Season over due to knee injury, Valentine wants to start next year
The players on the shelf are starting to pile up for the Chicago Bulls.
On Tuesday, Denzel Valentine joined Zach LaVine, Kris Dunn, Antonio Blakeney and probably Paul Zipser on the list of guys done for the season.
Valentine will have an arthroscopic procedure on his left knee Wednesday. He said the surgery is supposed to be minor and he could resume activity in as few as 10 days. He talked about having a similar procedure during his senior year at Michigan State and missing just four games.
"It bothered me at the beginning of the season for like a couple days," Valentine said before Tuesday's game against Charlotte. "It went away for the rest of the season until we got back from Detroit (on March 24) and I tried to tough it out, played the three games on the road trip.
"Then I went in, took an MRI and found out that I had to have a little cleanup."
Valentine's performance in his second NBA season was mostly positive. He averaged 10.2 points and 5.1 rebounds, adding some versatility to his offensive game in the process. As a rookie, he scored mostly on 3-point baskets, but this year he was able to score more off the dribble using an array of floaters and bank shots.
"I feel like I should have a bigger role next year," Valentine said. "I definitely should be a starter coming in. I definitely want to improve and be a for sure starter on this team.
"I think I can be a consistent player at this level, be somebody they can rely on, somebody who defends, makes shots, makes plays for others, plays the game the right way and is a competitor. So I definitely think I'm a starter in this league."
Simple plays for Valentine:
Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg, back from missing Sunday's game with an illness, talked before the game about Denzel Valentine's progress this season.
"I thought he made really good strides this year as far as making simple plays for the most part," Hoiberg said. "He still has a few of those behind-the-back passes or no-look passes that we need to get rid of, but Denzel is one of the guys on our team that you can put the ball in his hands and trust that he's going to make the right play.
"Defensively he grew in, I thought, a big way. So just the big thing with Denzel this off-season is work on his overall game and continue to work on his body so he can finish off the full 82 next year."
More rest for Lopez:
After starting Sunday against Washington, Robin Lopez was back in rest mode Tuesday as Cristiano Felicio got the start at center against Charlotte.
"We've got four other bigs (including Felicio) we're going to take a pretty close look at," coach Fred Hoiberg said. "Obviously we're taking a very close look at Noah (Vonleh), Bobby (Portis) continues to do great things in not a lot of minutes, and Lauri (Markkanen) will continue to get that 24-26 minute range.
"You look at last game, he was so confident and efficient the way he shot the basketball."
Hoiberg did say he expects Justin Holiday's playing time to increase now that Denzel Valentine is out for the year. Holiday originally was one of the veterans pushed aside after the all-star break, along with Lopez, to get younger guys some playing time.