Jim Boylen continued to lay out the plan for Denzel Valentine to finally earn his way back into some minutes.
Maybe even a path back into the rotation.
“He’s an unbelievable worker,’’ the Bulls coach said of Valentine on Friday. “Denzel is a great kid. He’s out of the rotation right now, and that happens in this league. He can be back in the rotation at any moment. One thing can trigger that. What his challenge is, is continue to work, stay locked in, and that’s part of the pro part.’’
Sounds simple.
Far from it, however.
Valentine is closer to working his way into a trade to play elsewhere than becoming a rotational contributor for his current team.
That’s become very clear the last week for the former first-round pick [14th overall] from the 2016 NBA Draft.
Even with Otto Porter still out with a bone bruise in the left foot and Chandler Hutchison out with shin soreness, Valentine has the luxury of staying toasty in his warm-ups throughout the game. He’s not only slid behind those two in the wing department, but is also behind Shaquille Harrison and Ryan Arcidiacono, keeping him out of the rotation.
With the Bulls season going from playoff promise to embarrassment in the wake of how they showed up against Miami, there could very well be an organizational decision to start throwing excess baggage overboard, and Valentine would be the perfect candidate for that.
The Bulls have to make a financial decision on him after the season, and other organizations are always willing to take a chance on a former first-round pick that just may need a change of scenery.
By the way, a former first-round pick that shot 38.6 percent from three-point range in the 2017-18 season, which would currently rank him fourth on the Bulls this season.
Valentine spoke to the Sun-Times last week about his current mindset, and insisted that he wasn’t frustrated with the decisions being made with his playing time.
“I can only control what I can control,’’ Valentine said.
That attitude remains the same, which screams “get me out of here.’’
The good news for him is that he’s still practicing hard and doing whatever’s asked of him, according to Boylen.
“I have not sensed any frustration with him at all,’’ Boylen said. “He’s been locked in.’’
Bench mob II?
With the starters basically a no-show early on against the Heat, Boylen went to the bench early to try and stop the bleeding.
It slowed Miami down a bit, but was more speed bump than obstacle.
That second unit had been playing better before Jimmy Butler & Co. came to town, and the hope is they can continue to turn into something special. “Bench Mob-like’’ even.
“We just want to be tough, hard-playing dudes,’’ Arcidiacono said. “We have that with the guys we have out there. We share the ball. We don’t really care who scores. Try and bring energy to the game. Either extend the lead or get the lead back.’’
Speaking of …
Boylen offered up very little updates for his forwards, and that’s because not much has changed.
Porter is still over a week out from having his left foot re-assessed for a new timetable to then be drawn up, while Hutchison will travel to Charlotte Saturday, but likely won’t play.
The second-year forward has been dealing with shin issues, and they want to be very cautious with Hutchison, especially with how long the left hamstring issue slowed him down at the start of the season.
