The first day of 2019 NBA free agency was one of the craziest in league history, with All-Star players like Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Jimmy Butler, Kemba Walker, D’Angelo Russell, and Al Horford all changing teams within the first few hours.
In addition to all of the All-Star players, a ton of role players got hefty contracts as well, taking some of the top options off the board for the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Lakers have had a quiet day on the free agency market as they are waiting to see how the Kahwi Leonard situation plays out before shifting their focus to other options to use their roughly $32 million in cap space on.
One player that it looks like they missed out on is one of their own as Shams Charania of The Athletic is reporting that Reggie Bullock has agreed to a two-year, $21 million deal with the New York Knicks:
Free agent Reggie Bullock has agreed to two-year, $21M deal to sign with the New York Knicks, agent David Bauman of ISE Basketball tells @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 1, 2019
The Lakers had hopes of retaining Bullock but considering they are using their cap space wisely on either Leonard or role players to surround LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Kyle Kuzma with, they likely would not have come close to what the Knicks offered Bullock.
Bullock was acquired at the 2018-19 NBA trade deadline from the Detroit Pistons in exchange for Svi Mykhailiuk, who the Lakers were very high on.
The hope was that Bullock would bring the team a much-needed shooter as they made one last run at the playoffs, but it didn’t end up working out as planned.
In 19 games for the Lakers, Bullock averaged 9.3 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 1.1 assists while shooting 41.2% from the field and 34.3% from three-point range. He is a career 39.2% shooter from deep, so the Knicks will be hoping he can regain that form.
Going into this free agency period, the Knicks had high hopes as they cleared up two max salary slots by trading Kristaps Porzingis at last year’s deadline. They hoped to lure both Durant and Irving to New York and while that wound up happening, it was with the Brooklyn Nets — not the Knicks.
Instead, the Knicks have spent their cap space on Bullock, Julius Randle, and Bobby Portis, which should help them attempt to compete for the 2019-20 NBA season with their young core in place.
