The Bulls Almost Upset Cleveland Thanks To... Denzel Valentine?

With Zach LaVine, Lauri Markkanen and Kris Dunn sidelined with mostly pretend injuries last night, the Bulls trotted out a starting five that would probably lose close to 75 games over an 82 game season.

Well, that certainly is a.. um.. a lineup! Jokes were flying all over the twitter machine about the starting five before tip-off last night, but we, as a Bulls twitter community, need to give credit where credit is due. The young bunch battled back from a 17 point halftime deficit to tie the game up with 4:13 to go. They eventually fell to the Cavs 114-109, but the effort displayed by the short-handed Bulls caught the attention of their coach, especially the effort/performance from Denzel Valentine.

The 34 point performance is a career high for the second year guard, who added seven rebounds and six assists without committing a single turnover. Valentine's confidence has been growing throughout the year.

“I believe I’m a starter in this league,” Valentine said. “I believe I can be an important piece of an NBA team. But whatever my role on the team is that they want me to do, the organization wants me to do, I’ll do. But personally, I believe I’m a starter and I can contribute in major ways. I just got to keep working and keep getting better.”

I've been pretty hard on Valentine in the past, and one great night isn't going to change how I feel about him. But the Bulls brass seems to be confident in him, so I guess we should be hoping for him to succeed. I'm still skeptical that a 6'5 small forward with bad knees is going to be able to carve out a role on a competitive team, but the Bulls aren't competitive so right now we're stuck with him. He's going to keep getting opportunities with the way this roster is constructed, and odds are he'll still have a role next season. Hopefully, he can prove the doubters such as myself wrong.