One minute scout of Jalen Smith
Here's what the Bulls are getting in their new backup center
There has been a lot of box score analysis on the Bulls’ new guys, but not a lot of people have looked at the actual tape. Here’s a one minute scout on what is beyond Jalen Smith’s excellent shooting percentages.
I think Smith is a fine backup, but the Bulls probably overpaid to get him. It’s not a big mistake — three years at $27 million is a totally reasonable gamble on future improvement, and he makes sense given their personnel and timeline. I would rather have had Goga Bitadze, who earned pretty much the same deal.
Overall, I gave the signing a B at Sporting News (where I also graded every other free agency signing). That feels about right.
For just one more lil' million the Bulls could have gotten Jonas Valanciunus instead of Jalen Smith (who I love as power forward). Then they could shop Nikola Vucevic (who I love but the Bulls offense treats like a foster child). If the Bulls have to reboot, they are better off with the consistent production and leadership of DeRozan over Vooch and Zach. Trading Zach should not be this hard. Brooklyn needs a marquee player and the Bulls could bet a young talent in Cameron Johnson. If Clutch Sports wants Darius Garland to leave more than Cleveland wants him to stay, then Zach for Darius makes everybody happy. What would Toronto or Miami offer for Zach? The second apron scares GMs, but everybody has to follow the same rules, and everybody has to try to improve their roster except Boston.