Tier 1 -
Ceiling:
All-Star, Top 3 Point Forward
Nationality
Dual Nat - Lithuanian & American
Draft Day Age
19.68
Wingspan
6'11
Avg ranking (top 6 NBA draft sites)
7.2
My Jan Ranking
6
Best Case - Shades of/
Franz Wagner
the 6-foot-10 wing that can handle, pass, and shoot. big, playmaking wings. It's the way of the modern game. He's comfortable launching 3s off the catch, but he's even better attacking closeouts, eating up space on drives to the rim, and using that pressure to either score inside or locate teammates on the perimeter. Good change of speed, creativity, and wiggle with the ball. Covers a lot of ground and uses euro-steps to react to the defense on drives. Drives well going to his left or right and good use of counters when needed. Good touch on floater and accurate with either hand at the rim,,Displays soft touch on in-between shots like hooks from the post or floaters. If a defender tries to take a charge, he can stop his dribble on a dime and just flip the ball up.
Andrei Kirilenko
He's a slippery slasher, equipped with a swift first step and a deep bag of tricks for finishing around the basket....agility to make an impact defensively and as a rebounder. Maybe not peak Siakam but a version of him where he can use his skillset to get to spots and has great length and Good change of speed, creativity, and wiggle with the ball. Can start the offense after grabbing a rebound.. Good size and anticipation on the defensive end. Good timing as a help a help defender when blocking shots. When he takes it strong to the rim, Buzelis is capable of punching it through the net with force or hanging for finesse finishes. Buzelis is a strong positional rebounder and defender. He was a real playmaking threat on that end for Ignite (1.9 blocks, 0.9 steals), often roaming off non-shooters and creating havoc as a weak-side rim protector. He can slide his feet, switch screens, and contain the point of attack well enough in most matchups, too. Great transition player. He runs the floor hard, making himself available for kickouts. And since he can handle the ball himself, he’s always a threat to take it coast-to-coast or make a play off a rebound. Good team defender with a high motor and feel for off-ball help. He frequently logs weakside and chasedown blocks, in addition to altering shots.
Lamar Odom
Sees the floor well, makes impressive one-handed passes with either hand off the dribble. Patient offensively, doesn’t blindly attack the rim or force his impact. Reads and reacts well ? Good form on jump shot with comfortable 3PT shooting range. Capable shooting off the dribble, including step-backs, and hits shots when given little space from the defender. Buzelis plays a heads-up style of offense and is selfless, sometimes to a fault. He has a penchant for touch shots in the paint or just outside it. He's not a gear-shift handler, but Buzelis is excellent at stopping on a dime and creating space with step-backs or turnarounds in the mid-range. He also has some post-up utility with a chance to really punish mismatches as he adds strength at the next level. but he regularly stuffed the stat sheet and approached the game in a way that promoted team cohesion...his high feel as a passer.
Weakness
Has much room to improve upper and lower body strength, as well as being stronger with the ball...Good shooter, but can speed up his release … Although he’s more of a perimeter player, he has room to improve as a rebounder. Buzelis far too often shied away from contact — or shied away from responsbility altogether.
Research
Matas Buzelis advanced 3 point shooting statistics and observations after watching all 121 attempts.
Picture perfect mechanics, high release, soft ball.
Frequently missed short, strength/fatigue a factor?
Mostly spot ups or slips out of screening action.
low volume movement shots off screens, promising.
Very few bad misses, the makes are very pure .
Comfortable shooting over closeouts, hard to block.
Drew two 4-point plays, should have had four more.
Settles for jump shots too often.
Overall, I buy the shot long term. I think it's a question of strength and fatigue rather than anything mechanical which could be why he shot it better in high school with the shorter line.
Doesn't project as a pull-up shooter, but can spot up and has the requisite ball skills to make defense pay for closing out hard. Shooting is the absolute swing skill for Buzelis, without it teams will sag off and he won't have the explosiveness to get to his spots.
