Chicago Bulls: Trade interest reportedly emerging for Denzel Valentine

A recent report indicates that some interest may be growing for the Chicago Bulls’ Denzel Valentine, but should the team even be looking to trade him?

In a recent piece for NBC Sports Chicago, K.C. Johnson discussed Denzel Valentine’s tumultuous season with the Chicago Bulls thus far.

While the article does a great job diving into the odd relationship we’ve seen emerge between Valentine and Jim Boylen this season, the real attention-grabbing element is the reported interest that the Bulls wing is drawing from another team.

According to Johnson, “sources said at least one team has expressed interest in Valentine. It’s also possible the Bulls could package Valentine with Thad Young.”

Johnson doesn’t elaborate further than that, but it’s easy to speculate on who that team may be.

The Philadelphia 76ers, for starters, immediately come to mind as a team who could be in the market for a cheap option to space the floor and provide outside shooting. They desperately need someone to absorb some of J.J. Redick’s role from last season, and Valentine’s career 37.6% rate from downtown might be the best they can afford in a market increasingly prioritizing deep shooting.

The L.A. Clippers would also potentially make sense as a destination considering they were rumored to be interested in Thaddeus Young earlier in the season. It wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine them rolling the dice on Valentine as well if they could find a third team to get involved for cap purposes.

All of that is just speculation at this point, however. The important question to ask is whether or not the Chicago Bulls should even be looking to move Denzel Valentine.

As Johnson notes in his article, the Bulls have placed a heavy emphasis on 3-pointer this season. Combine that with a shockingly low amount of wing depth and Valentine’s relatively younthfulness at 26, and it seems like a rather puzzling proposition.

Valentine’s not being paid an egregious amount, nor has he ever appeared to be a poor fit personality-wise. He’s just on a relatively inexpensive contract, and has been criminally underused by a team that should be exploring all of its available options with enthusiasm this season.

Of course, that won’t change whether or not Denzel Valentine himself wants out of Chicago. I doubt many would blame him for demanding a trade at this point, or at the very least publicly showing some displeasure with his diminished role on the team.

That shouldn’t be an excuse to trade a potentially valuable player though, especially one who appeared to be a decent fit with the team based on his limited time on the court this season.

Instead of working to trade Denzel Valentine, the Chicago Bulls should do their due diligence in seeing if he would be a long-term solution for some of their depth problems. Throw him some solid minutes behind Kris Dunn, who shouldn’t even be playing small forward to begin with, and see if he can help elevate an offense that’s a cringeworthy 27th in offensive rating this year.

At this phase of Chicago’s never-ending rebuild, Jim Boylen and the Bulls should at least properly test the pieces they already have before trading them away for likely questionable compensation.

It’s not like they have anything to lose this season.