FA: Reggie Bullock to DAL for 3 yrs/$30.5M (using MLE)

[Bayliss]

Bullock is basically Danny Green.  Which is fine for a contending team.  The Mavs aren’t there yet and unless they get secondary hall handler they will never be a contender.

[ItsGoTime]

Bullock is basically Danny Green.  Which is fine for a contending team.  The Mavs aren’t there yet and unless they get secondary hall handler they will never be a contender.

They will when they trade KP/JB/DFS/Powell for Dragic/Siakam/Boucher!

[ReunionMav]

I watched him play some with the Knicks. I was mad at him. Why are you playing so good. He is a very good pick up at probably a plus value. He will help. I think there will be more trades later. The Mav are nothing if not patient.

[ThisIStheYear]

Well it has to, unless you think he plays for the minimum. I bet it´s also the full MLE. This franchise is out of control.

They have signed

Bullock
Brown
THJ
Boban

and we are down to the 10.8 TPE to upgrade the rest of the roster!!!

Can you really sit there and lie to yourself saying that this was your idea of the MLE+ BaE?

Furthermore this now gives Ujiri all the leverage, cause where else are we supposed to get play-making from the open market now? Ujiri probably figured Dragic wasn´t so bad for Lowry, cause he can bend over the Mavs and generate his value there.

So far, this is much worse than I expected. Bullock and Brown, two barely replacement level guys.  And that’s it?  Jeez.  Why even bother. At best, the Mavs have upgraded the bottom of the rotation, or the deep bench, because JRich is even worse, but these moves so far will have no real impact until a trade is made that brings back a good player, where they’re outgoing or maybe stepping into a role for an outgoing player.

Edit:  and I don’t want to be too hard on Bullock. He’s okay. Maybe the fifth or sixth best player off a mediocre Knicks roster in a career year, but he’s a contributor. You need players like that. But if he’s the pinnacle of the Mavs off-season, what a waste. Other than money, I can’t see why Luka would stick around.  So yes, I’m disappointed.

[jesusshuttlesworth82]

Hopefully we are getting this year's version of Bullock. 
He's basically Wes Mathews.  Tries on D but not quick enough to be anything more than a solid defender.  If he's shooting >38% from three, solid starter.  If not, he's a bench player.

[Hypermav]

Detroit fan said this about the signing of Bullock.

"He was Detroit's best perimeter defender when he was here, and he shot 40%+ from 3. He does not need the ball on his hands to impact the game and is really good running around screens to get open. I love his game.

He is a competent defender, not a lockdown defender, but he is 6'7 and has a great BBIQ. I was furious when we traded him for Svi and a bad 2nd. People still make fun of me for being mad, because he didn't do that great and at one point Svi was looking great for us, but I always insisted that it was dumb to let him go. The guy is good.

His main problem is, after we traded him and later he signed with the Knicks, he had some injuries, and before we give him his first contract (after his rookie deal), his main issue was staying healthy.

That's why he only got paid 7.5 mil for 3 years at that time, he was always injured. But once he got his extension he was healthy and quickly became a starter for us.

His skillset is worth more than 10 mil per year imo (high BBIQ, one of the best 3 point shooters in the league, big and long for a SG/can guard SFs, plus defender), but his injury issues and the fact that his game is not flashy probably make people value him lower than he deserves."

[RedFlag41]

For me, he is not on top of my possible Mid level signing, but he is among the most probable ones I thought. I was not acrually surprise they signed him. I really thought he is one of the possible targets. He fits the Mavs skillwise, gives them depth at the SF position.

[Kammrath]

He is a competent defender, not a lockdown defender

The data definitely supports this. 

If he is HEALTHY, great signing....if his health is patchy, then a so-so signing.

[DallasBasketball]

I havnt been watching basketball at a level where I can say one way or another what a player is, especially one playing in New York. But this guy stood out to me last season in my limited viewing experience. 

So I’m hoping he can be a good fitting piece, and maybe even a player who outperforms his contract. To use a term learned from Carlisle; a force multiplier.

[DanSchwartzgan]

I checked out NY lineups with Bullock last season.  Of the nine most used two-man lineups that include Bullock (so covers top 10 players in the rotation), all are positive except Payton.  In fact, the most positive lineups are with NY's other PG's Rose (+10.2) and Quickly (+13.6). 

The issue is that NY's most used five man lineup (Payton, Bullock, Barrett, Randle and Noel) didn't work (-4.6).  But the next seven most used five man lineups were all positive.  The issue was Payton's D.  NY was 8.5 points worse with him on the floor and 5.9 points of that came on the defensive end.  Hard to blame the catch and shoot 3&D guy...especially when lineups worked really well when Payton wasn't playing.  It made Bullock basically a net neutral to the O and the D when he played.

It is hard to get much out of the stats for Brown.  Houston had the 27th worst Net Rating, D Rating and O Rating in the league.  Brown was a neutral to the offense and improved the D by 3.5 points when he played.  There isn't much consistency to lineup data because they ran so many players through Houston last season.  The best two man combo was when Wall and Brown were in together.  Houston actually had some decent defenders, especially early in the season.  But things were pretty bad after the trades.  In 13 games in January Brown had a net rating of 12.9 with a DRating of 104.  He shot .426 from three and had a TS% of .587.  

