Denzel Valentine is back, but his time with the Bulls is running out

He had his usual scoring flurry in his return against the Knicks, but could his fate with the Bulls already be sealed as he heads toward restricted free agency?

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NEW YORK — Denzel Valentine’s playing time was fairly limited Saturday.

He played just over 10 minutes despite scoring eight points in a third-quarter flurry against the Knicks.

Part of the reason for the limited minutes was that he was coming back from a hamstring injury that had shelved him since Feb. 2, but the main reason was because it’s Valentine.

A lottery pick in the 2016 draft, Valentine could be 22 games away from no longer being a member of the team that drafted him out of Michigan State.

“It’s huge,’’ Valentine said when asked about what the rest of the season means to him. “Just to prove to myself and everybody else that I belong for good.’’

It’s not a case that he has been able to make consistently this season.

No player on the roster has been in and out of Jim Boylen’s doghouse more than Valentine in 2019-20. It didn’t help Valentine’s cause that he had season-ending foot surgery and was eased back into training camp in October, but even when he put solid games together — as he did off the bench in early December — he was barely rewarded.

Valentine said in January that he was frustrated with his situation but had no choice but to focus on controlling what he could control.

Now that he’s back from injury, that mentality hasn’t changed much.

“It’s huge just to get back out there and have fun, man,’’ Valentine said. “Have fun with my teammates and make the most out of this situation. Enjoy it, and I think it’s going to be a great rest of the season.’’

Valentine will be a restricted free agent this summer, and the Bulls undoubtedly will allow the market to set a price for him before they decide if they have any interest in retaining him. The word is the current regime likely wouldn’t.

It’s up to Valentine, then, to make sure other teams will see value in adding him.

“The proof is going to be in the pudding no matter what,’’ Valentine said. “Just play hard and whatever happens, happens. I don’t have any expectations.’’

First aid

Boylen said that while the Bulls have been one of the most injury-plagued franchises the last few seasons, pointing fingers in the direction of the medical and training staff would be a completely false narrative.

But he did say the organization already has started re-examining how players handle the offseason workout programs away from the team. His hope is they can find some answers that way.

“I’m sure we’ll evaluate all of that, and we’re in the process of doing it,’’ Boylen said of the medical team. “I really believe in our training group and our medical team.

“I look at it in a couple of different ways. We had trauma. Trauma is different. A broken finger, a broken foot, two knees, things that happen from contact, collision. Those are things I think are very difficult to control. We play hard. We want to run, our defense is active, but I just think we’re in a moment where we’ve had a tough run. I don’t know how to explain it. We can’t cry about it. We’ve got to fight through it, and the guys that are playing need to play.’’

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