Bobby Portis, Bulls Fail to Reach Agreement on Contract Extension

Chicago Bulls forward Bobby Portis is set to be a restricted free agent following the 2018-19 NBA season after he and the team failed to agree to an extension before Monday's 5 p.m. ET deadline, the Chicago Tribune's K.C. Johnson reported.

Portis' agent, Mark Bartelstein, remained upbeat about the situation.

"We had very positive talks," Bartelstein said. "These are hard extensions to get done. A lot of effort was put in by both sides. At the end, we said, 'Let's revisit this in the spring.'"

A number of other players from the 2015 draft class received extensions ahead of free agency next summer.

Karl-Anthony Towns agreed to a five-year, $190 million extension with the Minnesota Timberwolves last month. Yahoo Sports' Chris Haynes reported Monday that Larry Nance Jr. re-upped with the Cleveland Cavaliers for four years and $45 million. According to The Athletic's Shams Charania, Myles Turner will stay with the Indiana Pacers after committing to a four-year, $80 million contract.

When it comes to Portis, though, waiting to let him hit the open market made the most sense. The Bulls will still be able to match any offer sheet he receives as long as they extend him the $3.6 million qualifying offer.

Too much remains unknown about Portis to justify a lucrative long-term extension.

He's coming off a 2017-18 season in which he set career highs in points (13.2), rebounds (6.8) and assists (1.7).

It's hard to say, though, whether those numbers are an accurate barometer of Portis' value. The Bulls won 27 games and were particularly starved of talent after losing Zach LaVine to injury and trading Nikola Mirotic in February.

Ideally, Portis can be utilized as a stretch 4, but he has hit only 34.5 percent of his career attempts from three-point range. He has improved over each of his first three seasons, so he might prove himself a more consistent threat from beyond the arc in 2018-19. Now, the Bulls have the luxury of seeing whether that happens.

Most importantly of all, Chicago can't really know whether Portis can occupy the same frontcourt as both Jabari Parker and Lauri Markkanen, all of whom are relatively similar offensive players.

While the Bulls experimented with bringing Parker off the bench in the preseason, that doesn't seem likely to last long since he's making $40 million over the next two years.

Having Parker and Portis play together would likely mean Parker moving over to small forward, which isn't his best position. Especially coming off multiple major knee injuries, having him guard more athletic forwards would be risky.

Earlier this summer, the Bulls got burned in restricted free agency. The Sacramento Kings gave LaVine a four-year, $78 million offer sheet, which Chicago ultimately matched.

Perhaps the same thing will happen with Portis, but overpaying him in 2019—after having a better idea of his fit in the franchise's long-term plans—is preferable to re-signing him now and then regretting it during the 2018-19 season.