The Chicago Bulls have a plethora of decisions to make for this upcoming cycle of free agency, namely with some of their reserve players in the backcourt rotation. One of those Bulls players that most fans wouldn’t be all that surprised about if the front office let him walk in free agency this summer is the 27-year-old 6-foot-4 and 220-pound shooting guard/wing Denzel Valentine.
The role that executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley likely anticipated Valentine to fill this season isn’t what ended up happening down the stretch. Valentine was one of the lesser-used reserve guards/wings for the Bulls and first-year head coach Billy Donovan in the last two months of the regular season.
Valentine was re-signed by Karnisovas and the Bulls last offseason, signing a one-year contract worth around $5 million coming out of restricted free agency. A lot of Bulls fans thought the front office would let Valentine walk, but his creating and outside shooting ability made sense to bring back for another year in a different system.
Denzel Valentine’s run with the Chicago Bulls about to be over?
If the Bulls can find value in other free agents and/or draft targets this summer, then it wouldn’t make much sense to take up one of the roster spots by re-signing Valentine. There are just too many other viable options that could be out there for the Bulls in the coming weeks and months.
The option for the Bulls to upgrade the backcourt rotation just seems too good to pass up. Here’s a look into three impending free agents that the Bulls could sign who would be upgrades over Valentine.