{"id":124127,"date":"2025-02-17T09:05:59","date_gmt":"2025-02-17T14:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=124127"},"modified":"2025-02-17T09:05:59","modified_gmt":"2025-02-17T14:05:59","slug":"future-hall-of-famer-carmelo-anthony-praises-matas-buzelis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/17\/future-hall-of-famer-carmelo-anthony-praises-matas-buzelis\/","title":{"rendered":"Future Hall of Famer Praises Matas Buzelis’s Development"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a recent podcast interview, a future Hall of Fame player praised Matas Buzelis’s<\/a> development so far this season. The 2025 induction finalist<\/a> says the Bulls have a special player in the 6’10 Lithuanian forward. He believes that he could have been a top pick in his class had he not gone to the NBA G-League.<\/p>\n

Matas Buzelis Praised by Future Hall of Famer in Interview<\/h2>\n

In a recent episode of his\u00a0podcast, 7PM in Brooklyn,\u00a0Carmelo Anthony<\/a> had nothing but good things to say about Buzelis, the Bulls’ rookie forward. He spoke of being impressed with his development from the High School\/AAU circuit, into the G-League,<\/span> and presently the Chicago Bulls.<\/p>\n

\n

Carmelo Anthony loves Matas Buzelis and thinks he could\u2019ve been the top pick in the draft:<\/p>\n

\u201cI f**k with Matas. He could\u2019ve been the top pick in the draft. I think Chicago has something with Matas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Via (@7PMinBrooklyn<\/a>) pic.twitter.com\/wIjekudBrS<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Die-Hard Chicago Bulls Fans (@DieHardCBfans) February 14, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Instead of going the traditional college route, Buzelis opted to play for the NBA\u2019s G-League Ignite. This choice let him play with a more experienced mix of aspiring and former NBA players. Buzelis hoped the G-league route would better prepare his development for the league running more common NBA schemes. Another notable player who chose this similar route was Houston Rockets guard, Jalen Green<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For the Ignite, Buzelis averaged 14.3 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 1.9 assists<\/a> in 26 games. Notably, Buzelis also finished in the top 5 for blocks with 2.1.<\/p>\n

Rather than help his draft stock as intended, the Ignite ultimately hurt it. According to Anthony, if Buzelis chose to go to the NCAA he would have been a top draft pick in his class. Buzelis fell out of the top-10 where the Bulls picked him at #11. The poor system and management of the Ignite<\/a> are believed to be the reasons Buzelis was not a top-5 pick. After his lone G-League season, the Ignite was shut down by the NBA as it was failing to live up to its intended goal.<\/p>\n

Had he chosen the college pathway, he did have official offers<\/a> from Florida State, Kentucky, Wake Forest, and UNC.<\/p>\n

Regardless of how his draft went down, what matters is that the Bulls were lucky enough to get a top-10 talent at #11. Talent that is loved by the fans and a future Hall of Fame player like Anthony admires.<\/p>\n

The Bulls Finally Pushing Buzelis’s Development<\/h3>\n

In a final comment, Anthony and his co-star share a joke about him becoming that “something” if Billy Donovan<\/a> would give him more minutes. Since Jan 29, Buzelis has received a minutes increase and shined in the spotlight.<\/p>\n

In his last 8 games, Buzelis has been playing 26 minutes per game. In that stretch, he has averaged 14.1 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks. He has also been shooting 48.5% from three on 33 attempts. This stretch included a 24-point game without a missed field goal and no free throws.<\/p>\n

Anthony is keeping his eye on Buzelis’s development and the rest of the NBA should too. If a player like Anthony has praise for a young player like this, everyone should keep their eyes open. Bulls fans already thought it, but Anthony agrees that Chicago has something special in Buzelis.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Matt Marton-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a recent podcast interview, a future Hall of Fame player praised Matas Buzelis’s development so far this season. The 2025 induction finalist says the Bulls have a special player in the 6’10 Lithuanian forward. He believes that he could have been a top pick in his class had he not gone to the NBA […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5464,"featured_media":124182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1608,62],"tags":[67,3256,49148],"class_list":["post-124127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bulls","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-carmelo-anthony","tag-jalen-green","tag-matas-buzelis"],"modified_by":"Zach Kircher","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5464"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124127"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124183,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124127\/revisions\/124183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}