Sam Smith; Player Feature

Sam Smith

It's a love story, but so often with a love story there's so much sadness and nights of longing before you get the valentine. Call this one Sleepless in Chicago.

"There were times at the beginning of the season I was so frustrated I didn't know what to do," Denzel Valentine was saying late Saturday night following the Bulls 109-106 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.

It was the Bulls first victory of the season against a team with a winning record. It was made possible in large part because of the play of Valentine, a clutch three pointer to tie the game with 48 seconds left and wrap up his team high 10 fourth quarter points.

So reporters gathered around Valentine this time not to stare at his scooter he'd lean on last season to immobilize his surgically repaired ankle or wonder whether he was paying for that courtside seat since he wasn't invited into the games.

"Many sleepless nights," Valentine was saying about the early season inactivity.

"Many last year, too, sleepless nights," he reiterated. "Last year was crazy. So every day I wake up from my pregame nap, I replay those moments when I was sitting in my crib with my foot up in the boot not knowing if you'll come back healthy or not, everyone counting you out and forgetting about you."

Since Valentine scored 16 points and shockingly played just about the entire fourth quarter — at least given his current season workload — no one seemed to have the heart to ask why he needed an afternoon nap since he could sleep on the bench for all he was playing. But Valentine never lost hope or faith in himself, and the Bulls are being rewarded.

Denzel Valentine doesn't make the highlight shows. Sometimes it's because he's moving too slowly to get in the picture. But he gets there better than most, and it's perhaps no coincidence that since the Bulls have found him on the end of the bench they are in their best stretch of the season.

The Bulls Monday opening a four-game road trip in Oklahoma City are not a .500 team, now 10-18. But since Valentine has returned to the rotation to start December they are, 4-4 with Valentine rising to the top of the team's three-point shooting list.

With four of seven threes in the Clippers game, Valentine is shooting 43.4 percent on three pointers with a buttery smooth stroke that surprises you when he misses. Valentine is no savior for the Bulls disappointments this season. But he is a reason to maintain optimism. He's averaging 7.4 points for the season. But since he finally was reinserted into the playing rotation, he is averaging 10.1 points in just 18 minutes per game and shooting 46.2 percent on threes. Even for the season, he's one of the team's most efficient scorers, second to Zach LaVine in average points per 48 minutes.

There are many statistics to prove many things in sports these days, so caution is advised. One measure is the so called real plus/minus, which is said to measure most closely a player's contribution to the team. It seems to have some legitimacy since the top six this season are LeBron James, James Harden, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jason Tatum, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.

Which is not to say the Bulls need to alter their future and game plan by featuring Valentine instead of LaVine or Lauri Markkanen.

Valentine's obviously is a smaller sample, but the guy impacts the game.

"My teammates always believed in me and showed a lot of confidence in me," Valentine said. "I believe in myself and put in the work. Always having faith everything will work itself out."

Though you wouldn't blame Valentine if he felt the game was divorcing him, his lost season in 2018-19 following ankle surgery and then suddenly being the last man not standing on a Bulls roster that wasn't exactly championship ready.

It was one of many mysteries to begin the season, a team shifting to a perimeter based shooting offense benching the player with the third best career three-point shooting percentage on the roster. Perhaps Valentine's ankle wasn't quite ready as he was behind the other players in the preseason workouts. Perhaps his lack of athleticism was a concern for a defensive scheme that was to rely on activity and pressure. There could be reasons. Still, it remained unclear because whenever coach Jim Boylen was asked why Valentine wasn't playing he tended to drop his habitual nervous smile when answering an uncomfortable question and defaulting to terse responses.

Though Boylen also deserves credit for relenting. Not every coach seemingly carrying a bias lets it go. It really wasn't until December that Boylen called on Valentine. But once Boylen did, he identified Valentine's strengths that proved pivotal against the Clippers. No hard feeling, eh? There were several late timeouts in the fourth quarter Saturday. But Boylen kept Valentine in the lineup, saying the team needing his shooting. And proving prescient.

One issue is that it's been easy for NBA talent "experts" to disregard the 6-6 third year pro from Michigan State. Sure, Valentine was a celebrated collegian, national player of the year as a senior. But four-year collegians tend to be devalued in the NBA world. It's often shorthand for too slow, not enough upside. You know, like Luka Doncic, about whom we heard those kinds of scouting reports at times.

The inability to dunk in someone's face often becomes a red flag warning. It goes in the can't-teach-height category. Meaning if you are athletic, they can teach you the other stuff, like shooting and passing and fundamentals. When in reality they never do and it's perhaps the greatest flaw of professional evaluation.

