Cavs: 3 things to know about new signing Denzel Valentine

Cavs: 3 things to know about new signing Denzel Valentine – Ineffective Player in NBA

We’ll talk about the small collection of positives in a moment, but for the most part Denzel Valentine has been a bad player through four seasons in the NBA. Injuries have played a major part of that, limiting him to 57 games as a rookie and just 36 in 2019-20. That being said, when Valentine has played he hasn’t been good enough to earn a rotation spot.

A major culprit for this has been his lack of a jump shot. Over four seasons he has hit just 35.7 percent of his 3-pointers, a major decline from the 44.4 percent he shot as a senior in college. For Valentine, a relatively poor defender due to his lack of athleticism, a reliable outside shot is a must to deserve a spot on the court.

Unfortunately, Valentine has not been a dynamic playmaker for others thus far, his other calling card coming into the draft. He has averaged just 3.6 assists per-36 minutes, a below-average number for a wing and especially one who was so dynamic making plays in college. Something about the speed or the spacing of the NBA game has flummoxed Valentine through 232 career games.

Valentine has not played on any great Chicago teams, but many of the lineups he found himself in were well-spaced, playing with other recent draft picks such as Lauri Markkanen (now his teammate in Cleveland) and Coby White. That didn’t move the needle for Valentine, and he will now join a Cleveland team that arguably will roll out even less shooting, especially with bench units.