Matas Buzelis Competes In NBA All-Star Weekend

Good morning Chicago fans! Maybe it was from all the shoveling last week, but I’m seeing stars. NBA All-Star Weekend, hockey’s 4 Nations Face-Off, and Pete Crow-Armstrong’s hair highlighted sports’ biggest stars! Matas Buzelis is fun to root for, but it would be nice if Chicago had more of them…

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CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS

🌟 4 Nations Face-Off Break 🌟

This year’s All-Star Game replacement has been ELECTRIC.

As All-Star events continue to fade away into irrelevance in professional sports, the NHL made a great decision to include their players in a best-on-best tournament for the first time since the 2016 (!!) World Cup of Hockey.

Don’t miss the last Round Robin games tonight and the championship game on Thursday night. USA has already clinched their place in the championship!! 🥇

Teuvo Teravainen is the only Blackhawk in the tournament, and his impact has been minimal. He was only on the ice for 10:34 and a team-low 6:23 in Finland’s 2 games and has no points or shots on goal. Maybe he’ll step up today!

Thoughts at the break:

Since their 3-game winning streak on December 15th-19th, the Hawks have gone 5-12-5. Only FIVE wins in the last TWO months. The new coach bump disappeared quickly, and losses piled up despite some veterans turning it around.

This was never going to be a competitive season or a significant season for the long-term outlook of the rebuild. However, this has been way uglier than I hoped. Through a coaching change, outspoken player frustrations, blown leads, lopsided nights, and an obvious talent deficit, the Hawks have struggled through 55 games.

Despite the disappointments, there have also been bright spots.

They bounced back from a stretch of blowouts and have only lost by more than 1 goal twice in the last month. Ryan Donato has nearly surpassed his career bests with 19 goals and 18 assists so far. Tyler Bertuzzi looks like a worthwhile 4-year investment with 17 goals and a steady net-front presence. Seth Jones turned it around. Connor Bedard is a star and has 16 points in 17 games in 2025.

Recent games have been exciting, and the continuous shuttle of prospects making it to the NHL is worth watching. There is still immense hope for the future, and hopefully the kids put on a show for the remainder of the season.

CHICAGO BULLS

L - Pistons 132, Bulls 92

Worst loss of the SEASON prompted boos at the UC

• 71-29 at halftime 🤢 season lows for points in a quarter (11) and a half (29)

• Bulls started the game 0/20 from 3PT and finished 10/47 (21.3%)

• Only 2 Bulls scored in double figures: Matas Buzelis (12p) and Josh Giddey (11p)

L - Pistons 128, Bulls 110

Pistons sweep 🧹 the back-to-back series in Chicago

• Bulls found some emotion and were called for 3 technical fouls

• Poor shooting continued in the post-LaVine era: 9/41 (22.0%) 3PT

• Ayo Dosunmu led the Bulls with 23 points, his highest scoring game since Dec. 5th

Star of the Week ⭐ Nikola Vucevic

Nobody deserves it this week after 2 awful games…

Vooch had 8p/7r and a 21p/14r double-double

Play of the Week 🎥 Patrick Williams alley-oop block

🌟 NBA All-Star Weekend 🌟

Matas Buzelis was the lone Bulls representative for the weekend. What a fitting situation for the only promising Bulls player. He was already a Dunk Contest participant and was later added as a Rising Stars tournament injury replacement.

Dunk Contest:

With supreme confidence and advice from Zach LaVine in hand, Buzelis showed up to the Dunk Contest as only the 5th Bull in history (Woolridge/MJ/Pippen/Thomas) to compete in the event.

Unfortunately, in typical Bulls fashion, his performance was a dud.

He failed to actually land his first dunk, he threw in a second underwhelming dunk, and he was eliminated after the first round.

It was great to see the rookie compete in the league-wide festivities, but I feel bad it ended that way. He was so prepared and took the whole thing very seriously (see Julia Poe’s feature in Hitting the Links below). Mac McClung won the Dunk Contest for an improbable 3peat!

Rising Stars:

Buzelis slotted in on “Team M” and had a couple highlight plays! He finished with 4 points and 2 rebounds in a last-second loss as his team went one-and-done. I know he wasn’t playing many minutes for the Bulls when the rosters were originally announced, but I hope the NBA now realizes that he is definitely a rising star.

The Bulls passed on a 1st round pick in Lonzo Ball trade talks. John Hollinger reported that they could have sent Lonzo Ball to an unspecified team for a 1st and “future” money. For as much as I want the Bulls to acquire SOME extra draft capital, taking on long-term contracts definitely was not worth it. Big contracts are killer in the NBA, and the Bulls just shipped off Zach LaVine’s papers for that reason.

Is the Lonzo extension at 2/$20M a lower commitment than the player(s) they would have received? Probably, but it’s hard to say. I guess there is some value in having a really good player on a cheap deal moving forward.

Thoughts at the break:

On January 10th, the Bulls blew out the Wizards for their 5th win in 7 games and moved to 18-20. They recently beat the Bucks and Knicks and seemingly played better against the top talents in the league.

After that day, they lost 5 straight games and went 4-13.

I expected them to hover around .500 in a similar fashion to the last two seasons. The front office always maintained their desire to win and insistence on upholding the “integrity of competition”. Losing DeRozan and Caruso hurt, but the new roster didn’t change my mind.

