I am going from worst-to-first in terms of the free agency landing spots for former players of the Chicago Bulls. To start it all off for a player that was dished out by the Bulls at the 2019 NBA Trade Deadline to the Washington Wizards, Portis wound up landing in a difficult situation with the declining New York Knicks.
There might not be a team that whiffed more on the free agent market to start off the summer than the Knicks. Missing on their two biggest targets with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving to the cross-town rival Brooklyn Nets stings pretty bad. Having to settle for signing down potentially immovable pieces next season like Portis is hard to grasp.
Portis did get his wish of getting more than $15 million in free agency, but the buck stops there with him. Sticking with the Wizards would be a more beneficial move for both sides than going to the Knicks for that amount of money.
The Knicks also landed the former New Orleans Pelicans and Los Angeles Lakers forward Julius Randle in the first day of free agency after striking out on all the big names in this class. This is going to be a very crowded Knicks frontcourt, and Portis needed to land in a better situation than he did on June 30.