2. Denzel Valentine, Shooting Guard
Maybe the player that saw his stock drop the most ahead of the trade deadline so far this season with the Chicago Bulls as a direct result of mistrust from Boylen is former Michigan State Spartans shooting guard Denzel Valentine. The 6-foot-4 former first round 2016 NBA Draft pick of the Bulls is getting little shot to make an impact this season.
So far this season, Valentine is averaging 5.8 points per game, 1.9 rebounds, and 1.1 assists, while shooting 40.2 percent from the field and 35.6 percent from beyond the arc. A good outside shooter that can also create his own offense off the wing is something the Bulls really need. But for some reason, Boylen just doesn’t want to give him any type of significant role off the bench no matter what.
A lot of the playing time that Valentine was getting around the months of December and early January faded away for what seems like no reason in the last 30 days or so. Valentine has only played in 30 games so far this season despite staying relatively healthy. He is currently dealing with a hamstring injury that held him out of that loss to the Thunder on Feb. 25, but that is about it of late.
Valentine is actually getting the least minutes on the floor of any of the seasons of his NBA career where he was actually healthy. He’s averaging just over 12 minutes played per game in the 30 outings where he saw the floor. That’s the lowest average playing time of his career by nearly a five minute margin.