Who the Chicago Bulls should’ve drafted in each first round since Derrick Rose
Pick Analysis. Shooting Guard. 2016, No. 14 Overall. Denzel Valentine. 11. player. 24. Scouting Report
The first player on this list that was drafted by the Chicago Bulls and still remains on the roster to this day is the former Michigan State Spartans shooting guard/wing Denzel Valentine. Although, Valentine is in the final year of his rookie contract with the Bulls and he isn’t making a strong case to get re-signed thus far this season.
Valentine returned to action this season after missing the entirety of the 2018-19 campaign. While it looked like the Bulls could really use the added wing depth that Valentine brought to the table, it hasn’t helped out so far. He and small forward Chandler Hutchison didn’t do much to contribute off the bench on the wing (partly due to injury).
Moreover, the Bulls used a pretty high pick to select Valentine in the 2016 draft. He was a veteran two-guard coming out of the heralded Michigan State basketball program that GarPax fell in love with. Valentine was the perfect image that the Bulls were looking for at the time. The Bulls, and some of their fans, are huge on Big Ten hoops products.
But the Bulls could’ve gone in multiple directions in the 2016 draft that would’ve worked out better than Valentine. The biggest name that comes to mind was the first round pick of the Toronto Raptors, forward Pascal Siakam, but that wasn’t all that realistic. A two-guard that had a better shot at getting taken in the lottery was the former Michigan Wolverines sharpshooter Caris LeVert.