Bulls’ Denzel Valentine might be better-served elsewhere this season

Denzel Valentine had his latest “Remember me?” moment.

He had just under 14 minutes Friday against the Warriors to not only remind the Bulls that he can contribute to a rotation, but maybe more important, that he can contribute to another team.

That’s what Valentine’s minutes are for these days — tryouts. And he had good and bad in the loss to the Warriors.

He had 11 points on 4-for-8 shooting, including 3-for-4 from three-point range, with two assists and two rebounds. He also had a second technical foul in the fourth quarter that not only got Valentine ejected, but gave the Warriors life down four with 7:50 left.

“It’s just two teams playing basketball, and it got a little carried away,” Valentine said.

Earlier in the game, Valentine and Warriors forward Omari Spellman had a serious back and forth, with Spellman yelling to Valentine that he was going to “smack the [bleep] out of you.”

It didn’t stop Valentine from chirping on his way to hitting two more threes with Spellman guarding him.

“You can look back to college, high school days, I always play with passion,” Valentine said. “You just haven’t seen it in a while.”

That’s a good point. He hasn’t been seen in a while.

Valentine underwent season-ending foot surgery last fall that led to him missing the entire 2018-19 season. Unfortunately for him, it seemingly allowed the Bulls to move on from him.

In the last two years, they’ve been sending that message to Valentine, drafting Chandler Hutchison in 2018, trading for Otto Porter Jr. in February and adding Thaddeus Young in the offseason. All forwards, and all players who passed Valentine in the rotation while he was sidelined.

And that’s the knock on Valentine.

He’s a 6-6 combo guard/forward, too small for all the taller wings in the league and not fast enough to keep up with a lot of the guards on defense. As one member of the Bulls described him, “He’s a system guy.”

No wonder he started the year out of the rotation, collecting DNPs (Did Not Play).

But with Porter and Hutchison sidelined and Young missing the Warriors game for personal reasons, Valentine has been dusted off and let loose with the second unit.

In his last three games, he has averaged 8.3 points and 13.7 minutes and, more impressive, shot 7-for-13 (53.8 percent) from three-point range.

Publicly, Valentine has been saying all the right things when asked about his situation. He took the high road again when asked if he deserved to stay in the rotation when the Bulls get healthy.

“That’s not up to me,” he said. “I’m just going to do what I can do to help the team. Come in, play hard, play with passion, play on both sides of the ball.”

That’s the kind of response his team wants to hear and potential future teams embrace.

The Bulls have to make a financial decision on Valentine before next season. If there’s a player to be traded this season, look for Valentine to be a candidate, likely in a package.

But until that happens — if it happens — Valentine is focused on making up for lost time.

“I literally live for basketball, so this is what I love to do,” he said. “It was taken away from me for a year, so I’m playing with passion.”