The bad news for Chicago Bulls vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas is that Patrick Williams is out for an undetermined length of time with inflammation in his surgically repaired left foot.
The good news is Karnišovas will get to see more of his latest project, Matas Buzelis, who figures to get more minutes as Williams rests his swollen foot.
As the Bulls prepared to play the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday at the United Center in the second game of back-to-backs, the Buzelis buzz was growing, albeit at a low frequency.
With Julian Phillips also sidelined Saturday with an illness, someone joked it was turning into “the Matas Buzelis Show.”
“Maybe,” coach Billy Donovan said. “I’m here for the whole five positions.”
With Williams and Phillips out, Donovan said he would have to utilize more of his bench against the Grizzlies as the Bulls attempted to win back-to-back games for the first time.
Karnišovas gave Williams a five-year, $90 million extension in June, showing confidence Williams eventually would blossom into the player the Bulls envisioned when they selected him with the fourth pick in the 2020 draft. Williams was a 19-year old who didn’t start for Florida State but was chosen for his athleticism and upside as a 6-8 forward who can handle the ball.
“Long arms, big hands,” Karnišovas said then. “Such an upside and potential. He can play from one through five. Played point guard in high school. Humble kid that is mature beyond his years. This is what the NBA is today.”
Williams insisted Friday that he could’ve played if needed, but the Bulls aren’t likely to rush him back so soon into the season.
Donovan talked about a “logjam” at the position before Williams’ injury, suggesting Buzelis and Phillips would benefit with more minutes. But instead of starting one of the two on Friday in the 136-122 win over the Atlanta Hawks, Donovan opted for a four-guard lineup, adding Ayo Dosunmu to starters Zack LaVine, Coby White and Josh Giddey.
Still, Buzelis was on the court for two long stretches, scoring nine points with two blocks in 20 minutes while sinking a corner 3 and converting two dunks, including one that brought the house down in the first quarter.
LaVine said he told the 20-year-old rookie to keep it up and not to worry about missing shots.
“He athletically helps us just from being on the court and playing multiple positions,” LaVine said.
Donovan liked the rim protection and the offensive part of Buzelis’s game but added the 6-9, 196-pound rookie needs to understand the realities of going into the paint in the NBA.
“When he’s going to the basket, there are going to be people putting bodies in the way,” Donovan said. “And sometimes Euro-stepping leads you into some of those charges. These are things I think he’ll learn.”
Hopefully those lessons will be learned now, as the 7-10 Bulls have nothing to lose by letting him play and seeing what they’ve got. They’re one trade away from being an official rebuild, and LaVine looks healthier and more tradeable than at any point in 2023-24.
The anticipation whenever the ball found its way into Buzelis’s hands Friday was palpable to those of us sitting in the stands, which includes the local media not employed by the Chicago Sports Network. Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf took away the courtside press seating last year in a blatant money grab, similar to what he did at Sox Park many years ago.
Anyway, it was obvious Friday that Bulls fans appear desperate for something new and exciting after years of watching the same old thing. Fair or not, Buzelis is going to have to succeed for Karnišovas’s reputation, not to mention for fans’ sanity.
But until then, the Bulls will probably be content to ride LaVine as long as they can and look to the future at the trade deadline. White, Dosunmu and Williams will all be part of it, but the rest of the cast is unknown.
Karnišovas’s widely panned acquisition of Giddey from the Oklahoma City Thunder for energizer Alex Caruso hasn’t been as one-sided as expected because of Caruso’s poor early-season shooting. Still, Giddey’s defensive play is so sketchy Donovan has been closing tight games with Dosunmu, making Giddey a bystander, literally and figuratively.
Dosunmu, growing in confidence daily, has been up for the task. Without Lonzo Ball available, he’s easily their best perimeter defender.
“You always want to help the team close a win,” Dosunmu said. “That feels pretty good. We’ve got to do better as a team closing games out, but I like where we’re at. We can be better. We will be better.”
They had better be better, or Karnišovas will be the one bearing the brunt of the blame.
Dosunmu took over ballhandling duties Friday, which seemed to calm down Giddey, a decent point guard who’s a good distributor and rebounder but has difficulty covering smaller, quicker guards. Giddey had 18 points, eight assists and six rebounds Friday with a plus-19 rating in one of his better overall performances.
Donovan said the four-guard starting lineup will be predicated on matchups while Williams is out, but obviously he liked what he saw Friday as the Bulls shot a season-high 57%, including 19-for-43 (44.2%) from 3-point range.
LaVine noted the fast pace of both teams on Friday, when the Bulls made 19 turnovers and still cruised to a win to even their NBA Cup record at 1-1.
“There were a couple times I didn’t make it past half-court without getting back,” LaVine said with a laugh. “We’re sticking with the identity of what we’re trying to do — guys playing fast. You have to get in shape for it.”
The message from Donovan is clear, albeit a little repetitive.
“We have to run,” Donovan said. “We have to try to generate stuff in transition. We have to play fast. It’s just what we have to do. … It gets bodies off of us, helps us get downhill, helps generate some 3s.”
On nights like Friday, it’s something to see.
But with the real grind of the NBA schedule just beginning, we’ll soon find out how much the Bulls have in their tank.