Valentine is sometimes described as having "an old man's game," the game maybe you'd see at the park on weekends, a good shot but not fast enough for the speed of the NBA game. The sort of analysis that misses the subtleties of basketball and had Larry Hughes selected ahead of Dirk Nowitzki, Nikola Jokic becoming a second round draft pick and Brad Miller undrafted. There's a great art to seeing the floor and being able to anticipate a play. Don't all the rookies once they improve talk about the game slowing down? Sure, if the player is a fabulous athlete like LeBron James and can pass and have that feel, yes, play him ahead of Denzel Valentine. But don't discount the abilities of a player like Valentine, who last week against Atlanta helped turn the game around with four straight running scores over screens, none of which made SportsCenter. Occasionally his two-man game lobs to Daniel Gafford did, but generally only Gafford was in the picture.

So perhaps the absence was understandable, Valentine coming back from injury and a new coaching staff which never saw Valentine before trying to figure out a relatively deep roster and plotting out a fast tempo game.

Still, it was a painful time for Valentine, 26, a lottery selection in 2016, bypassed in lineups by rookies, undrafted players, basically receiving the same playing time as the two-way G-league guys.

It could make anyone question themselves; perhaps even fall out of love.

"Believing in myself and staying patient," said Valentine. "I pray I'll have a long career in the NBA. So I'm not going to let one game or a couple of games to begin the season define me or my career. I love what I do and will work hard and do whatever the team and the coach need me to do."

Though Valentine admitted he had his dark times.

"I questioned whether I would come back healthy enough," Valentine admitted about last season. "So my thanks to the Bulls medical staff, (assistant coach) Shawn Respert and my trainer, Steve, who moved here and we worked together. I give the credit to God. Having faith and believing in myself and having a lot of great people around me. I'm just so thankful and grateful I'm out there playing the game I love. People counted me out."

Instead of counting on him, as they have often on the basketball court.

Valentine has a routine for that pregame nap. He rises late in the afternoon and thinks about the scooter rides down the hallway to the locker room in the United Center, the end of the bench and the call that never was coming through October and November, the doubts from those outside his circle.

"Everytime I wake up for a game," Valentine says, "I think back on those moments and get fired up to play."

The Bulls are again benefitting from that passion.

valentine-using-last-seasons-frustrations-as-motivation

Valentine Using Last Season's Frustrations as Motivation

After a turbulent few seasons, that saw him bounce between teams, Derrick Rose seems to have found a mental calmness and an appreciation for his new team in the Detroit Pistons. He's averaging more than 20 points a game for the first time since 2012 despite a minutes limitation that's in place to manage his health.

They knew the hoop prodigy known as Li'l Pooh at all the parks in Englewood and Chatham and Auburn-Gresham near his South Paulina home. This bantam rocket who used to explode past all the bigger guys. And then they'd come to him and say he reminded them of the similarly diminutive but daring West Side legend Isiah Thomas. Someday kid, they'd say, you could be like Zeke.

"I'd thank them," Derrick Rose was saying with a laugh, "but I really didn't know who they were talking about."

But now the onetime NBA Most Valuable Player and popular former Bulls All-Star is the legendary Chicago prep point guard in the Detroit Pistons jersey, as Thomas was, coming home as the visitor.

"It's always refreshing to (be in the United Center)," Rose said Thursday after his Pistons finished practice in advance of Friday's game with the Bulls.

Rose smiled and looked around, staring at the glittering new scoreboard above.

"Especially to see the new tweaks," Rose said gesturing above. "We never had the Jumbotron, the new tweaks up there. It's great to see they are adapting to the new age."

You move on and adapt, teams, buildings and people. And so Derrick Rose is in his third jersey since being traded by the Bulls in 2016 after eight years with the team out of Simeon High School and the U. of Memphis. The high flying introvert arrived with tears of delight as the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2008, winning Rookie of the Year and MVP. And then he departed with tears of sadness in the wake of injuries and confusion, the innocence of youth inevitably as it must be erased by the realities of enlightenment.

Rose's rocket ship to stardom that lost power through New York, Utah and Minneapolis finally splashed down in Detroit. And Rose seems to be blooming once again, albeit in stages. Detroit is perhaps the most natural basketball antagonist of Chicago, the Bulls and Pistons with a lifetime of rivalry games from the Bulls first playoff series win in 1974 to the Bad Boys despair and salvation with Thomas through the 1980s until the Bulls first championship in 1991. It's where the also onetime beloved Thomas had his greatest moments, and where Rose believes he has some more remaining.   Rose is now a sixth man for the Pistons, who are 2-3, though without injured starters Blake Griffin and Reggie Jackson. But as he did in Minneapolis, Rose is quickly becoming a fan favorite in Detroit, so much so fans have been chanting MVP, he already has a game winning shot and he's averaging more than 20 points for the first time since before his ACL injury in 2012. He's shooting 55.3 percent without attempting threes and among the top 25 in assists even with limited minutes off the bench. It's a veteran Rose now, 31, and in his 12th season, an inspiration as much as a leader.

