Valentine's fresh start with Bulls begins with injury
Denzel Valentine is back with the Bulls.
That's a little surprising, since he didn't play much last season and his rookie contract expired.
He also suffered a hamstring injury during an off-season workout and has yet to participate in training camp. That part is par for the course, considering he missed all of 2018-19 recovering from ankle surgery.
"It's pretty much day by day," Valentine said Wednesday. "I should be back in practice by Saturday. I'll probably miss these (preseason) games this weekend. But I'm planning on playing in the games next week versus OKC. It was just a little tweak in my hamstring."
The logic behind re-signing Valentine goes like this: The Bulls don't have many good 3-point shooters on the roster, and that's something Valentine has done well at times. Plus, he was willing to sign the one-year qualifying offer worth $4.6 million, so this deal won't cut into their 2021 cap space and it's probably more than what Valentine could have gotten on the open market.
"This is my team where I got drafted to. It's kind of like home now," he said. "To be able to give it another try - new management, new coaches, same team with guys that I love. We've got great chemistry, so it's good to be a part of the team again."
Valentine's best results happened in his sophomore season of 2017-18, when he averaged 10.2 points and shot 38.6 percent from 3-point range.
He couldn't build on that performance because of the ankle surgery. He still was getting back into basketball shape when last season began and former coach Jim Boylen left him out of the rotation. Valentine eventually got some playing time due to injuries, but he played in just 36 of 65 games.
"It was tough, my role last year. But, hey, it is what it is," he said. "That's in the past. I'm trying to be as positive as I can moving forward. So I'm just going to embrace what's going on now and look forward and not look in the past and just control what I can control for now."
What new coach Billy Donovan will see from Valentine remains to be seen. At his best, Valentine has the look of a confident scoring specialist who can get hot from 3 and score on the drive. He's not particularly athletic by NBA standards but is a smart defender who gets some steals by anticipating passes.
Donovan talked about the state of the wing positions. Veteran addition Garett Temple has been out with a positive CVD test, Valentine has the hamstring issue, and the Bulls plan to tread carefully with the injury-plagued Otto Porter.
"Knock on wood, Otto has been good," Donovan said. "He's practiced every day. I think he continues to get in better and better shape, but I think based on his history and his past, we want to make sure we're monitoring what we're doing with him. Certainly, him being out there and available is a lot better than him not."
That could mean rookie Patrick Williams getting minutes right away. Chandler Hutchison is also in the mix.
"With Otto and Denzel, we're going to have to look at some different things," Donovan said. "I think that's where Patrick gives you maybe some size, strength, length, physicality at that position to hopefully help. But to the same point too, also lacks the experience of someone like Otto or Denzel."
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