Jalen Smith felt positioned for a decent payday in free agency, but you never quite know how the market will react to a non-star center. Especially not a market as limited as this year’s was.

The big fella did just fine for himself, though.

The Bulls brought him to town on a three-year, $27 million deal. They also provided the implied opportunity to make even more down the line. A Nikola Vučević trade feels like one of the logical next steps of the franchise’s shift toward the future, and depending on how that deal looks, there seems to be at least a decent chance the starting center spot could wind up being Smith’s to lose.

Smith revitalized his career over the past two-plus seasons with the Indiana Pacers, but this is a chance for him to take things even farther. He has never been a full-time starter, but his career per-36-minutes averages of 18.7 points, 11.4 rebounds, 1.7 three-pointers and 1.5 blocks, per Basketball-Reference.com, make it exciting to imagine what he’d do with that kind of opportunity.