Forward Matas Buzelis saves Bulls media day from mediocre opening acts

The opening acts were … meh.

Familiar faces with the mic, saying a lot of familiar things.

Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas was still singing the same song and dance about the 15-5 finish to last year’s regular season, coach Billy Donovan talking about toughness needed, Coby White was confident his calf strain wouldn’t sideline him much longer, while Josh Giddey, Ayo Dosunmu and Nikola Vucevic each spoke about their immediate futures — known and unknown.

An uninspiring showcase by the Bulls on Monday’s media day.

Until the headliner that is.

No guitar in sight, not even a flash of pyrotechnics, but Matas Buzelis took the stage and absolutely rocked the presser, and then some.

The second-year forward was honest, spoke from the heart, and did so with a swagger that this organization sorely needs.

A heartbeat for a product that is far too often on life support.

“There’s no pressure for me,” Buzelis said of his expected jump towards stardom that has been gaining momentum all offseason. “I know how hard I work. I know there’s going to be bumps and bruises in the road, but my mentality is always to be the best, to help the team win.

“I always think of it like this: If somebody has done it, I can do it too, and if nobody has done it then I’m going to be the first one to do it. I’m very excited. I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people with this team, and I have a lot of faith in us. We’ve got a lot of guys that are working extremely hard in the gym, everyone is glued together, everyone has gelled well, and I just feel the energy. It’s kind of hard to explain. If you were in the gym, you would see it.”

Bam! When is the opening night tip-off?

And Buzelis wasn’t done, either.

“I want to win Most Improved Player this year,” Buzelis continued. “That’s what I’m striving for. This is a team sport, and everything is about the team. The individual stuff will come if you win, so I’m worried about winning.”

That he should be, especially with a roster that might have finished the regular season well but strutted into a play-in game with Miami and was promptly bent over and spanked on their own home floor.

Karnisovas brought up that 109-90 throttling by the Heat as a learning moment for the locker room last April, but then spent the offseason bringing back a very similar product.

Yes, the Bulls have a deep roster — Karnisovas loves to point that out — but it is also a roster deep with not one All-Star participant last year.

“I think the team success as well is essential to getting your guys to be All-Stars,” Karnisovas said when asked about a talent deficit compared to the elite teams. “We are focused on winning and those guys have to get better this year. Team success will establish them if they’re good enough to be All-Stars or not. You can argue that if Josh and Coby had the kinds of months that they had (last) March in January or December they could have been there.

“We’ve got to focus on our internal development and continue adding players in the draft, continue developing guys internally.”

A plan that sounds good on paper, but this is also a front office that has more swings and misses than hits on the draft front. That’s why Buzelis and his swagger are so key. He’s added muscle to his confidence, even insisting that he wants to be an All-NBA Defensive player.

All good things to hear because the Bulls need the 20-year-old to help erase their current stagnant history.

What was very evident on the eve before camp started was that the Bulls players were buying in on what the front office was selling.

Buzelis was asked if he flat-out feels like he needs more help on the floor and quickly dismissed that.

“I have faith with everyone right now on the team,” Buzelis said. “There’s enough in the room. There’s enough of everyone and I believe in everyone. I don’t think we need to make no changes right now. I’m very confident in my guys.”

He wasn’t alone in that feeling.

“I love the guys that are in my locker room,” White said. “I love the guys I’m playing with. I have the utmost confidence in my team and the guys I play with, share the floor with, and I trust my guys. I’m focused on the guys in the room with me each and every day.”

All well and good, but White and Buzelis get in the games for free. What about the Bulls fan base and the suffering that has taken place under this current regime?

Karnisovas & Co. have one winning season, one trip to the postseason, and one playoff game win. That would be walking papers for many organizations. For the Bulls it was contract extensions last summer.

The executive acknowledged the failures since he took over but again reiterated that the messaging with the fan base has been transparent. Yep, he was again asking for patience.

“Going back a year ago when we got into this transition and starting our second year, I think we were messaging the fan base that this is the way we have to do it,” Karnisovas said. “We have to be patient, we have to do it the right way, and we can’t skip steps. So for this team this year, we’ve got to show growth.

“We saw a glimpse from last year and we also saw how we played against Miami, and those lessons are learned. This group is pretty young and there’s a lot of potential there.”

Thank goodness for the headliner.