Amid the Bulls’ two headline-grabbing offseason trades and the heavily criticized re-signing of Patrick Williams, the team’s three-year, $27 million investment in Jalen Smith slipped largely under the radar.
Although it’s safe to say that signing Smith to a deal worth nearly $30 million wasn’t the soundest investment, it still paled in comparison to the Bulls’ other missteps—sending All-Defensive guard Alex Caruso to Oklahoma City for a then-flawed Josh Giddey, dumping six-time All-Star DeMar DeRozan for essentially nothing, and handing $90 million to a player with a career scoring average under 10 points per game.
A risky move that didn’t inspire confidence
In his first season in the Windy City, Smith averaged 8.