to Matas, there are matchups that are tough,” Donovan said. “He’s a second-year player that’s only going to get stronger, bigger and as he matures those matchups will be probably easier physically. When he is having to go hypothetically against a Julius Randle or a (Evan) Mobley, someone like that, those guys are playing close to the basket and they’re really physical. Those are tough matchups for a second-year player like Matas. So if you can get him to the small forward for some of the game — not all of the game — I don’t mind playing Matas with two bigs. I never looked at Matas as a big.”
Donovan has been experimenting with the two-center approach recently, often teaming up Zach Collins and Jalen Smith or putting one of them on the court alongside Nikola Vucevic. Cowley notes that he tried a jumbo lineup on Friday, playing Buezelis and Patrick Williams together along with two big men.
Buzelis told reporters he prefers being a small forward, but said he’ll handle whatever assignment Donovan gives him.
“Wherever he puts me I’m going to do my best and try to work it out,” Buzelis said. “But I do feel comfortable when the two bigs come in. It’s not really a problem for me. Wherever he puts me I’m going to try and make something happen.”
There’s more on the Bulls:
- Collins and Smith have complementary skills that are vital in making the two-big strategy effective, Cowley states in a separate story. “I think the coaches have done a better job of making it so when we’re out there, we know what our roles are, both of us,” Collins said. “Him to space more and me to be more around the rim, and then just constant conversation between me and (Smith). Those are the roles we want to stick to, but there are opportunities where if he’s ahead of the ball, he can run and I can space, and we’ve just tried to keep the communication. That’s the biggest difference.”
- Apart from first-round pick Noa Essengue, who underwent season-ending shoulder surgery two weeks ago, the Bulls had a fully healthy roster on Friday, Cowley adds. Ayo Dosunmu and Tre Jones were both listed as questionable coming into the game, but they were able to play on minutes restrictions.
- Vucevic admits being “definitely frustrated, mainly at me” as he and the team swooned after a fast start, but he’s looked more like the early-season version of himself lately, Cowley relays in another piece. After delivering 24 points and 15 rebounds on Friday, Vucevic said the Bulls benefited from a relaxed schedule while the NBA Cup was being decided. “Those (days off) after Cup play were huge,” he said. “We were able to regroup, and it also helped me refresh a little bit, recalibrate and just play my game.”
This is the same coach and organization that kept telling us Williams was a 4 for 3-4 years realizing he’s not. Lmao kept making Markkanen a 3 when he was clearly a 4. Kept playing WCJ at the 4 when clearly he’s a 5.
They are going to ruin Buzelis overtime lmao.
Jerry thinks it’s like his baseball team and just plug guys out of position and they’ll perform. Lmao
The Bulls used Lauri at the 4. He largely didn’t play SF until Cleveland. He made the All-Star team in Utah playing SF.
Wendell Carter Jr played Center for his entire Bulls tenure.
You’re making things up for the sake of Woe is Me. Buzelis will be fine. Its a league where Keegan Murray and Harrison Barnes are starting fours. Now that the league is trending bigger again guys like Collins and Smith can see a little time at their natural positions and push the bigger wings back down to the 3.
Real-You are correct. The Bulls kept trying to make Markannen a 4 and he wasn’t. The Bulls kept trying to make Carter a 5 and he would have 2 fouls before Benny the Bull made it to his pen. The Bulls keep trying to make Williams a basketball player when it’s not really his thing and never will be.
Carter is a 4, Markannen is a 3, Williams is a zero, Donovan is a minus 2 and Buzelis is a 3. End of story but I’m sure the Bulls will keep playing them in the wrong positions. They never fail to do the wrong thing. They’re nothing if not consistently wrong.
Wendell Carter Jr has played his entire career at the 5. He is Isaiah Stewart minus the altercations.
Carter averaged 3 fouls per game for the Bulls because he wasn’t even drinking age. If anything you guys were fools for giving up on him at 21 in favor of a life of purgatory with Vucevic (who was 9-years older).
Yeah, I can’t see how anyone would consider Carter anything but a center.
I completely agree. Just imagine how different the bulls would be if they kept wcj and never traded for vucevic
The Bulls also traded two firsts in the Carter / Vucevic trade.
The first of whom was famously Franz Wagner.
If this thread proved anything is that Lauri can play both the 3 and 4, he is a very talented player and has great size.
According to basketball reference, he did play mostly as a SF in Cleveland but in Utah (where he is having the best years of his career) he has been playing mostly as a PF.
Lauri is a bad example here, he can really do both.
Basketball-Reference largely just uses Height to sort positions.
Their estimates cause logging issues for a 7-footer like Lauri. He regularly gets logged as a Center as a result. (KD was a PF and Draymond Green a SF in GS for similar reasons).
In 2024 Lauri is logged at 54% PF, 22% C, 3% SF.
In reality, he was the starting SF next to Kelly Olynyk and John Collins.
Collins was getting logged at SF in those lineups because he was the shortest player, but in reality he was a small-ball Center and Walker Kessler was subbing in for him.
Lauri has a negative wingspan (6’11”) which is why he generally plays down rather than up. He’s not like Evan Mobley who is the same height with a 7’5″ WS.
FWIW this is why Ayo Dosunmu spends time playing up a position (or two). He has a 6’10” WS despite being a 6’4″ guard.
Coby White by contrast is a 6’5″ guard but with a 6’5″ WS that’s why he doesn’t get put in those spots. He actually gets logged as SF in 20% of his lineups which shows the limitations of BBR data and why those figures are ESTIMATES. The actual lineups are more effective data points.
