Denzel Valentine is the newest member of the Chicago Bulls.
Valentine is a 6-foot-6 guard/forward hybrid out of Michigan State University. He started all four years under Tom Izzy and improved every year, going from a 28.1% three point shooter in his freshman year to a 44.1% last season.
He averaged 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.8 assists per game in his final year as a Spartan. While not the most athletic player, he is a very smart, heady basketball mind with a high IQ on court.
The Bulls love players that are mature as well as upperclassmen and Valentine fits that mold. He can play immediately and figures to have a decent role going forward, maybe even starting next to Jimmy Butler at some point in the year.
With the fourteenth pick in the 2016 #NBADraft the @chicagobulls select @denzelvalentine pic.twitter.com/1kxQNgGd6H
— NBA (@NBA) June 24, 2016
There are questions about his knees going forward, which is nothing new to Bulls fans. While he only missed 4 games in college, he’s said to have “Brandon Roy” type knees that will eventually degenerate. Still, Roy had seven productive seasons in the NBA and while his story is one that you wish you would’ve wished to see play out fully, seven years is great production to get out of a draft pick.
Now the question becomes did the Bulls take him to keep or to package in part of a larger deal? Stay tuned.
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