Bulls’ Jaden Ivey and Jalen Smith both shut down for season due to injury
The Chicago Bulls are shutting down both Jaden Ivey and Jalen Smith for the rest of the season due to injury, the team announced Thursday.
Smith, a forward/center, re-aggravated his right calf injury during Wednesday’s game versus the Philadelphia 76ers. Ivey, meanwhile, has been dealing with a knee injury.
Since January, Smith has missed 12 games due to calf-related injuries. Selected No. 10 in the 2020 draft, Smith has found some stability amid the Bulls’ shakeups.
He started in 21 of his 53 appearances this season, averaging career bests in points (10.2) and rebounds (6.7) per game while shooting a career-high 37.3% from 3. When healthy, Smith was a fixture in Chicago’s rotation, a tweener big who could stretch the floor and occasionally block shots.
After the team’s trade deadline purge, Bulls president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas tabbed Smith, 26, as a member of Chicago’s core moving forward. That group also included Josh Giddey, Matas Buzelis, Isaac Okoro and Noa Essengue.
“We’re intentional about surrounding these core pieces with players who have real NBA experience, along with upcoming draft picks,” Karnišovas said.
Ivey was one of the many players acquired at the deadline, involved in a trade that sent Kevin Huerter to Detroit. At 24 he was also among the few additions who fit the age timeline of Chicago’s aforementioned core.
Trading for Ivey was a buy-low move, a bet on upside for a once tantalizing athlete who suffered a devastating leg injury and has dealt with residual effects since returning. Ivey underwent surgery on his right knee in October and suffered a season-ending broken left leg in January 2025.
Ivey played in the 33 Detroit games that preceded his trade to the Bulls, and then in four games with Chicago, three of those starts.
In his fifth available game, Ivey picked up a DNP (coach’s decision), which then-interim coach Wes Unseld Jr. stated was “strictly a basketball decision.” Both Giddey and Tre Jones returned from injury, adding to an unreasonably crowded guard group.
That night, Ivey told reporters he had been experiencing knee soreness, though not enough to keep him from playing.
“I don’t think it’s something that is gonna limit me or keep me from doing my job, ’cause I’m still able to go and play basketball,” Ivey said.
Ivey then left an eerie message for those wondering what version of him the Bulls might end up with.
“I’ve been dealing with knee soreness in my knee. I’m sure people can call it out — I’m not the same player I used to be,” he said. “That’s why. I’m not the J.I. I used to be. The old J.I. is dead. I’m alive in Christ no matter what the basketball setting is.”
When coach Billy Donovan returned to practice that week, he said that in his view, Ivey didn’t physically look the way he used to on the court.
Tests that week, per Donovan, revealed that “there was some weakness there in the muscles,” and that “it’s just a matter of him having to build back up that leg” after such a catastrophic injury. Chicago’s medical staff spent the time since attempting to strengthen Ivey’s leg.
Ivey returned to practice this past week but banged knees. Now the Bulls, 29-43 and 12th in the Eastern Conference standings with 10 games remaining, have decided to shut down his season.
In the final year of his rookie deal, Ivey will enter restricted free agency this summer.
© 2026 The Athletic Media Company. All Rights Reserved. Distributed by New York Times Licensing.