What kind of player are the Bulls getting in Matas Buzelis? | Bernstein & Holmes

What kind of player are the Bulls getting in Matas Buzelis? | Bernstein & Holmes

so what type of player is he um he is extremely versatile he can do just about anything on the basketball court the one thing that really stood out to me early on was his vision and his feel he just has an incredible ability to see the floor to get all of his teammates involved and then kind of kind of score and do what he needs to when he when it’s necessary so those are the things that I see but you you’ve seen that the clips and the explosiveness and the allaround game the ability to you know knock down a three the ability to get to the basket and then the ability to to block shots and defend so um pretty special talent I kind of look at the ability to block shots and defend as separate NBA criteria and he does seem to have a a pretty good Instinct for shot blocking And yet when it comes to getting in a low defensive stance moving his feet and staying in front of somebody I I would characterize that is still needing work certainly at the NBA level would you um you know what I would I would say that you know that’s one of those things that can easily be developed um I probably haven’t seen enough of him to make that assessment um but certainly you know the allaround athleticism the ability to move laterally lends itself to being able to defend um certainly adequately I think hopefully at that level so this family this is I I love good stories about families that come from other places and his family is steeped in Lithuanian history what was it like getting to know them and and having the boys grow up in Hinsdale just phenomenal um I can’t say enough about how great their family is um humble uh friendly kind um just as great a family as you can imagine even you know when uh when they gone when the boys were away playing at Sunrise they were at games they were um always very positive and very complimentary of our program um you know they’re the kind of family that we we host a Christmas tournament you know they’re helping work just just really really great great family and it’s been it’s been really cool to see the boys develop athletically and then obviously their basketball skills as well so Nick Who are the doubters to which he was referring last night I’m just curious he a nice kid from a supportive family and he’s got all this history I I didn’t know that people were lined up that that he has to prove them all wrong I don’t know uh to be honest with you I um you know as as Michael Jordan did whatever you need to do to to kind of inspire yourself or to motivate yourself um but I really I don’t have any idea who specifically who he might be referring to might just just be a general you know hey I’m I’m you know this is my motivation and I’m going to use it to to fire my development when it comes to what your role is as a a prep coach do you think that your life is made easier or harder when you get to be like hey I’ve got NBA talent and I’ve got guys that have gone to the league like like how does how do you think that now affects you oh gosh um I don’t think it changes much I think that um you know the way we go about um coaching the kids and preparing them um you know we just try to try to make it a very positive experience try to uh develop them as individuals uh which is the most important aspect of being a prep coach is trying to develop young men that are going to be you know great dads and husbands and uh and and members of society so I don’t think it changes a whole lot for me or or our program well I mean just the way that things have gone over the last few years where we’re seeing players have a lot more agency I I was just wondering like from a coaching perspective is it because there might be people look like well hey look at what happened with Mattis and look his brother is a is a prospect as well how do you balance the trying to help an individual get to the next level versus like the team concept of what you’re trying to do at Central um again I just I think that um coming from from Hinsdale Central in particular our kids are are really driven um athletically and academically uh that it really makes it easy for us to provide you know the best possible situation and work really hard for those kids and watch their talents Blossom um you know I I know it’s kind of the game has kind of changed but I I really think think that you know just doing the very best that we can in terms of preparation and you know um allowing kids to to develop their own kind of path uh each kid’s a little bit different so um yeah I I I don’t think it changes much for us I always find it interesting to see how the the literal time that kids grow in high school may change their idea of their future possibilities where while also changing that of a coach where if you have somebody who’s tall and long and close to the basket you’re going to want to put that guy close to the basket sometimes where that guy might say hey I’m a guard I might now be 6’10 but I’m I’m a guard and it’s hard for a coach to be like yeah you’re a guard at the next level but I need you here you can get every rebound if you want how do how do you start to balance that out of coaching for developmental purposes against coaching to try to win the next possession yeah you know that’s interesting you mentioned that and I’ve always felt that we want to develop complete players and we don’t we want to we want to allow kids to develop their overall game you know both inside and outside with those you know those kids that come in and are already tall because the game has changed in that way um I think it’s been really beneficial for us and uh kids kids want to play on the outside kids want to you know stroke the three and and be Steph Curry um and then the ability to go inside and dominate is Another Blessing and again we’ve we’ve allowed kids in our program and I think you see it throughout Illinois at high school level that you know kids are are developing their games all around being able to face the basket being able to put the ball on the floor you know being able to be a playmaker so um you know I think any time that we can develop a kid to have full skills you know both inside and outside we’re not only benefiting our program we’re benefiting the kid and the analytics show that you know um shooting kickout 3es is a is a much more effective way of playing offense so you know trying to pigeon hole a kid to stay in the paint is not the best way to play in 2024

A day after the Bulls selected G League Ignite forward Matas Buzelis with the No. 11 overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, Hinsdale Central High School coach Nick Latorre joined the Bernstein & Holmes to share a scouting report on him. Buzelis played at Hinsdale Central as a freshman in high school before transferring to a prep school in New Hampshire.

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