It was already bad enough that neither Isaiah Collier nor Kyle Filipowski, both standout rookies for the Utah Jazz, made one of the NBA's All-Rookie teams in 2025. Making it worse is the fact that Chicago Bulls rookie Matas Buzelis made the second team, as he was chosen one spot after Cody Williams in the 2024 NBA Draft.
Enough has been said about how disappointing Cody Williams was in his rookie year. It happened, and there's no need to beat a dead horse. The headline here is that the Jazz could have had Buzelis, whose rookie season ended on a much more exciting note than Williams.
Buzelis' numbers overall aren't that exciting, as he averaged 8.6 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 0.9 blocks while shooting 45.4% from the field and 36.1% from three. However, a closer look at his season will tell you why Bulls fans are pretty excited about him.
Buzelis had the late-season breakout the Jazz hoped Williams would have
Buzelis did not storm out of the gates as a rookie. Part of that is because the Bulls didn't give him the opportunity to. It was only just before the NBA trade deadline that the Bulls started to entrust Buzelis more with a bigger role.
It's not a coincidence that around the time the Bulls traded Zach LaVine happened to be around that exact time Buzelis started to show what he was made of. From January 29 onward, he averaged 13.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks a game, shooting 49.4% from the field and 37.3% from three.
Buzelis definitely earned his spot on the All-Rookie second team, and it would have been so much sweeter to see him not only put up those numbers in Utah but also to see him, along with Collier and Filipowski, represent Utah on the All-Rookie teams this year. Alas, Buzelis gets to be the prized prospect of the Windy City.
Getting back to Williams, one sentiment about him that's been mentioned before and is worth repeating is that it's not too late for him. The NBA has a long list of young players who struggled out of the gate, but eventually put it together. At minimum, Williams has to show that he can play at the level of a rotation player to revive hope in his long-term prospects.
Plus, it's not like the Jazz can win them all. The 2025 NBA Draft lottery turnout is pretty good proof of that. Both Collier and Filipowski thriving as much as they did made Williams' struggles easier to stomach this past season.
But the Jazz would rest a lot easier if they had gone three for three with their rookies this year. Nothing wrong with nailing two picks in a draft, especially when they selected much later than most standout rookies do, but striking gold on all of them would have made the Jazz's youth movement that much more exciting heading into next season.