They committed to a faster pace of play, finally joining the ranks of the modern NBA by jacking up a billion 3s, and still had a bunch of solid players.

I can’t pinpoint why it all fell apart after January 10th, but their recent stretch has been surprising. In the grand scheme of things, their lack of defense won’t keep them in many games, and their propensity to show up to the court half asleep digs them insurmountable holes.

With the 76ers fuming and the bottom of the East hilariously barren, the Bulls may find themselves in the Play-In for the 3rd straight year. Now THAT is what I expected. A team eternally stuck in the middle playing meaningless basketball.

Their performance may get even harder to watch as the season goes. Vooch shouldn’t be on this team of young guns anymore. When shots don’t fall, the new style of play looks foolish. And player development seems to be inconsistent at best. They were already not a fun team, but now they might just be really bad.

At least Buzelis is starting games…maybe the NBA can rig some lottery luck for them again at the end of the year. 1.7% luck again???

CHICAGO BEARS

OFFSEASON

Signed LB Swayze Bozeman (previously with the Chiefs)

Assigned OL Jordan McFadden via waivers (previously with the Chargers)

Assistant GM Ian Cunningham interviewed for the Jacksonville Jaguars GM role on Friday and was announced as 1 of 5 finalists who will return for a 2nd interview

Next up ➡ NFL Combine on February 27th

CHICAGO CUBS

OFFSEASON

Alex Bregman signed with the Boston Red Sox for 3 years, $120M

The Cubs finished runner-up in another free agent chase.

After missing out on Tanner Scott, despite a significant offer, and seeing every other pitcher on the planet head to LA, the Cubs came up short again. I’ve said it before: I’m surprised they pursued Bregman. He’s a good player and would be a fun addition, but he’s a slight improvement over the 3rd baseman they already sent away this offseason in Isaac Paredes.

In just 6 months, the Cubs went from a confident 8-year plan at 3B to intentionally giving Matt Shaw a spot in the show to trying to add a proven championship-winning player. Paredes and Cam Smith were under team control for a LONG time, but they were willing to give them both up for Kyle Tucker. So how confident are they in Shaw now?

The Cubs offered 4 years, $115M for Bregman. It was a good offer. Former Cubs executive Craig Breslow and the Red Sox soared over everyone and decided to overpay. It’s fine that he got away.

Jed Hoyer willingly shared that pursuing Bregman would have pushed them “over” their budget, which means their 2025 baseball budget is lower than expected. For a big market team that spent just above the luxury tax limit last season, a lower payroll is ridiculous. Their payroll is approximately $32M below the limit. Hopefully they are just waiting for the right star to become available.

For a team that needed to thread the needle this offseason and accomplish 2 goals (acquire superstars and clear space for prospects to play), signing Bregman would not have helped. But as the 2025 season gets closer, having a 4-win player penned in at 3B would have been comforting.

Javier Assad AND Matt Shaw had minor oblique injuries, but they only missed a few days. No serious concerns.

The expected lineup is nearly set in stone and hasn’t changed since Kyle Tucker came to town:

SAY WHAT?

A CITYWIDE SALUTE

Pat Maroon

Maroon honored the family of a late Blackhawks fan at a recent game:

MILD TAKE

Kyle Tucker will be a Cub for more than one year.

This may actually be a stupid take. I’ve been talking myself into it since he arrived.

With Jed Hoyer’s recent budget comments, any confidence in the Cubs spending significant money or outbidding the competition for a star still seems completely baseless. They aren’t even comfortable spending NEAR the luxury tax limit this season, so why in the world would they keep a $40M-$50M/year player like Kyle Tucker?

Next season’s payroll looks nearly identical to 2025 at this point. Extending Tucker would mean pushing more chips in while the checkbook is still tight in 2026. Money can always move around, but their current budget would have to increase.

If we look at 2027 and beyond: Dansby Swanson is the ONLY guaranteed contract on the books at $28M. The ONLY one. The Cubs can afford a star.

There are so many reasons why the Cubs would believe they need to keep Kyle Tucker at Wrigley Field:

• Traded a starting 3B and a top prospect for him

• Understood the importance of “consolidating” wins

• Acknowledged last year’s lineup lacked a star hitter

• No assurance of current top prospects becoming stars

• Tucker’s hitting profile and defensive abilities project well long-term

I think they’ll make this happen.

Jed Hoyer looked at every possible opportunity to have a Top 10/15 player on his squad, and he settled on Kyle Tucker. He was the target. The Cubs paid the price, and they will pay it again.

Tucker has to be the star that carries the “next great Cubs team”.

HITTING THE LINKS

Kevin Fishbain - Bears salary-cap analysis (The Athletic)

Andy Martinez - Why Shota Imanaga thinks one stat highlights his ability to grow (Marquee Sports Network)

Julia Poe - Matas Buzelis is chasing history on All-Star weekend (Chicago Tribune)

Joe Cowley - Bulls have no urgent plans to make front-office changes (Chicago Sun-Times)

Scott Powers - Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson: Q & A (The Athletic)

Ayo Dosunmu - Road Trip Vlog (YouTube)

Chicago Bears - 1920 Football Drive | Ben Johnson (YouTube)

TWO MINUTE WARNING

Thanks for reading! Tune into 4 Nations for your first taste of good hockey this season!