@britishbuzz more graphics on this bookmark tweet May 16
sam vecenie
"He transferred to Sunrise Christian Academy as a senior and was again
terrific. He was the best player on one of the best teams in the country, knocking down 3s at a high level and showing some bounce with the ball in transition. He was
invited to the Basketball Without Borders camp during NBA All-Star weekend and won MVP of the event. He ultimately led Sunrise to a semifinals berth at the GEICO
Nationals event, was named a McDonald’s All-American and was considered a consensus five-star, top-10 recruit in his class
Buzelis is a fascinating athlete at 6-8 3/4 without shoes and an 8-9 1/2 standing reach. He can explode in space, especially off two feet, and is an abovethe-rim finisher in transition and as a cutter. He is a fluid open-floor athlete. He loves to grab and go on the break;... I thought he used the change-of-pace dribble well to
get some separation, particularly going backwards in half-court opportunities. He has a creative mind for how to use his body. I thought Buzelis’ most effective way to generate offense this season was as an off-ball mover and cutter. He was a consistent threat as a backdoor cutter for Ignite.
He has a great sense of timing on when his man turns his back or steps up to help on drives, often getting behind the defense to present his passer an option for a lob
or dunk. He made 75 percent of his shots off cuts and finished among the top-15 wings in the G League in made shots off cuts per game. He also knows how to run off
dribble handoffs and cuts to create an option for his big man. The Ignite used him as the middle man against zone coverages this season.
Buzelis was a good shooter as a senior at Sunrise Christian, making 43.2 percent of his catch-and-shoot 3-point attempts that season. Sunrise played him off the ball
regularly and allowed him to get into a flow coming off pindowns and other screening actions. He did a good job of spotting up around his guards and finding open
spaces. He did not shoot well this past season, but Buzelis displayed touch at lower levels that exceeded his Ignite percentages. Though he made just 26.1 percent of
his 3s this year, I think there is a chance he shoots well by the end of his rookie-scale contract.
Buzelis was a strong off-ball defender this season, making his presence known on the help side. He was a tremendous shot blocker rotating on the backline, averaging
1.9 blocks per game and posting strong per-minute rates. He has a good sense of when to sneak over and how to time his leap, and he covers ground quickly with
long strides. On defense, he was an event creator in the G League, posting the highest combined block + steal rate of any prospect to come through the Ignite
program. He has potential to be a disruptive low-man defender and chaos helper. There are concerns about his on-ball prowess, but he has a chance to become an
impactful defender if deployed properly in the NBA.
WEAKNESSES: Buzelis’ lack of strength is a significant issue. He weighed just 197 pounds at the combine. He can’t anchor or carve out his own space on the court. He
is moved too easily when bumped around the court. He looks to have a higher center of gravity, which creates issues as he’s trying to establish position and get to his
spots....While he can be a creative finisher when he gets downhill — particularly by changing hands while hanging in the air — he was not an effective one this year. He made
just 56.9 percent of his shots at the rim overall, including just 49.4 percent of his layups in half-court settings. Those are low numbers for a player with Buzelis’ size
and athleticism. He finished well in off-ball situations but struggled as an on-ball driver and finisher. If he got knocked off his line, which happened often, he lost a lot
of his touch. He must get far more physical and stronger to be an effective wing driver, though it is certainly possible he looks better once he’s removed from the
Ignite’s cramped driving lanes.
Buzelis is not a selfish player, and he does not make poor passes that result in turnovers often. But based on the
tape he’s put out to this point, he’s not someone who can regularly make high-level kickouts to his teammates — especially in the half-court. He had a negative assistto-turnover rate in high school and with Ignite.
Defensively, Buzelis struggled to contain the ball. He was outleveraged by smaller guards on switches and got buried under the rim whenever bigger wings or
forwards tried to post him up. If a guard put their shoulder into him on a drive, Buzelis would be driven too far backward to use his length. The good news is he clearly
seemed to care on defense this season; he may just need to mature physically.
Nobody doubts Buzelis’ work ethic, though; he’s a competitor who demonstrates a desire to be
great. The second swing skill for Buzelis is his jumper. His shot isn’t broken, but he’s only had one distinctly positive shooting stretch (his season at Sunrise Christian).
Is that an aberration, or is it a signal that he has room to grow? It’s difficult to tell with teenagers. I don’t see him regularly shooting off movement, but I think there’s
a good chance he will learn to be a proficient spot-up 3-point shooter, especially with his work ethic. If he shoots well and his frame fills out, he has a chance of
becoming a terrific pro. His defensive instincts off the ball are uncommon, and his work in the open floor shows his playmaking potential
