Denzel Valentine is going to make one NBA team look very smart

CHICAGO -- Denzel Valentine knew the pressure was on entering his senior season at Michigan State. “I was pretty much desperate. I was running out of time,” Valentine said at the NBA Combine in Chicago. “This is what I want to do for my profession. This is what I love to do. This is what I have a passion for. So I was desperate. I just got in the gym and cut pretty much everything off to start the season.”

Valentine’s efforts were worth it. The 22-year-old was one of the nation’s best players, averaging a near triple-double with 19.2 points, 7.8 assists and 7.5 rebounds per game. In his final collegiate audition for NBA teams, Valentine passed with flying colors and has cemented himself as a first-round-level prospect.

Valentine operates pick-and-rolls with the precision of a brain surgery and has the height (6’6) to see over the defense. He lacks athleticism, but he makes up for it with his impeccable blend of feel, vision and timing.

The AP Player of the Year is also a deadly shooter, draining 44.4 percent of his threes as a senior. He’s more than just a spot-up shooter, though. He’s adept at using off-ball screens to get open, and as a ball handler he can pull up from anywhere if he has just a little bit of breathing room.

These traits alone make Valentine a seamless fit in a league that values skill versatility and role flexibility.

“I don’t see myself as a position. I kind of see myself as just a basketball player,” Valentine said. “You put me out there at point guard, I’ll make plays for other people. But if you need me to be out on the wing, make decisions off the pass without bringing the ball up the court, I’ll do that. And if you want me to catch-and-shoot in the corner, I can do that as well.”

With offenses increasingly using multiple facilitators instead of one traditional, ball-dominant point guard, Valentine could find a home in almost all situations.

If Valentine were drafted by Denver (picks seven and 15), for example, he would provide a nice contrast alongside Emmanuel Mudiay, whose foundation is defense and penetration. Or if Milwaukee (pick 10) chose him, a playmaking combination of he and Giannis Antetokounmpo would give a defense nightmares because of their ability to shape shift depending on the in-game matchup.

The general knock on Valentine’s offense is that he lacks burst as a ball handler, so he’ll need a screen to get open. That’s accurate, unless he makes significant strides as a ball handler while improving his first step.

It’s unfortunate every player doesn’t dazzle with the ball like Kyrie Irving, but sometimes too much focus is put on what players can’t do and not what they can do. Valentine will likely be asked to be a player that can take advantage of mismatches, space the floor, fill different roles and run pick-and-roll. When Valentine was asked who he’d compared himself to, he brought up Evan Turner and Greivis Vasquez as “big guards that can do multiple things.” That’s realistic, though Valentine is a more dynamic three-point shooter than either of them will ever be.

Defense is the glaring weakness that might actually keep him off the floor. It’s where his subpar athleticism hurts him the most. Even as a senior, Valentine struggled to keep in front of quicker ball handlers and larger players overpowered him. “Defense wins championship,” explained Valentine. “To get on the floor and excel at the next level, you gotta be a defender.”

The player everyone else compares Valentine to is Draymond Green. It’s a lazy comparison because of the Michigan State connection, but Valentine sees it in a way most don’t -- in a way that actually makes sense.

“Winning mentality, being versatile, toughness, leadership, high basketball IQ, doing a lot of different things on the court,” Valentine commented. “I definitely compare myself to him.”

The Turner and Green comparisons are intriguing because they both entered the league as unappetizing defenders. Turner got burnt early in his career in Philly before developing into an effective multi-positional defender the past two seasons in Boston. Green, of course, went from being considered a tweener to one of the league’s elite defenders on the greatest team of all time.

No one is expecting Valentine to make that type of jump. That’d be unfair. But Valentine does believe he shares some of the same intangibles that turned them from zeroes to heroes on the defensive end.

“Those guys are winners and they’re tough as nails. They have a will to win and I have the same capabilities,” said Valentine. “We might not have the best athletic capabilities or height or things like that, but I just think if you want to do something and you have the will to do it, you’re gonna find a way to get it done. Those two are probably the best examples of that in the game right now.”

Valentine posted the fourth-best lane-agility time at the combine, a measurable sign of progress. Through predraft workouts he’ll get an opportunity to prove to teams that he has improved and that he’s ready to contribute on both ends of the floor. If he makes strides on defense, then it bodes well for him.

With the type of versatile traits valued in today’s NBA, Denzel Valentine might end up being the steal of the draft if he lands in the right situation.