"I feel great, man, to be honest, I feel great," Rose told reporters. "Even making the decision to be in Detroit. My family is happy being there, I'm happy being there. You don't know what to expect, but everything has been on the up and up. The organization's been great, the staff has been great. So I've been in awe just being in this surrounding. The spot I was in, the place I was in mentally a couple of years ago, I'm just happy I weaved through it. I got through it somehow, some way, with my family and my friends around me and I'm just grateful and l'm just trying to cherish these moments."

Like the Bulls, the Pistons are a team with hopes more than promises. They have All-Stars in Griffin and Andre Drummond, and they were a playoff team last season, though without a first round victory. But they're another team that sees a wide open Eastern Conference where anyone can slip into a comfortably high position. Suddenly, Rose on a two-year contract worth about $15 million where his former agent, Arn Tellem, is vice-chairman, is a vital part of those Pistons' hopes.

"In shorter minutes, he's still the same explosive player," said Pistons coach Dwane Casey. "Maybe not as quick as he was as a rookie or his MVP year, but he's savvy enough, tough enough. Derrick is more of a leader by example because he plays so hard and does the right things; he holds himself accountable. He's a man's man. The (Indiana) game he had three straight layups missed, but the fourth time he gets the game winner. He's very confident in what he does. He closed the game out with the game winning layup after he missed two or three in a row."

Casey said the biggest problem he has with Rose is he can't play him enough. The Pistons have a playing limit on Rose because of the multiple knee surgeries. So Rose hasn't exceeded 27 minutes this season and averages about 25. Fans have been screaming for Casey to start Rose, but Casey can only hope.

"It's very difficult because you want him out there more than his minute allotment allows because he's such a dynamic player and brings so much to the table," said Casey. "Our team changes when he's on the floor. We get faster, we're tougher, we're more physical. But there is only a limited amount of time we can keep him out there. So we have to be very disciplined. With us he's in the right opportunity as backup point guard to Reggie Jackson; it's a perfect fit. Understanding where he is in his career he embraces that role."

Perhaps, in part, because among a litany of issues with career threatening injuries, an assault trial, not being invited back in New York after one season and then dumped by the Cavaliers, Rose's NBA career was viewed as done. He was rescued in Minneapolis by former Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau. It was a year ago to the day Thursday, Halloween, when Rose declared himself back and said I'll Show You with a 50-point game for the Timberwolves. ESPN honored the game in its annual awards show last June as the moment of the year. So Rose has gone east, young man, across Lake Michigan to enjoy a few more moments in one of the most fluctuating careers in pro sports history.

"I was going through a lot going through injuries, dealing with things off the court," Rose acknowledged. "There was a lot of circumstances I was in I had to weave through to find the place I am in now, which is why you see the happiness. I have my family. I have three kids. I'm happy with where I am, the destination I am at. I'm just trying to take everything in and learn every day and be appreciative of where I am at.

"Coming here I'm not trying to step on nobody's toes," Rose said. "I saw there was a lot of potential and I am trying to challenge myself and become more vocal and be the leader I wanted to be when I was younger. It takes maturity (going to a bench role from MVP). I don't have a pompous type attitude. I come in and listen, for one thing. I understand where I'm at, the circumstances I have in front of me. It takes a lot of learning situations, learning from my past and learning that some of the situations I was put in the past I put on myself and I had to grow up and understand what I was doing. And it became clear I was going to have another opportunity.

"I always said if I had another opportunity like I had in New York, I would grab it," said Rose. "Me grabbing it is being vocal with the team, expressing how I feel, an understanding it's not about me. I still have a lot left in the tank. I still want to win a championship and there's no reason why we should be doing this if we're not trying to win a championship. Just trying to help change the culture here because it's a rich culture."

That now has in common multiple whiz kids from Chicago.

"I didn't really understand (Isiah and the Chicago rivalry) until I got here and (learned) he was the only one who beat MJ in his prime and he was a point guard," said Rose. "So being in that spot and understanding the spot he was in, the load he took on every night, I think being here I appreciate him even more. Having conversations with him and understanding who he is as a person and as a player and the principles he stood on I realize it and understand it's also about Chicago, the way he was brought up, his mentality."

Rose said Thomas, who came to Pistons training camp, didn't talk about the Bulls rivalry or Jordan. But he gave Rose one message.

"The only thing he told me, ‘Don't throw a Pistons jersey on the floor, that's disrespecting the history of the Pistons,'" Rose related. "That showed me he cherished the moments he played for the Pistons and it's up to me to hold that bar high."

Chicagoans, after all, are about the passion. You can see it in the neighborhoods.

veteran-rose-enjoying-life-in-detroit

Veteran Rose Enjoying Life in Detroit

none

Presented By

AT&T

<a title="Bulls Play-In Tournament Tickets are On Sale Now" href="https://www.nba.com/bulls/postseason">Bulls Play-In Tournament Tickets are On Sale Now!</a>