Who is Jalen Smith; What Can He Bring to the Bulls?

Who is Jalen Smith; What Can He Bring to the Bulls?

so free agency is starting to kick up in high gear now with more and more signings coming in throughout the league and of course for the Bulls we got the word on their first signing in free agency that wasn’t one of their own free agents the big man from the Indiana Pacers former number 10 overall pick from the 2020 draft and Jaylen Smith and since the signing I’ve had some people ask uh who is this guy I’ve never heard of him and because I know we have Watchers on this channel from all different levels of interest in the NBA whether it be the most Avid follower of the league to a casual Watcher who just enjoys the game of basketball so I thought I’d do a deeper dive into who Jaylen Smith is for those Bulls fans who maybe aren’t as familiar with him his game what he can bring to the Bulls and also what it means for the rest of the bulls and their offseason with this signing so what’s going on everyone you’re listening to Bull Central here hope you’re all doing well now I mentioned this in the video from earlier this morning but the Bulls have signed Jaylen Smith to a three-year $27 million deal which they likely will use the bulk of the mid-level exception for this signing this also hard caps the Bulls which limits their ability to sign additional players as well as find a potential sign and trade for DeMar Frozen because they aren’t able to take back more money than they send out at this point but we’ll talk about that in a little bit and the impact that has on the Bulls and the rest of their offseason but let’s talk about Jaylen Smith where he comes from what he brings and why this is actually a good low-risk potentially High reward signing so Jaylen Smith coming out of high school was actually one of the top prospects of his class in 2018 was ranked 16th overall and a five-star recruit with a 93 overall grade from ESPN he would go on to play college basketball for the Maryland terrains and it was expected that Smith was most likely going to be a oneandone college player and declare for the draft in 2019 and while Smith had a solid freshman season in which he put up near 12 points per game seven rebounds and 1.2 blocks he was projected at that time to be a mid to late first rounder in the draft and thus he decided to stay for a sophomore season in college to really up his value and of course would have a dominant sophomore season where he would put up numbers in being a double double machine putting up over 15 points per game and 10 rebounds and two and a half blocks he would go on to be named third team All-American and first team all big 10 unfortunately though for Smith and every other NCA athlete that year the season would abruptly end with no March Madness Tournament due to the pandemic but Smith given his success and draft projection and likely being a top 10 pick would declare for the draft in 2020 and was selected by the Phoenix Suns 10th overall now right away in his rookie season it was clear Smith was not NBA ready this was going to be a project player that needed significant development and with the Suns and their rapid rise of success going from being a lottery team to the NBA finals in 2021 just did not have time to wait for a player like Jaylen Smith to develop nor did they have the rotation minutes and opportunities for Smith to get any kind of run and initially people were talking about Jaylen Smith being a bust and how the Suns really blew this pick when they could have had a player like Tyrese halberton Smith would barely play in his rookie season spending a good amount of time in the g- league and after not even a season and a half with the Suns they would trade him for parts to the Indiana Pacers at the 2022 trade deadline where they would send the Pacers a second round pick and Smith in exchange for none other than current Bulls player Tory Craig and right away when you saw Smith being given more opportunity on a Pacers team at the time were in a bit of a rebuild they just traded sabonis for Tyrese halberton and in finishing out the final 22 games of the Season Smith averaged 13.4 points per game on 7.6 rebound shooting 37% from three on 3.8 attempts per game a true shooting percentage of 62% very efficient on offense that said his numbers did dip The Following season and of course last season as well with the Pacers emerging as a ending team after the SE yakum trade which would give Smith less run and opportunity but even then last season he still put up 10 points per game 5.5 rebounds and shot 42% from three albe it on low volume and while playing 17 minutes per game so a pretty productive player overall when given the minutes he’s a big that can space the floor which the Bulls need but also finish around the basket using his length to grab offensive rebounds for Second Chance points I think the biggest concern here is he hasn’t been great on defense he actually was a solid Defender and rim protector in college but that has not been the case in the NBA going up against some of the best players on the planet he