One other thing of note about Brown and Bullock is both put up TS%'s right at .600 on offensively challenged teams.  JRich was .537 last season, so either of those guys taking JRich minutes will be a nice lift to offensive efficiency.  Add those two .600 TS%'s to Powell, WCS, Brunson, Finney and Maxi who did the same thing.  THJ was .589 on higher volume than those other guys.  Luka was .587 and KP was .582.  That kind of efficiency should improve our 9th place finish in O-Rating (who you going to leave).  The question is D.  The Dallas D was 4.6 points worse when JRich was in.  We are certainly adding marginal improvement there with the new guys as well.

I won't spend much time on Dragic until he is actually here, but he was a net positive last year spending most of his time quarterbacking the bench unit.  I think we may see more platooning this season as we are 10 deep and there is enough offense on the presumed bench unit of WCS, Maxi, Brown, Dragic and Brunson that the Non-Luka minutes should go better than they have in the recent past.

[Kammrath]

The question is D.  The Dallas D was 4.6 points worse when JRich was in.  We are certainly adding marginal improvement there with the new guys as well.

Yeah, Bullock's D impact was less than I am was expecting based on reputation (but he does have elite D in regard to perimeter shooting, holding opponents to like 30% shooting on the perimeter). 

However, I think JR's D was truly the weak link for the Mavs last year. My eyes told me that and the stats told me that. 

So even if Bullock is only an average and solid D player, I think he will be a HUGE improvement from JR, who consistently allowed penetration and whose opponents shot 40% from the perimeter.

[KillerLeft]

I checked out NY lineups with Bullock last season.  Of the nine most used two-man lineups that include Bullock (so covers top 10 players in the rotation), all are positive except Payton.  In fact, the most positive lineups are with NY's other PG's Rose (+10.2) and Quickly (+13.6). 

The issue is that NY's most used five man lineup (Payton, Bullock, Barrett, Randle and Noel) didn't work (-4.6).  But the next seven most used five man lineups were all positive.  The issue was Payton's D.  NY was 8.5 points worse with him on the floor and 5.9 points of that came on the defensive end.  Hard to blame the catch and shoot 3&D guy...especially when lineups worked really well when Payton wasn't playing.  It made Bullock basically a net neutral to the O and the D when he played.

It is hard to get much out of the stats for Brown.  Houston had the 27th worst Net Rating, D Rating and O Rating in the league.  Brown was a neutral to the offense and improved the D by 3.5 points when he played.  There isn't much consistency to lineup data because they ran so many players through Houston last season.  The best two man combo was when Wall and Brown were in together.  Houston actually had some decent defenders, especially early in the season.  But things were pretty bad after the trades.  In 13 games in January Brown had a net rating of 12.9 with a DRating of 104.  He shot .426 from three and had a TS% of .587.  

One other thing of note about Brown and Bullock is both put up TS%'s right at .600 on offensively challenged teams.  JRich was .537 last season, so either of those guys taking JRich minutes will be a nice lift to offensive efficiency.  Add those two .600 TS%'s to Powell, WCS, Brunson, Finney and Maxi who did the same thing.  THJ was .589 on higher volume than those other guys.  Luka was .587 and KP was .582.  That kind of efficiency should improve our 9th place finish in O-Rating (who you going to leave).  The question is D.  The Dallas D was 4.6 points worse when JRich was in.  We are certainly adding marginal improvement there with the new guys as well.

I won't spend much time on Dragic until he is actually here, but he was a net positive last year spending most of his time quarterbacking the bench unit.  I think we may see more platooning this season as we are 10 deep and there is enough offense on the presumed bench unit of WCS, Maxi, Brown, Dragic and Brunson that the Non-Luka minutes should go better than they have in the recent past.

Thanks so much for this great stuff!

[haveitall]

Seems like Bullock is a typical Mavs culture guy.  This is from May:

https://nypost.com/2021/05/11/knicks-wan...e-bullock/

[vfromlmf]

Kevin Pelton, ESPN "NBA Free Agency 2021, best of...."

Best fit: Reggie Bullock, Dallas Mavericks 

Bullock should be what the Mavericks hoped they were getting in Josh Richardson last season: a strong wing defender who can create space for Luka Doncic. The latter task was the issue for Richardson, who made just 33% of his 3s. Bullock, by contrast, is a 39% career 3-point shooter who hit 41% last season in a 3-and-D role for the Knicks. Ideally, Dallas would have added more shot creation to help take some of that load off Doncic, but at $10 million a year that wasn't a realistic outcome.

[Kammrath]

https://twitter.com/StepBackMavs/status/...2381678594

[Kammrath]

[Kammrath]

https://twitter.com/IsaacLHarris/status/...8403533827

[cow]

Reggie "Miller" Bullock is going to be great for the Mavs.

[Scott41theMavs]

https://twitter.com/IsaacLHarris/status/...8403533827

So they're saying he's a poor man's Crowder.

[Tyler]

https://twitter.com/pandahank41/status/1...56736?s=21