The Bulls’ front office remained active in trade talks Tuesday, with guard Coby White still the piece most often discussed, a source said.
The Timberwolves and Rockets are still in the mix, but it’s not just a two-team race as the trade deadline Feb. 5 approaches.
While the source stressed nothing is imminent, the news matched up with Sun-Times reports since early December that executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas is looking to conduct business.
The ongoing issue is the tightrope he is trying to walk as he looks to deal a player such as White, who is on an expiring contract, for young talent on the same timeline as guard Josh Giddey and forward Matas Buzelis.
That’s why names such as Reed Sheppard, Tari Eason, Rob Dillingham and former Lincoln Park and Illinois star Terrence Shannon Jr. have been floated in some capacity.
Is there noise around the Bulls? Definitely. But it’s not loud enough to disrupt the business of basketball as far as the players are concerned.
The Bulls (23-23) must make sure their 129-118 loss Monday to Luka Doncic, LeBron James and the Lakers doesn’t turn into yet another lull. There’s a reason they’re a .500 team, despite having two five-game winning streaks and a four-game winning streak. That’s because their losses also have come in bunches, with a five-game losing streak in November, a seven-game skid in November/December and four losses in five games in early January.
A game Wednesday against the 11-victory Pacers would seem to be the perfect remedy, but two of those wins have come at the expense of the Bulls. White pointed that out when he was asked about the four games the Bulls will play in the next five days.
‘‘Just make sure we take it game by game, for one,’’ White said. ‘‘Don’t look at, ‘Oh, we’ve got four games in five days.’ Mentally, just stay locked into what we’re doing. Continue to bounce back and not let it snowball into an avalanche.’’
But what if it does? Will that change Karnisovas’ mind in terms of which direction he will take at the trade deadline?
That’s unlikely. The source stressed Karnisovas is looking to add young talent either way. The idea of trading pending free agents such as White, center Nikola Vucevic, guard Ayo Dosunmu, guard Kevin Huerter or center Zach Collins for the sake of being bad and improving the Bulls’ lottery odds isn’t in play.
It’s definitely not an option for the players in the locker room, no matter which of them remain after the deadline. As recent victories against the Timberwolves and Celtics have shown, winning is the business at hand.
‘‘We’ve had these stretches where we’ve looked really good,’’ Giddey said. ‘‘We pull off five in a row, and then we’ve had stretches where we don’t look very good. It’s about getting back to where we are as a team, playing to our identity. When we do it, we show that we can play with anyone in the league.
‘‘It is [frustrating]. It’s about not letting these losing streaks spiral. You want to keep it to one or two games and then get back on track quickly, but we’ve got a pretty resilient group. We don’t feel like the world is crashing after a loss.’’