often times gets lost in the pick and roll has a hard time staying in front of his man and getting beat off the dribble and I do think it’s a bit telling that Smith could barely crack the rotation in the playoffs which again to be fair rotations are always going to be short in the postseason and it’s not like Smith was the first or second guy coming off the bench for the Pacers but regardless all of that is to say that yes there are downsides to Jaylen Smith and sure there is a world where this signing doesn’t really pan out and he doesn’t amount to much in the NBA but but honestly the way I look at it and the fact that the Bulls are going down this youth movement route and probably going to lose a lot of games next year it doesn’t really matter this upcoming season at this point does not matter outside of just focusing on Player Development seeing if you can get some breakout Seasons from some of these younger guys and hopefully having this be fun basketball even if they are losing I mean watching a season where you’re expected to lose and having low expectations is vastly better than watching a team that is unintentionally losing with high expectations and so I guess the point in all this is to say if this doesn’t work out with Smith it’s not really going to impact the Bulls long term it’s a shorter term agreement it’s on a team-friendly deal so it’s a movable contract should they want to package it in a trade the Bulls aren’t trying to contend now so it’s not like they need immediate impact players like they needed impact players last year’s free agency but should Jaylen Smith thrive in a new role on a young team in a new environment he’s only 24 so hasn’t even entered his prime yet we’ve talked about this before but development is not always linear and so there is a world where you can see jayen Smith breaking out at say age 25 or 26 not saying he’s going to be a star he’ll never be that type of player but a highlevel contributor who fits the mold of a modern-day big that can help the Bulls in this next era of Bulls basketball now I mentioned this signing and how it’s going to impact what else the Bulls do because they are now hard capped after making this move and the only way they can make additional moves is by way of Trades which we’re obviously still holding out to see if there will be a deal for Zack LaVine although the market according to reports is still very baren at this point and then as it relates to Demar and a potential signing TR trade that is becoming increasingly more unlikely as the Bulls would one have to take back less salary in return in a sign and trade deal and two depending on the figure Demar is looking for a new contract the Bulls aren’t going to be willing to bring back a lot of salary in return because it would put them over the luxury tax and without a clear path for trading Zack LaVine they’re not going to be willing to do that and would most likely prefer to just let dear walk than agreeing to take on a bad contract that would put them over the tax I’m not saying it’s out of the realm of possibility and there have been reports the Lakers are eyeing dear to pay him that full midlevel exception and maybe there is a way where they could work out a sign and trade for a player like rui haimura but that would still put the bullets over the attack so I don’t know they really need to move Zack LaVine in order to make all of this work that’s what it really boils down to otherwise it’s a much more likely scenario that they let Demar walk for nothing because they won’t be able to afford him to stay and they won’t be able to afford moving him in a sign and Tra given how close they are to the luxury tax at this point in time dear’s also in a tough spot as well because he went from potentially commanding $40 million per year a deal that was apparently on the table from the Bulls in an extension for 2 years and he turned it down to now the market drying up a bit with teams now having little to no cap space to sign him and sign and trades no longer being an option for the Bulls thus dear is now forced into a situation where he’s going to have to take the mid-level exception from a few teams who actually even have that available to them because a team like the Clippers who Demar was being linked to the most no longer have that exception after they gave most of it to Derrik Jones Jr so the Lakers or the Sixers are the most likely options at this point but even then it’s going to be hard to make a deal work and dear’s going to have to take significantly less money than what was initially thought it’ll be interesting to see how these next few days pan out hell even these next few hours who knows maybe dear is already signed with a team by the time I upload this that’s how fast things move in the NBA during free agency but let me know your guys’ thoughts on the bowl signing Jaylen Smith let me know in the comments as always be sure to subscribe and I’ll see you in the next one

Discussing who Jalen Smith is, his game and what he can bring to the Chicago Bulls this season

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