Chicago Bulls forward Matas Buzelis has been on a fascinating semantic journey throughout the 2026 NBA offseason. Ultimately, that journey is going to end Wednesday at 7 pm inside the United Center when the Bulls tip off NBA 2026-27 preseason game one against the Phoenix Suns.
What started as a genuine, authentic conversation between Buzelis and his former teammate Lonzo Ball expanded into a striking Buzelis declaration to former NBA players Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady, and now has the cherry on top that is another Matas Buzelis quote contrasting his 2025-26 NBA season with the upcoming 2026-27 NBA season.
Not to be lost in Buzelis’ cascading diagnosis of his second NBA season is the emerging debate within Bulls Nation that reasonably questions whether Buzelis, via his collection of 2026 NBA offseason comments, is implicitly criticizing his former Bulls head coach, Billy Donovan, and perhaps, now factoring in his practice media availability comments on Tuesday, former Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas.
Matas Buzelis on his patience as a young player trying to win, the difficulty of last year
— Joel Lorenzi (@JoelXLorenzi) October 6, 2026
“Last year was hard. There was no type of rhythm. We didn’t know who was playing. We didn’t know how we’re gonna play. Now there’s gonna be more structure, everyone’s in a role. You know… pic.twitter.com/5EpneavbZd
Worth noting, it is clear that Buzelis is hyper-aware of the growing criticism he’s receiving in the aftermath of his comments on the challenges he personally experienced during the Bulls 2025-26 NBA season, as he took to social media to defend his comments to presumably a Bulls fan who is critical of Buzelis’ offseason rhetoric that some fans interpret as implicit Billy Donovan criticisms.
Matas must talk through his NBA game
In the grand scheme of things, the good news for Buzelis and Bulls fans alike is that Matas Buzelis’ words are not going to matter when the Bulls take the floor Wednesday against the Phoenix Suns. Matas’ ideas about his shot selection? That’s expired milk. Throw it out. Matas’ feelings about his role or rhythm? That is moldy cheese. Into the garbage you go.
Matas Buzelis’ game is going to do the talking for him for his entire third NBA season, whether he knows it or not. Bulls fans are well within their right to criticize Buzelis if they don’t quickly see basketball results from the verbose wing that exceed his basketball rhetoric.
To empathize with Buzelis, maybe there’s some internal issue that he’s processing about entering a crucial season for his NBA future with unfamiliar faces in power. People process internal issues in a variety of ways. Maybe Matas Buzelis deals with challenges by talking a lot. Maybe Matas would be this talkative about his third season if Donovan and Karnisovas were still the Bulls’ faces of management power instead of Tiago Splitter and Bryson Graham.
Regardless, for Matas Buzelis, he has to resolve whatever his feelings, motivations, and desires are for his NBA career into actual on-court production, with a sizeable improvement over the 2025-26 NBA season.
If we don’t see a performance bump in year three of Matas Buzelis, then we probably don’t need to listen to any more Matas Buzelis sound bites. The game film will already have told us what we need to know about him.
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