Cleveland Cavaliers: 2 goals for Denzel Valentine in 2021-22

Goal #2 for Valentine: He provides some pick-and-roll scoring/playmaking at times for the Cavs

Secondly, while it’s not necessarily a set quantitative goal, either, as I believe is more so the case for other guys, I do think the 6-foot-4, 220-pound Valentine could provide some on-ball lift for Cleveland.

Now, I don’t want him isoing a ton, and at times with the Bulls, him doing that too often didn’t help his case. But in some stretches, with how he has shown he can create some for himself in pick-and-roll as a shot creator via some pull-ups and in the floater game, and occasionally from beyond the arc, I do think it could give Cleveland a lift in that realm.

I’m not suggesting it’d be at a high volume, with the likes of Darius Garland, Collin Sexton and Ricky Rubio, in fairness.

In some of his PT off the bench though, which could seemingly be in the 13-18-minute range, if he were to stick around, Valentine could aid the Cavs as a PnR playmaker to an extent, too.

Again, there’s been tunnel vision at times for him, but a career assist rate for a wing of 14.7 percent is respectable for Valentine. And last season, he placed in the 80th percentile in playmaking among wings, per Cleaning The Glass. So, to a degree, it’d be meaningful for the Wine and Gold in his bench spurts/stretches if Valentine could provide some supplemental playmaking, feasibly in PnR.

Maybe him and Kevin Love/Lauri Markkanen, who was on the Bulls with him for a while, too, could be effective, for one.

Him hitting some shooters perhaps on the weak side/off drives helping in that way, for example, could give Garland a lift, and maybe could enable him/Sexton to play a bit more off-ball as a result in spurts with Valentine. Or in Rubio’s case, if Garland’s off, Valentine could maybe hit Rubio as a cutter off-ball here and there, or help generate some corner triples for him, where he’s been more capable, by and large.

Anyway, as we’ve touched on, it’s not the simplest thing to project what we’ll see from Valentine, if he were to stick around. If he can stay healthy, however, maybe this change of scenery can pay off for the Michigan State product.