The Jalen Smith Signing, Where Will DeRozan Go? Some Financial Hurdles, and Other Bulls Bullets

The Chicago Bulls might as well have a big blinking arrow pointing them in the direction of a rebuild.

The team added yet another player who is under 25 years old on Monday morning, marking their first move of free agency. Big man Jalen Smith will now join newcomers Josh Giddey and Matas Buzelis. The former stretch five for the Pacers signed a three-year deal with the Bulls.

  • Smith has needed some time to come into his own at the NBA level. A former college standout with Maryland, the Suns selected him No. 10 overall in 2020 before sending him to Indiana one year later. While his defense still needs a lot of work, Smith has continued to show promise as a perimeter shooter and offensive rebounder. His six-foot-ten frame will give Chicago some much-needed size after the departure of Andre Drummond, as well as another developmental piece who can play an uptempo brand of basketball.
  • Smith averaged just 17.1 minutes per game for the Pacers last year, but the expectation is that we’ll see his time on the floor increase significantly. Even if Nikola Vucevic remains on this roster come October, the Chicago Bulls appear destined to prioritize their young talent. To be sure, the veteran big man would still hold down the starting position, but I would anticipate Smith being a steady part of the rotation. Heck, if Billy Donovan wasn’t afraid to play Drummond and Vucevic together at times, I can’t imagine he’d hesitate much to do the same with Smith.
  • The 24-year-old finished last season with a 67.1 effective field goal percentage, which ranked in the 92 percentile, per Cleaning the Glass. Yes, I know this came in limited minutes, but it’s still a very encouraging number. He shot nearly 43.0 percent from long range and 75.0 percent at the rim. For what it’s worth, Vucevic was 29 percent from downtown and 63 percent at the rim. Drummond went just 61 percent at the rim.
  • I can understand if you’re not doing backflips for this signing. Smith still has a lot to prove before we can declare him some kind of future difference-maker. But this is yet another move that tells us the Chicago Bulls are ready to try something COMPLETELY new. Are they going to be a good basketball team next year? No. Doing that by design, however, will be a lot more fun than doing that unintentionally. We’re inching toward a season full of developmental storylines, which is something that I believe will feel like a breath of fresh air.
  • DeMar DeRozan is quickly moving up the list of best available free agents. Paul George signed with the 76ers early Monday morning. Klay Thompson is between the Lakers and Mavericks, per Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports. Big-name role players like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (ORL) and Isaiah Hartenstein (OKC) have also found new homes. If a contender wants to add durable scoring, there aren’t many better options than DeRozan. Will that lead to something getting done sooner rather than later?
  • DeRozan of the Chicago Bulls versus the Indiana Pacers
    © Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

  • For what it’s worth, the Chicago Bulls signing Jalen Smith has possibly made it harder for them to work out a sign-and-trade with DeRozan. The team is only about $13.0 million away from the tax, which we all know they aren’t going over. They would presumably have to take back more than that amount of salary in a DeRozan sign-and-trade. Not to mention, they used the mid-level exception to sign Smith, which automatically hard-caps them at the first tax apron. So even if they were to go into the tax, things could still prove challenging when it comes to taking back the right amount of money.
  • Having said that, if the Chicago Bulls find a way to move on from Zach LaVine or Nikola Vucevic over the next couple of days, things will change again. The team will have a lot more financial flexibility, and I think they’re crossing their fingers that this works out.
  • The problem for the Chicago Bulls is that Zach LaVine’s trade market couldn’t be worse. They were apparently trying to work something out that would send the two-time All-Star to Golden State, but the Warriors were reportedly heavily against that
  • The Lakers might still be a team to watch for DeMar DeRozan AND Zach LaVine. They are clearly looking to make some noise, as ESPN reported that LeBron James could take A LOT less money to help them build out a more competitive roster.
  • We’ll miss you, Andre Drummond!
  • Um … this is awesome!
  • Contracts!
  • written by

    Elias Schuster is the Lead Chicago Bulls writer at Bleacher Nation. He started with BN full-time in 2019 immediately after graduating from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign with a degree in Journalism (yes, he started with the Jim Boylen Era). Since joining, Elias has been the driving force behind Bulls and NBA content for both the site and social accounts. You can follow him on Twitter/X @Schuster_Elias.

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