VALENTINE’S VALUE NOT IN THE FORMULA
Numbers suggest underused guard is a help for Bulls, whose strategies are often suspect
The Bulls spent a lot of time defending their analytics at the start of the season. The mid-range game had been removed from many of their players’ arsenals, especially early in the shot clock. Instead, players were asked to rely on three-pointers or attacking the rim.
“Modern basketball” was the phrase used. With the NBA on pause during the coronavirus shutdown, now in its third week, the Bulls sit ninth overall in three-point attempts per game with 35.1. But they’re only 24th in percentage of three-pointers made.
“Modern basketball” looks more like a case of square peg, round hole.
Guard Denzel Valentine laughed when privately asked about the analytics earlier in the season — not because he necessarily agreed or disagreed with what the front office and coaching staff wanted in each player’s shot profile, but because of what he felt they were all overlooking: him.
In the 21 games in which Valentine played 12 minutes or more, the Bulls are 8-13 (.380). Not good, you say? Four of those losses were blowout losses in which he played mop-up minutes. In competitive games in which he played at least 12 minutes, the Bulls are 8-9 (.471). When the hiatus began, their overall winning percentage was .338.
Valentine never said he could have turned the Bulls’ fortunes around, but the 14th overall pick from the 2016 draft did suggest there were too many days spent in coach Jim Boylen’s doghouse, too many coach’s decisions to keep him out of the game and too many other games in which he didn’t get a chance to contribute.
“I’m definitely not happy about it,’’ he told the Sun-Times in January. “I’m a competitor. I want to play, I want to be productive. I want to help the team win. But that’s out of my control, so I’m not about to let it make [me] not happy every day.”
Earlier this month, when asked about Boylen’s job status, Valentine didn’t exactly throw his coach a life preserver. Was the locker room still listening to Boylen?
“I mean, he has a voice,” Valentine said. “He’s been our coach all year, so, hey, whatever happens to him is what happens. But for now, he’s our coach. It is what it is.”
It’s unclear what will happen to Valentine this upcoming offseason — whenever that may be — when he becomes a restricted free agent. But it appears obvious he’d like to be elsewhere, especially if the current coaching staff stays intact.