Bulls wing Matas Buzelis entered the 2025-26 NBA season with a healthy amount of national media expectation for a major NBA career leap, based on a stunning preseason highlight reel of slam dunks and flashy offensive play.
Buzelis’ sophomore NBA campaign ultimately didn’t fully deliver on hyped expectations outside of Chicago; however, he did make positive strides in a Bulls season that resulted in Matas growing his usage rate from 18.7% as a rookie to 22.8%, according to Basketball Reference.
Until Bulls fans hear differently, Matas Buzelis’ development should be a core element of the Chicago Bulls’ future as the franchise navigates the uncharted territory of a rebuild. Offense has typically been the focal point of Buzelis’ NBA development expectations and conversation.
However, the defensive side of the court shouldn’t be neglected when projecting Buzelis’ future upside.
Any Bulls fan who is watching any amount of game minutes of the 2026 NBA Playoffs should quickly recognize the competitive bar that exists on a team and individual level for NBA defense. Matas Buzelis should strive to be an NBA player who is perennially in NBA All-Defense team and NBA Defensive Player of the Year consideration.
The question that Bulls fans should ask themselves is, how big of a development gap does Matas Buzelis have between his NBA sophomore self and achieving elite league-wide defender status?
Rationalizing Matas Buzelis’ defensive status quo
The most consistent element of Matas Buzelis’ NBA has been his blocking abilities, typically as a weak-side help defender as opposed to a roaming paint rim-protector. Buzelis finished with block percentages ranked in the top 20 of the NBA in both his rookie and second seasons with the Bulls, per Basketball Reference. Matas throws a block party like it’s a four-day weekend!
There is a noteworthy nuance in NBA defense, which is that the defensive side of NBA basketball is more than the nominal counting stats of blocks or steals. Rebounding and shot contesting are critical elements of NBA defense.
Buzelis finished as the Bulls' number one player in terms of game minutes played, yet he finished fourth in defensive rebounding percentage (17.3%) among the Bulls' regular rotational minutes players, according to Basketball Reference. To what extent Matas can improve as a defensive rebounder depends on what functional responsibilities are assigned to him in the 2026-27 NBA season.
Simply put, does Matas evolve into a wing or continue playing the role of a slender power forward?
Matas functional defensive responsibilities likely will influence how his shot-contesting abilities develop next season. Matas finished the 2025-26 NBA season largely as a neutral shot-contesting defender, according to NBA official statistics, meaning his offensive field goal percentage was effectively equal to the field goal percentage of his defensive assignments.
Overall, Matas is a great block stats guy. Can Matas grow as a defensive rebounder and a defender who wins closeouts? Those answers are likely the difference between defensive superstardom and a serviceable NBA wing.
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