Chicago Bulls: Denzel Valentine flourishing as a starter

Following a disappointing rookie season in which he failed to crack the starting rotation, Chicago Bulls forward Denzel Valentine is flourishing as a starter in Year 2.

Aside from the prediction of being one of the league’s worst teams, the Chicago Bulls didn’t have many expectations coming into the 2017-18 campaign – and for good reason. Without the threat of a superstar who can create scoring opportunities for himself as well as the other players around him, the Bulls have struggled mightily, to say the least.

For starters, they have produced only three wins through their first 16 games. Secondly, they are in the midst of a three-game losing streak, which marks the third such occurrence of the season. Bearing that in mind, the Bulls have not had a lot of positives to speak of thus far.

However, one fact that is worth mentioning has to do with a player who has begun to take the next step in his second season — Denzel Valentine. A few weeks ago, I wrote an article discussing my thoughts about Valentine being ready for a larger role in Fred Hoiberg’s offense.

At that point in time, Valentine had just one start under his belt, but in that start, he scored 11 points, grabbed nine rebounds and handed out five assists in a 91-86 win over the Atlanta Hawks back in late October.

With Paul Zipser starting to regress somewhat, combined with David Nwaba going down with an ankle injury, Valentine was recently inserted into the starting lineup and has shown noticeable improvement, with the exception of his outing against the Utah Jazz – a game in which he scored just two points (1-for-5 shooting) and the Bulls lost by an whopping 30 points.

Prior to that outing, however, Valentine has made the most of his increased role. In the team’s 123-120 over the Charlotte Hornets on Nov. 17, Valentine finished with 18 points, six assists and five rebounds in 32 minutes of action.

While Valentine failed to reach the double-figure mark in the next contest against the Phoenix Suns, scoring nine points on 3-for-10 shooting, he did round out his stat line with seven rebounds and three assists.

In the Bulls’ next game against the Los Angeles Lakers a few nights later, Valentine had another solid outing, as he finished the evening with 17 points to go along with nine rebounds and four assists.

Even with the pedestrian output in the game against the Jazz, Valentine has flourished as starter. In five appearances, his averages include 11.4 points, 6.6 rebounds and 4.4 assists. Furthermore, he is converting 42 percent of his attempts from 3-point range, which is a noticeable jump from the 35 percent clip he recorded during his rookie campaign.

Despite the early success he has had, though, Valentine is determined to keep his progression in its proper perspective.

"“I just have to keep staying consistent,” Valentine told the Chicago Tribune following the Bulls’ 113-105 loss to the Suns. “Anything can change at any moment. I’ve been playing well, but it can all change in one game so I just have to stay focused and hungry. Hopefully, as the year goes, I’ll get better and better.”"

Next: 2017-18 Week 6 NBA Power Rankings

Taking into consideration that his numbers have increased in nearly every statistical category, it is safe to say Valentine has the potential to become the versatile player the Bulls thought they were getting when they selected him at the No. 14 spot in last year’s NBA Draft.