(Basically they have to flag Giddey as a PG so that he shows up there irrespective of his height. But anytime Giddey is playing next to another PG like Tre Jones, he is usually doing so at SF/PF but BBR’s sorting will only shift him up one position in that instance).
Basketball reference does not use height. If they do, why doesnt Olynyk have minutes under SF even though the Jazz second most used lineup in 2023 consisted of Kessler, Lauri and Olynyk? (Olynyk is the shorter out of the 3)
Regardless, Lauri is definitely very capable of playing as a power forward
“Basketball reference does not use height.”
*Sigh*. Yes they do.
——————————
“If they do, why doesnt Olynyk have minutes under SF even though the Jazz second most used lineup in 2023 consisted of Kessler, Lauri and Olynyk? (Olynyk is the shorter out of the 3)”
BBR flags player Positions and then sorts by height.
Kessler and Olynyk are internally flagged at C. Kessler is taller (7’2″) so he gets logged as the Center, shifting Olynyk down to PF. Lauri is listed at PF, but given the existence of two centers, it shifts him down to SF.
In the 2024 example, both Collins and Lauri are both listed at PF. Collins is shorter (6’9″), so he gets logged as the SF rather than Lauri, irrespective of their actual roles & matchups on the court.
Don’t know why I had to explain the technicalities of how this works, but here we are.
As an additional example of how this works:
Ben Simmons was the Sixers PG but also backed up Tobias Harris at PF anytime TJ McConnell was in the game at PG.
Simmons gets logged as a SG in that instance because he’s only being shifted up one position (the tallest “PG”). Guards like Landry Shamet, Furkan Korkmaz, etc would get logged as PFs because of this, when in reality they were playing SF.
BBR: McConnell / Simmons / Redick / Shamet / Center
IRL: McConnell / Redick / Shamet / Simmons / Center
This also caused even more extreme logging issues when Simmons was playing CENTER minutes with teams like the Nets & Clippers.
Simmons spent 23% of his career at “Shooting Guard” per BBR, a position he never played in his life. He spent 0% at PF and C even though we know that to not be the case.
I use Position/Lineup data pretty extensively for my roster content for the last 15 years so I have a firm grasp on how this works.
Had no idea I was talking with a specialist, I stand corrected
Corrected on the way bbr tracks this, not that Markkanen cant play PF. That I still stand on lol
Not wise to play Buzelis at the 4 this young. I get going small ball . But young talent should be nurtured. Why throw him up against bigger bodies. That’s how you ruined Williams. I know Bulls fans don’t like Williams. I still believe in him. He really needs to get out of there. He is a 3. Has great size at the 3. And should only be playing the three.
Bulls have a number of players becoming FAs. Be real interesting to see who they keep.
Buzelis is a match up nightmare at the 3. He’s a pushover for the other team at the 4. Why drafting Essengue was so freakin stupid I could cry. Start trading everything that isn’t nailed down for either young talent or draft picks. It should have started last year. Morons.
Lmfao. Yea Matas is a 3 thru and thru. But Williams has many problems beyond his position … there’s no position on the court that can save someone who doesn’t know how to play basketball
Patrick Williams is the Anthony Rendon of Basketball.
Mike, don’t do that to Rendon. Before he became and Angel, he was one of the best 3B in the game and helped with a World Series. We have Leury Garcia of basketball.
Spoken like a true genius ….
Who are you referring too?
Knicker Al has always been a Williams supporter, which is good because clearly he doesn’t have any in Chicago. I don’t think he’ll ever be an OG type.as I’ve heard Al suggest many times but fresh start somewhere a coach realizes he could develop into a useful SF might jump start his career. Buzelis, I don’t have a problem with spending a little time at the 4 so he gets the experience of banging with the big boys, but he’s a guy with huge upside and he should be playing the 3 at least 90% of the time at least a couple more years til.he gets some meat on his bones. Why risk having him get hurt going up against full grown men which will happen if you leave him overexposed.
Because that’s what Donovan does. Sends little guys to the slaughter against way bigger guys. Ask Alex Caruso and Ayo Dosunmu.
Caruso was All-Defense and has a ring from because he can handle bigger players. He’s been a SF/PF the last 3 years given how loaded his teams are at guard. He’s probably the smartest help defender in basketball which is mostly what PF defense is today.
He defended Jokic in the playoffs. He defended Wemby in the Cup. Imagine Josh Giddey doing either of those things LOL. Caruso IS the slaughter house.
He also spends a lot of time in street clothes or haven’t you noticed? LOL
His injuries existed well before he started guarding up. He isn’t the biggest or most athletic, he does it by playing harder than 99% of NBA players.
Sounds like you’re not even a fan, just a bitter human.
Bitter about what? If stating facts makes me bitter to you then I suggest you get a shrink. The facts are as much as I liked Caruso he spent a lot of time in street clothes for the Bulls which wasn’t his fault. But with him they were never more than a play in team and were never gonna be. I’m glad he got a ring and a gig where he was used properly.
I have been saying since his draft. He is a three and can be a player there. I don’t get personally involved like have the FankenStein Bulls fans in here. I look at positives and development. All the geniuses do here is scream and yell he sucks. I try and see how you can remedy the situation.
I stll believe he can be an OG type player. Not as good. But good enough to be a rotation piece. Which helps the team as depth or in a trade. I can see his talent. Unfortunately your coaches can’t. And the FankenSteins here are blind with hate.
“But with him they were never more than a play in team and were never gonna be.”
Hate to break it to you on where they’re gonna be with Josh Giddey lol…
Your Bulls are in 10th per usual.
Giddey raises the floor.
Caruso raises the ceiling.