Free agent center Jalen Smith will join the Bulls on a three-year, $27MM contract, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
Smith became an unrestricted free agent on Friday by declining his $5.42MM player option for next season. The 24-year-old, who ranked 44th on our list of the top 50 free agents, winds up with a nice raise and a longer deal in Chicago.
Smith is expected to be the Bulls‘ new backup center after Andre Drummond agreed to terms with Philadelphia on Sunday night. With no available cap space, Chicago will likely sign Smith with a portion of its $12.8MM non-taxpayer mid-level exception. Whether they use the MLE or acquire him via sign-and-trade, the Bulls will be hard-capped at the first tax apron of $178,132,000.
After being selected by Phoenix with the 10th pick in the 2020 draft, Smith was sent to Indiana at the 2022 trade deadline. He became a valuable backup in two-and-a-half years with the Pacers and played rotation minutes as the team reached the Eastern Conference Finals.
He averaged 9.9 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 61 games this season while shooting 59.2% from the floor and 42.4% from three-point range.
The addition of Smith is one of several recent moves the Bulls have made to create a younger, more athletic roster and become less reliant on veterans. They traded for Josh Giddey last week and agreed to terms on a new five-year deal with free agent Patrick Williams over the weekend.
The Chicago Bulls are making some great moves and getting younger. They will lose DeMar DeRozan in free agency and that’s actually going to be addition by subtraction. I don’t think they will be able to move the 3 years $138 million left on Zach LaVine contract because it’s one of the worst in the NBA. I think Zach LaVine is a really nice player and can be a third option on a championship caliber team but he’s a major injury prone.
The offseason is a win if they move Zach or Vuch, most likely Vuch for draft picks.
DeMar is DeGone
This guy should’ve been plan B for the Knicks if IH walked.
Probably the most underrated player on the market. Good deal for Bulls.
He is going to be a really strong fit next to Patrick Williams, at the 5 for them. They’ve needed a floor spacer and smallball 5 option for years. This is going to be 1 of their best signings in a long time, in my opinion
White
LaVine
Giddey
Williams
Vucevic
With a rotation of Ayo, Phillips, Buzelis, Bitim, and Smith, and this roster is beginning to take shape and looks pretty good with a nice young core locked up moving forward.
I’m excited to see what these younger Bulls look like together, and at the deadline they can look to move Vucevic, Craig, and LaVine in order to try and obtain some assets once they’re able to regain some value and teams get more desperate.
Buzelis should start over Zach
Yeah. I don’t want Zach starting at SF but he’s gonna have to take minutes away from Coby, unfortunately.
Giddey is the point guard and Coby is a shooting guard, Zach is gonna steal minutes and shots from Coby at the 2 and Buzelis at the 3, Vucevic HAS to be moved at any cost, Jaylen Smith should start with PWill and Buzelis and they should just accept they are absolutely horrible this season
That’s a good signing for the Bulls.
I called this! I think it’s a smart move
I wanted him or Mo Bamba. Good deal either way.