The Chicago Bulls could have a mega-star on their hands if one player’s prediction comes true.
If a coin-toss had gone their way, the Chicago Bulls would have landed the Draft Lottery numbers that turned into the Dallas Mavericks’ number one pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.
Missing out on Cooper Flagg is a tough blow for the franchise, but one former player had previously claimed the Bulls had their own version.
Kendall Gill claims Matas Buzelis has the potential to be a better player than Flagg, a bold claim about a player the Bulls scooped up with the 11th pick in the 2024 Draft.
Now there is even more praise for Matas Buzelis following his rookie year with the Bulls.
Chicago Bulls star Ayo Dosunmu knows Matas Buzelis well after spending the 2024/25 season with him, and he is highly impressed.
Speaking to BasketNews, Dosunmu compared Buzelis to Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo.
He said: “I know Giannis is a Hall of Famer, top 20, top 30 player, but Matas has a chance to really dominate the game like that.
“He’s 6-10, 6-11, and as he continues to get stronger, continues to get in the weight room, he’s only going to get bigger.
“I think he’s going to continue to grow gradually like that in terms of him being able to finish, rebound, him being able to just dominate the game, and that’s definitely going to show.”
The comments from Dosunmu are high praise and set an impossibly high bar for Matas Buzelis to live up to – but they signify the faith his Chicago Bulls counterparts have in him.
Matas Buzelis was a first round steal for the Chicago Bulls at 11, similar to the way Giannis Antetokounmpo was drafted at 15, way back in 2013.
Buzelis’ moderate first year numbers can be seen above, averaging 8.6 points per game and 3.5 rebounds. His shooting map shows how impactful he was around the rim.
But it is also important to note Giannis Antetokounmpo’s rookie season numbers. He played only 23 games and averaged 6.8 points per game. The following year he averaged 12.7 ppg.
He only averaged above 20 ppg for the first time in 2016-17, his fourth season in the league.
There is plenty of time for Buzelis, 20, to start working towards those numbers.
