Chicago Bulls Weekly Grade Report: March 27 Edition

Mar 22, 2017; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Denzel Valentine (45) reacts during the first half against the Detroit Pistons at the United Center. Mandatory Credit: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports

Small Forward Grades

I think Fred is trying to kill Jimmy.

Jimmy Butler – Grade: A

Butler has been having a rough go of it lately. It appears that he’s both very fatigued and probably also playing through an injury or two. Probably two. Hoiberg has been playing him way too many minutes and that is very bad. It’s the kind of thing that fans, beat writers and basketball bloggers killed Tom Thibodeau for back in the Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah days. He AVERAGED 39.6 minutes per game and that should never happen to your best player two weeks before playoffs start. Huge highlights for Butler this week include a new career mark in steals for a season, he’s at 130 with eight games to go. His previous best was 127. He’s also shattered his best season for assists and he got a bunch of those this week. He set a new personal best for assists in a single game at 14, but had more than 10 assists in three straight games. In fact, that’s the first time that he’s had three consecutive games with 10+ assists in his entire career. Jimmy just keeps getting better.

Anthony Morrow – Grade: C-

Morrow played this week for the first time since March 8. One game he played three minutes and hit a 3-pointer. The other game, he played 18 minutes and scored 10 points. He also had zero rebounds, zero assists, zero steals, and zero blocks. Not doing much, was better off cheering from the bench.

Denzel Valentine – Grade: D+

Valentine is getting a great amount of floor time and playing every night, but he only shot 27.6 percent from the field and basically has a 2:1 turnover ratio. I think he’ll be fine, eventually, but this isn’t a good showing and this season hasn’t been a thrilling ride for the observer.