Jalen Smith is getting a second chance with the Chicago Bulls.
A year ago, Smith seemed set for one of the most straightforward jobs in the NBA. He signed a three-year, $27 million deal to play behind starting center Nikola Vučević, joining the roster as a rare summer addition.
For the first half of the season, Smith’s job was simple. He logged 8.4 points, 5.4 rebounds and 0.7 blocks in 15 minutes per game. It wasn’t flashy, but Smith was a steady and reliable backup who could keep up with the heightened pace of the Bulls offense.
But things changed at the trade deadline. On Feb. 3, the Bulls finally sent Zach LaVine to the Sacramento Kings in a three-team deal that included center Zach Collins, a longtime backup in San Antonio and Portland. Two weeks later, Smith went into concussion protocol after taking a hard hit to the head in the first half of a game against the New York Knicks.
Smith missed three games in recovery. And in his absence, Collins excelled. By the time Smith was cleared, his rotation spot had slipped out of his hands. His playing time yo-yoed from 26 minutes one night to a healthy scratch four nights later. Smith was held out of nine of the last 31 games of the season with a “coach’s decision” designation.
The shift was sudden and came without warning. But entering his second season in Chicago, Smith took it as a reminder — no role in the NBA should be taken for granted.
“At the end of the day, this is a big-boy’s league,” Smith said. “You can’t be salty over stuff like that. It was out of my control. I got a concussion, Zach started playing well. If I was the coach, I would’ve made the same decision.”
Smith doesn’t carry any resentment over losing his backup role. But he also wants it back. And the start of this season has offered a prime opportunity to regain his foothold as the second-string big man.
Collins clearly held on to his advantage as the preferred backup center throughout training camp, only to suffer a fractured left wrist a week before the opener. The center underwent surgery on Oct. 18 and will miss at least the first four weeks of the season.
The injury was another lesson in the fleeting nature of roster hierarchy. Smith has regained the backup role as quickly as he had lost it. So what can the center do to keep his share of minutes after Collins returns?
Center has become somewhat of a de-emphasized position for the Bulls over the last season due to the team’s increased emphasis on an up-tempo style. But as they shift their focus to the defensive side of the ball, the presence of a big man as an anchor in the paint is especially crucial.
The Bulls gave up 54 points per game in the paint last season — the worst in the league and a dismal reflection of the defense’s inability to challenge opponents at the basket.
“We were one of the worst teams at protecting the rim last year,” Smith said. “That’s something we want to improve on, not allowing teams to completely walk into the paint.”
For the Bulls, shutting off this stream of scoring is one of the primary objectives of the season. The team feels confident in its new style of offense, which began to pay dividends in the latter half of last season after Coby White and Josh Giddey were fully handed the reins. But scoring can only do so much.
Team defense is the ultimate antidote to paint scoring. Centers operate as the final line of defense at the rim, but paint scoring is also a symptom of poor rotation and low activity at the point of attack by guards and wings. Smith and Vučević are not the most stalwart of defensive centers, especially in one-on-one situations and guarding over-the-top play. Collins was a welcome change from that theme, a physical wrecking ball who never shied from contact, creating a more rigorous obstacle for opposing attackers around the rim.
At 6-foot-9, Smith is a bit undersized to battle with some of the lengthier centers in the league. Still, he wants to take a simple approach toward defense this season: make opponents wary of his physical presence.
“That’s the best thing about basketball — getting to hit,” Smith said with a grin. “Obviously outside of football, we don’t really get to take people out, but it’s just that bump and grind. This is what we live for. This is what we do as kids, outside in the park.”
If Smith wants to win back his role, he’ll need to lean into the childhood glee of playing a bruising style of basketball.
And for now, the backup role is his — to win or to lose.