Team context: Chicago Bulls · Research cutoff: July 18, 2026.
Role and baseline
Buzelis started all 77 appearances in 2025-26 and averaged 16.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.2 threes, and 1.5 blocks in 29.2 minutes on .463/.786 shooting. Bulls season review · Basketball-Reference
Sam Amico's March 22 dynasty column highlighted the unusual scoring-plus-blocks profile entering Year 3. CBS noted in July that Wilson, Swain, and Claxton add frontcourt competition but still expected a sizable role. Both are attributed assessments. Athlon, March 22, 2026 · CBS, July 2026
2026-27 projection
| GP | Min | FG% | FT% | 3PM | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 75 | 32 | .465 | .795 | 2.4 | 18.2 | 6.3 | 2.4 | 0.8 | 1.4 | 2.3 |
Base rotation allocation: 32 of Chicago's exactly 240 minutes.
Fantasy fit
- 9-cat: picks 45-70; blocks plus threes at forward are the differentiator.
- Points: picks 50-75; the leap needs more usage, boards, or assists to become elite.
- Dynasty: top-55 foundation with top-30 upside if he becomes an efficient 20-point scorer.
- Category strengths: blocks, threes, points; neutral-to-positive FG% and FT% at projected volume.
Range and triggers
- Floor: 15 points, five rebounds, and 1.1 blocks if Powell/Wilson flatten his usage.
- Ceiling: 21/7 with 2.5 threes and 1.7 blocks, a plausible top-35 9-cat season.
- Risks: crowded forwards, only moderate rebounding for his size, and a current ankle listing despite playing for Lithuania in July. Bulls injury page, accessed July 18, 2026
- Watch: starting position, rebounding emphasis, self-created shots, and whether the blocks persist with Claxton behind him.
Career record
Pre-NBA: no college. Buzelis played high school at Brewster Academy (New Hampshire), where he was 2022 New Hampshire Gatorade Player of the Year, then Sunrise Christian Academy (Kansas) as a senior, averaging 15.7 points and 5.6 rebounds on 54 percent shooting; he was a consensus five-star recruit and a 2023 McDonald's All-American. He signed with G League Ignite in May 2023 instead of going to college. In 2023-24 with Ignite he started all 26 regular-season games at 32.0 MPG for 14.3 points, 6.9 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 2.1 blocks and 0.9 steals on .445 FG, .273 3PT and .679 FT — tied for fourth in the G League in blocks per game, with ten games of three or more, and one of only three players in the league to average 14-plus points with 2-plus blocks. He is Chicago-born and committed to the Lithuanian national team in 2022. Draft: 2024, first round, 11th overall, Chicago. He was mocked as high as the top five in the pre-draft process and slid to his hometown team.
| Season | Age | Team | GP | MPG | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | 3PM | FG% | FT% | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 20 | CHI | 80 | 18.9 | 8.6 | 3.5 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 1.2 | .454 | .815 | 0.9 |
| 2025-26 | 21 | CHI | 77 | 29.2 | 16.3 | 5.8 | 2.1 | 0.7 | 1.5 | 2.2 | .463 | .786 | 2.1 |
| Career | 157 | 23.9 | 12.4 | 4.6 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 1.7 | .460 | .795 | 1.5 |
He was named to the NBA All-Rookie Second Team on May 20, 2025.
Fantasy history: 2024-25 produced no meaningful season-long value — 8.6 points in 18.9 minutes is outside standard-league relevance in totals, though the 0.9 blocks in under 19 minutes were already the tell. He entered 2025-26 as a widely flagged sleeper, drafted around 99th to 106th in category formats, and comfortably beat that price; a precise season-end 9-cat rank is not verified here, so I will not state one. The shape of the season matters more than the average: after the All-Star break he produced roughly 19.8 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.7 blocks, so the second-half version was a clear top-50 category profile while the full-season average is dragged down by a smaller early role. Points-league value lags the category value and will keep lagging until the assists and rebounds grow — 2.1 assists and 5.8 rebounds for a 6-foot-10 forward is thin, and points formats give no credit for the blocks that make him interesting.
Durability: 80, 77. Essentially clean so far — three missed games total across two seasons before the late-2025-26 stretch. The 2025-26 absences came from a right ankle sprain suffered against Oklahoma City when he stepped on a defender's foot (his first missed game of the season), a two-game illness late in the year, and a second ankle turn early in the fourth quarter of Chicago's final home game that ended his season a game early. He was still listed on the Bulls' injury page with an ankle designation in July 2026 despite playing for Lithuania that month, which is worth tracking but reads as administrative rather than serious. No structural injury history.
Trajectory: This is a genuine leap, not a minutes mirage, but only partly. Minutes went from 18.9 to 29.2, a 54 percent increase, while points went from 8.6 to 16.3, a 90 percent increase — so per-minute scoring rose meaningfully on top of the playing-time gain, and it did so with field goal percentage improving from .454 to .463 and three-point volume nearly doubling to 2.2 makes. That combination is the profile of a real offensive expansion rather than volume absorption. The blocks are the durable, position-scarce skill: 0.9 in 18.9 minutes as a rookie and 1.5 in 29.2 as a sophomore is a flat-to-slightly-declining per-minute rate, which means the block total is minutes-dependent and Claxton's arrival is a real threat to it. Two things did not improve: free throw percentage fell from .815 to .786, and turnovers more than doubled to 2.1, the ordinary cost of a usage jump at 21. He is at the steepest part of the aging curve with two more seasons of near-automatic growth ahead, and the post-All-Star line plus the 41-point game against Golden State in March establish the ceiling is higher than the season average. For 2026-27 the bet is that the second-half version is the true baseline and the constraint is Chicago's crowded frontcourt, not his skill.
Career sources: ESPN career stats · Wikipedia — Matas Buzelis · NBA G League draft profile, 2024 · G League player page · StatMuse, season-by-season per game
Table re-verified cell-by-cell against ESPN and StatMuse on 2026-07-18; the two sources agree on every season row and on the career line.
Open questions
- Does Wilson push him more toward small forward without reducing usage?
- Can he reach 32 minutes with so many development forwards?
- Is the ankle completely resolved by camp?