Who won’t be back next season No. 2: Denzel Valentine
One Bulls player that Green already passed up in the shooting guard/wing rotation for first-year head coach Billy Donovan since the trade deadline is the 27-year-old former Michigan State Spartan Denzel Valentine. On the surface, Valentine and Green are very similar players. Both are 27-year-old 6-foot-4 and roughly 200-205 pound shooting guard/wings. And neither really had a solidified spot in any NBA rotation coming into the season.
From here on out, it could be a real battle between these two to figure out who Donovan and the Bulls will bring back next season. There’s a chance that neither will be back for the Bulls next season too, and the front office will just build this part of the rotation from scratch.
Last offseason, the Bulls re-signed Valentine off of the restricted free agent market to a one-year deal worth just shy of $5 million. And he really hasn’t proven himself to the degree where it would be worth Karnisovas and the Bulls bringing him back again for the 2021-22 campaign. That could change down the stretch, but Valentine’s minutes declined greatly in the last month.
Valentine is now down to shooting around 37 percent from the field and 33 percent from beyond the arc. Since he was brought back largely to fill the role of a shot creator, facilitator, and efficient spot-up shooter, those numbers just won’t get it done. He’s got a long way to go to show that he’s going to be back for next season.