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Interesting that Buzelis defensively is the most productive Igintes prospect ever. More productive than Kuminga and others. Offensively he's 4th most productive, but I think he still probably has the highest potential offensively, or second highest after Jalen Green.
Buzelis ceiling is not easy projected and pretty mysterious. He's somewhat high risk, high award prospect when it comes to lottery picks. I think comparison with Franz is the best, but Franz had higher floor than Matas, but I think Matas ceiling might be even slightly higher than Franz. In my opinion Buzelis has transcendent qualities that are a bit rigid, but very reliable in Franz case.
He surely will need to get stronger and that's the moment which is always tricky. I hope he won't overdo and do it gradually. Valanciunas fucked it up big time in his first off season of NBA. IDK what was he thinking. He lost 30% if his craftiness and agility with taking too much weight on.
I don't know how good Matas will look in NBA. He'll be good, IMO, but to what extent is unclear ATM. I would say he's somewhere from 4th to 2nd option of NBA team in his prime for a winning team (most likely legit third option like the same Franz I think, more or less). But what I like about him that he's a good player to play next Sabonis and overall reflects LTU BB school well cause he's not a ball stopper, not a ballhog, he reads the game, he plays off the ball both defensively and offensively, he's smart and unselfish and willing to do a little bit of everything. That's Lithuanian school. And yet he does possess the ability to be a go to guy and elite ISO presence at the same time. He won't be Hezonja (young one) or Musa or god help Jordan Poole - meaning a silly chuckers. Matas has high IQ and tends to be useful in all situations. He's very active off ball defender. That's important when you play with defensively liable Sabonis. If we will have Marciulionis (or Jakucionis), D. Giedraitis, Buzelis, Sedekerskis next to Sabonis in 2028 Olympics f.e., we will have 4 plus defenders next Sabonis and you still have at least 2 world class offensive players in that unite. Buzelis three point shooting will be a key though. Next Sabonis you need good shooters/active off ball players and capable defenders and guy like Buzelis might exactly bring that.
I think next Sabonis the best players to play will be Jakucionis (Marciulionis a little bit passive off ball offensively), Buzelis, Sedekerskis. They all can shoot (well, Sedekerskis only open, but that's enough), all active off ball (cutting offensively) at both ends and all can play D (all guys are good help defenders which is very important playing next Sabonis). I'm hopeful that next Olympic cycle we can have all we need for big wins. We don't even need Buzelis to be primarily ball handler as our elite PGs + Sabonis will create more than enough facilitation already. I would say we just need to put Buzelis into situations where he can attack close outs aggressively and in these situation he's literally unstoppable and sometimes to ask some pure ISO game when the game becomes rigid and you need an individual talent to close the games. This season he already made some game winners and showed the ability to make tough shots.
From 2027 WC Buzelis should be ready to be one of top 3-4 main NT players and likely to lead the NT with Sabonis as best players in 2028 Olympics. That's when I'll ask medals without any drag up. There's a little chance he shows up earlier though, it seems.
Here's terrific scouting on Buzelis with video coverage:
Buzelis ceiling is not easy projected and pretty mysterious. He's somewhat high risk, high award prospect when it comes to lottery picks. I think comparison with Franz is the best, but Franz had higher floor than Matas, but I think Matas ceiling might be even slightly higher than Franz. In my opinion Buzelis has transcendent qualities that are a bit rigid, but very reliable in Franz case.
He surely will need to get stronger and that's the moment which is always tricky. I hope he won't overdo and do it gradually. Valanciunas fucked it up big time in his first off season of NBA. IDK what was he thinking. He lost 30% if his craftiness and agility with taking too much weight on.
I don't know how good Matas will look in NBA. He'll be good, IMO, but to what extent is unclear ATM. I would say he's somewhere from 4th to 2nd option of NBA team in his prime for a winning team (most likely legit third option like the same Franz I think, more or less). But what I like about him that he's a good player to play next Sabonis and overall reflects LTU BB school well cause he's not a ball stopper, not a ballhog, he reads the game, he plays off the ball both defensively and offensively, he's smart and unselfish and willing to do a little bit of everything. That's Lithuanian school. And yet he does possess the ability to be a go to guy and elite ISO presence at the same time. He won't be Hezonja (young one) or Musa or god help Jordan Poole - meaning a silly chuckers. Matas has high IQ and tends to be useful in all situations. He's very active off ball defender. That's important when you play with defensively liable Sabonis. If we will have Marciulionis (or Jakucionis), D. Giedraitis, Buzelis, Sedekerskis next to Sabonis in 2028 Olympics f.e., we will have 4 plus defenders next Sabonis and you still have at least 2 world class offensive players in that unite. Buzelis three point shooting will be a key though. Next Sabonis you need good shooters/active off ball players and capable defenders and guy like Buzelis might exactly bring that.
I think next Sabonis the best players to play will be Jakucionis (Marciulionis a little bit passive off ball offensively), Buzelis, Sedekerskis. They all can shoot (well, Sedekerskis only open, but that's enough), all active off ball (cutting offensively) at both ends and all can play D (all guys are good help defenders which is very important playing next Sabonis). I'm hopeful that next Olympic cycle we can have all we need for big wins. We don't even need Buzelis to be primarily ball handler as our elite PGs + Sabonis will create more than enough facilitation already. I would say we just need to put Buzelis into situations where he can attack close outs aggressively and in these situation he's literally unstoppable and sometimes to ask some pure ISO game when the game becomes rigid and you need an individual talent to close the games. This season he already made some game winners and showed the ability to make tough shots.
From 2027 WC Buzelis should be ready to be one of top 3-4 main NT players and likely to lead the NT with Sabonis as best players in 2028 Olympics. That's when I'll ask medals without any drag up. There's a little chance he shows up earlier though, it seems.
Here's terrific scouting on Buzelis with video coverage:
He's a big talk. He said LTU will win everything when he will come and he would take down Risacher in ISO game 
I think the latter stuff is true though. I respect his confidence, but I hope he will eventually back shit's up with NT jerseys as well.
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