At least one NBA team has expressed interest in trading for Chicago Bulls guard Denzel Valentine, one two major pieces the Bulls could have on the block ahead of the Feb. 6 trade deadline.
The Bulls also have Thaddeus Young, whom they signed to a three-year deal this summer. There is the possibility that Young and Valentine are bundled together in a package deal, according to K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago.
Johnson also spoke about this possibility in a recent mailbag, claiming he could only envision those two players as pieces to move and emphasizing that the Bulls are likely to keep fourth-year guard Kris Dunn past the deadline. This is notable because the Bulls were trying to move him over the summer and at the start of the season.
Valentine has fallen out of favor from head coach Jim Boylen and spends his time mostly warming the bench, sometimes even in garbage time. The young wing had some playing time and even a few spot starts under former coach Fred Hoiberg, but that is no longer the case with Boylen and the new era Bulls.
Young admittedly ran into a surprise when the Bulls picked up modern analytics and ran a threes-and-layups-driven approach, forcing him to take more outside jumpers than he usually has for other teams.
While he's been a trooper trying to take more jumpers, his 34.5% clip from there just shows the Bulls made the wrong choice signing a player whose skill set doesn't lend to the execution of their ideological system.
Young and Valentine deserve to play for an NBA team that can make use of their skills, and given how the Bulls have generally honored players' wishes as long as it doesn't conflict with the team's projects, it's likely the front office will try to do good by them in the next few weeks.
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