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Chicago Bulls ยท Analysis

Matas Buzelis Was Supposed to Leap. Instead He Looks Lost.

By Ryan "Rye The Chicago Guy" Callahan | October 27, 2026

Three weeks ago, Matas Buzelis explained last season better than anyone in the Bulls building could.

"Last year was extremely hard. There was no type of rhythm. We didn't know who was playing. We didn't know how we were gonna play."

Then came the promise about the new year, the new coach and the new structure.

"Now, there's gonna be more structure. Everyone's in a role. You know what you're going to get every night."

Four games into the season, the Bulls know what they are getting from Buzelis every night. It is less than last year by almost every measure, and it comes with long stretches where the third-year forward simply disappears. He does not look like a player in a defined role. He looks like a player still waiting for somebody to define it.

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The start fooled nobody

The opener in Toronto looks fine in a box score. Buzelis led the Bulls with 17 points in a 135-92 loss. Look closer and it falls apart. He shot 2 of 8 from the field, scored 13 of his points at the free throw line and put up 14 of his 17 in the fourth quarter of a game that had been over for an hour. BVM Sports called him largely invisible, and that was the kind version.

Two nights later in Milwaukee, the bottom dropped out. Buzelis scored 7 points on 2 of 9 shooting, and head coach Tiago Splitter sat him for the entire fourth quarter of a 132-125 win the Bulls had to close without him. In two games he was 4 of 17 from the field and had not made a three.

To his credit, he owned it.

"I didn't play well. We had a great rotation, and we won the game. I'm always ready to play when my name is called."
"The coaches do what the coaches think is right, and we won that game. I'm a team player. It's nothing personal."

Splitter shrugged the benching off before the home opener and called it not a big deal, saying he expected Buzelis to respond. For one night, he did.

One good night, then Boston

Against Washington on Saturday, Buzelis scored 21 points on 7 of 13 shooting and dropped nine in the fourth quarter while the Bulls stormed back from 20 down. It was the most comfortable he has looked in the new offense, and it was proof the player from last season is still in there.

"It was good, but it's too late. The third quarter is very important in NBA basketball. It has to start from there, set the tone, and put teams away like that."

Then Monday in Boston wiped it out. The Bulls lost 134-99, and Buzelis gave them 11 points on six shots in 22 minutes. One rebound. Minus-27. A 6-foot-10 starting forward cannot touch a game that little, especially on a night when his team is getting run off the floor and needs anybody to grab it. He drifted to the perimeter, watched Josh Giddey and Norman Powell work and never once imposed himself on the game.

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A role that fits nobody

Some of this is the system. Splitter's offense fires threes in waves. The Bulls shot 4 of 36 from deep in the opener and 12 of 45 in Milwaukee, and the coach keeps telling his players to let it fly. That turns Buzelis into a floor spacer standing in the corner, waiting on a kick-out that arrives late or does not arrive at all. Buzelis is at his best attacking a closeout, cutting and running the floor. Standing still is the one thing his game has never been.

Some of it is the room. Rookie Caleb Wilson has been the Bulls' best player through four games, with 21 points in Milwaukee and 30 points and 14 rebounds against Washington. The face-of-the-rebuild chair Buzelis was supposed to sit in suddenly has real competition, and Wilson is playing like he wants it more.

The Regression, by the Numbers

And some of it is on Buzelis. When his shot stops falling, the rest of his game goes with it. The blocks that made him a two-way problem last season are down from 1.5 a night to 0.8. The rebounds vanished in Boston before the points did. A player waiting for the game to come to him is exactly what he described last season, word for word: no rhythm, no idea how the night is going to go.

What people are saying

The Locked On Bulls crew is calling Splitter's approach tough love and asking whether the coach is running this team for October 2026 or for the one he wants in 2028. Their verdict is that there is another step Buzelis still needs to take.

Pippen Ain't Easy put it flatter in a headline: his words expire when the Bulls enter the 94-foot rectangle. The same coverage noted that Buzelis is well aware of the criticism and took to social media to defend his offseason comments to a fan who came at him.

That is the split across Bulls fans right now. One side preaches patience with a young forward learning a new coach's system. The other side is watching the minutes swing from 17 to 35 to 22 and wondering what the plan actually is.

Four games is early. The trend is not.

Fairness matters here. Four games is a tiny sample, the Washington performance was real and Buzelis has said every right thing since the benching. Nobody should close the book on a forward with his size and touch in October.

But the Bulls are 1-3, the leash is visibly short and minutes are the one stat that never lies about trust. Splitter promised him structure. Buzelis promised a leap. Right now, both of them are waiting on the other one, and the player in the middle looks lost.

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