NEW YORK \u2014 Coach Billy Donovan would have loved to go at bigger teams with a two-big-man lineup last season, especially after the Bulls acquired Zach Collins just before the trade deadline.<\/p>\n
There was one issue, however: Jalen Smith wasn\u2019t effective when Donovan used the look.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t that Smith wouldn\u2019t do it. But every time he was out there, it just wasn\u2019t working. Whether it was Smith with Collins, Smith with Nikola Vucevic or Smith as the lone big man on the court, there seemed to be too many empty minutes from a player the Bulls had been excited to pluck out of free agency months earlier.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how Smith went from being a key rotation piece at the start of the 2024-25 season to an end-of-the-bench guy who was in and out of the rotation by April. It wasn\u2019t what anyone saw coming.<\/p>\n
It also forced Smith to get to work during the offseason.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018Lots of times when they threw me out there last year, I wasn\u2019t being impactful,\u2019\u2019 Smith said. \u2018\u2018I was getting targeted [by the defense] a lot. I wasn\u2019t rebounding. I wasn\u2019t really doing anything to help the team. This year, my main goal coming in was to try and do whatever I can to stay on the court. If I\u2019ve gotta rebound, I\u2019ve gotta rebound. If I\u2019ve gotta block shots, I block shots.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018It\u2019s about being ready at any point and time. I felt my preparation this summer with the player-development [coaches] helped out a lot. We worked on a lot of different situations, playing [power forward and center], with the main goal of just coming in and trying to impact the game as much as possible. Try to be overall a consistent player for the team and to try and help them win. They\u2019ve trusted me, and now I\u2019ve just got to continue.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
He had better. As good as Smith has been off the bench this season, the Bulls are still 19-22 and trapped in play-in mediocrity. There are a lot of reasons why, but Smith \u2014 who goes by \u2018\u2018Stix\u2019\u2019 \u2014 isn\u2019t one of them.<\/p>\n
His 18.7 minutes per game are the most he has played since 2022-23 with the Pacers. He\u2019s averaging 9.4 points and 6.7 rebounds and is tied for third on the team in charges drawn. Whatever it takes to make an impact.<\/p>\n
But those numbers don\u2019t tell the full story.<\/p>\n
Smith finished last season minus-36 in plus\/minus. Not only does he lead the Bulls in that category through 41 games this season, but nobody is even close to his plus-61. Only two other players on the roster are even on the plus side: Collins at plus-18 and guard Coby White at plus-10.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018He\u2019s been great for us, honestly,\u2019\u2019 Vucevic said. \u2018\u2018Playing [power forward and center], different situations, different positions. He\u2019s done a great job for us protecting the paint, rebounding the ball, bringing us some physicality. I\u2019ve enjoyed being out on the court with him. I think our two-big lineup helps us, and I think we have good chemistry. Yeah, he\u2019s been doing a lot for us. When \u2018Stix\u2019 plays that way and he\u2019s aggressive, it makes us a much better team.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
It also gives the Bulls\u2019 front office some options if executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas decides to pull the trigger on a deal. What if momentum for a deal sending Vucevic to the Warriors picks up again? What if a team makes a play for Collins and his expiring contract?<\/p>\n
Smith has shown enough this season to be a bridge guy for the Bulls in either scenario.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018At the end of the day, it\u2019s about how I stand out with the four other guys I\u2019m playing with,\u2019\u2019 Smith said. \u2018\u2018It\u2019s doing what it takes to stay out there.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 Coach Billy Donovan would have loved to go at bigger teams with a two-big-man lineup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-420296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}