Bulls sign promising big man for $27 million deal |
Coming into the 2024 NBA offseason, a lot of the eyes were going to be on the Chicago Bulls and what their plan of attack was going to be. After going through three seasons of inconsistent basketball, the time has come for Arturas Karnisovas to blow this roster up and start from scratch.
Guys like Zach Lavine and Nikola Vucevic have been on the trade block for a while, while Demar DeRozan has seen his extension talks hit a bit of a halt now that free agency has begun. You did see Lonzo Ball opt into his player option, and it will be interesting to see how the Bulls handle that, as well as Patrick Williams agreeing to a new five-year extension worth $90 million dollars. That alone was a surprising offer as it seemed like the Bulls were ready to move on from him heading into the offseason. With Ball, Williams, LaVine, and Vucevic still a part of this team for now, where were these changes that the front office talked about happening? One of those changes came last week when the Bulls traded away fan favorite Alex Caruso to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Josh Giddey. The second significant change was the Bulls' first free agent acquisition of the offseason as they have come to terms with former Indiana Pacer forward Jalen Smith on a three-year $27 million dollar deal. At 6-10 and 215 pounds, Smith gives the Bulls some much-needed size, as that was part of what they have been lacking the last few seasons. With Andre Drummond officially signing with the Sixers, Smith will come in and fill his role, but he does come with a bit more of an offensive upside. The former first-round pick, No. 10 to be exact, out of the University of Maryland, Smith has been around for a few years now and made his NBA debut back in 2020. Although he has shown glimpses of being a ligimate player in this league, there is still the inconsistency that comes with a young player as he has yet to carve out a full-time role in this league. Smith has averaged 8.5 PPG for his career while averaging close to 6.0 RPG in 17 minutes of action. He is coming off a 2023-24 showing in which he played in 61 games, averaging 9.9 PPG (the second-highest total for his career) and 5.5 RPG in just over 18 minutes. His best season was in 2021 when he split time between Phoenix and Indiana. After being traded from the Suns to the Pacers that season, Smith went on to average 13.4 PPG and 7.6 RPG in 22 games with his new team, which was the production the Suns and Pacers were hoping for. Should he be able to do that in Chicago, or at the very least come close to it consistently, this is a very nice piece to have for the next several seasons, and it came at an affordable price of nine million annually. While much of his game remains untapped, there is also plenty to like about it, as he has a ton of athletic ability. He has also shown improved shooting each season, which is all you can ask for from a player. He shot a career-best 58.2% from the field last season while also knocking down an impressive 42.4% of his three-point attempts. Granted, he didn't attempt many threes, but the Bulls have been one of the worst three-point shooting teams for a while now, so any added firepower from deep is considered an upgrade. While this move isn't going to move the needle in terms of how good or bad this team is, it is a move that did make this team deeper than a season ago. Until the Lavine and Vucevic situation is sorted out and they can see where their roster sits, don't expect any massive moves unless the move is to bring DeRozan back. Otherwise, expect a lot of these role-player deals to pop up, as the Bulls are going to do their best to build a depth-filled roster capable of competing while they figure out if it's time to rebuild or not.
