Denzel Valentine Playing Point Guard

The NBA is full of surprises and the Chicago Bulls are no exception. Now, we have this: Denzel Valentine playing point guard.

It’s the first week of training camp and things are already getting weird for the Bulls. Fred Hoiberg announced that the battle for the starting spot at power forward was open, Derrick Rose discussed being appreciated by Chicago, and Joakim Noah side-stepped the drama of a “low blow” from Jerry Reinsdorf.

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This isn’t a big stretch for the talented former AP Player of the Year. Valentine primarily functions as a guard, so simply moving over to cover some of the ball handling duties and team management. The part that sticks out is when Valentine states that it is approximately at 70-30 split, where he spends approximately 30 percent of his on-court time playing point guard.

According the K.C. Johnson’s report for the Chicago Tribune, “Valentine estimated he has played about 70 percent of the time at the two wing spots of shooting guard and small forward and 30 percent at point guard.”

It doesn’t seem like the numbers would be accurate given the depth Chicago has in camp. Beyond offseason signing Rajon Rondo, the Bulls also brought in Jerian Grant, Spencer Dinwiddie and Isaiah Canaan. Each of those players is primarily a point guard. The more likely scenario is that Valentine is being groomed for the backup two-guard spot. Dwyane Wade is an all-time great, but well beyond the days of playing 80 or more games per year and only averaged 30.5 minutes per game last season.

In Johnson’s piece on the Valentine point guard development, Hoiberg is quoted with praise for the great passing ability of Valentine and reference how that can free up other shooters. Still, the team doesn’t have a lot of consistent, high-percentage shooters from beyond the arc. And that is, in part, the role Valentine is supposed to fill.

On his role with the Bulls, Valentine added this:

"“I want to play-make as best I can when I’m at point guard. I think it will be important to bring versatility to our team, being able to guard point guard through small forward. Anything I can do to help the team.”"

Further making this whole situation bizarre, Valentine playing point guard is now hand-in-hand with the ability to play defense three at least three positions. This comes not long after Jimmy Butler praised the defense of Valentine at media day.

For a different perspective on Valentine, you should check out the Locked On Bulls podcast. Sean Highkin and Cody Westerlund go a little bit deeper on Valentine and are higher on his potential in that position. They also suggest that means Isaiah Canaan and Jerian Grant could slide over, making Valentine the primary backup point guard. The episode has great information and I suggest you check it out.

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There is no body of work for Valentine to either prove or disprove the claims, but 35.2 percent field goal shooting in summer league wasn’t good. Nor was his slow, porous defense. If that was just a seven-game funk, all the better for Chicago. We’ll just have to take his word for it until we can see for ourselves when the Bulls take the court for the first time this season on Monday, October 3.