NBA trade deadline nears with few good options for Bulls, whose game vs. Heat is postponed

The countdown is on. Thursday marked four weeks until the NBA trade deadline arrives on Feb. 5.

The Bulls could use some improvements, but don't get your hopes up. At the moment a franchise-altering deal is a long shot.

There's no shortage of trade bait on the Bulls' roster. The issue is getting anything helpful back in return.

Meanwhile, the countdown to the end of the regular season did not move Thursday. The Bulls were supposed to host the Miami Heat at the United Center, but the game was postponed due to condensation on the court.

With the temperature in the 50s and heavy rain outside, the UC staff seemed caught off guard by the situation. They delayed tipoff while trying to lower the temperature in the building but officially called it off at 8:53 p.m., nearly two hours after the scheduled start time. No word yet on a new date.

Referee Sean Wright told a pool reporter officials were informed of the issue by players from both teams with nine minutes left on the pregame clock.

“We tried to work together to see if we could fix the problem,” Wright said. “We decided that player safety was most important and we just couldn’t guarantee a safe on-court experience.”

Fans waited patiently, but it wasn't a large crowd by Bulls standards, with the building probably two-thirds full.

“There was no question that it was not playable,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said outside the visitors locker room. “That's what was disappointing. As soon as you walked out there, you knew you couldn't play on it.”

Spoelstra said this sort of thing is common at the practice facility in humid Miami. They turn up the air conditioning and it's usually fine in 15 minutes.

“This is a big building,” he said. “It actually felt like it was getting worse.”

Back to the trade deadline, the Bulls have surely been listening to offers for guard Coby White. But considering he's played in just 16 of 37 games with recurring calf injuries and he'll be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, this feels like a sell-low situation.

Most teams don't have cap space, so the Bulls could be better off either trying to re-sign White this summer or move him in a sign-and-trade deal.

Nikola Vucevic has talked about wanting to play for a contender in the later stages of his career. If the Bulls come to a buyout agreement with their veteran center and cut him loose before the March 1 deadline, he'd surely get some offers from teams that could use a floor-spacing big.

But trade for him now, and have to send $21 million in salary, or close to it, back to the Bulls — that would be tricky and certainly more complicated. The trade market for Vucevic is likely very limited.

They could find a trade just for the sake of making changes. John Paxson used to do that every year, usually with no meaningful improvement.

The Bulls clearly need more size on the roster, so the only move that makes sense is trading small for big, which isn't easy to do. Defensive-minded bigs are a precious commodity in today's NBA.

The Bulls have expiring contracts worth $90 million on the current roster — Vucevic, White, Zach Collins, Kevin Huerter, Ayo Dosunmu, Jevon Carter and Dalen Terry.

They could package some of those players to a team looking to unload a big contract. But who would that be? The Bulls certainly don't need Dallas' Anthony Davis, even if he is from Chicago — 32 years old, often injured and owed $120 million over the next two seasons.

New Orleans has some hefty salaries and could be looking to unload, but Zion Williamson is another tough take, owed $66 million over the next two years and also seldom healthy. Pelicans forward Herbert Jones (four years, $82 million) would make more sense.

There have been rumors in the past of Golden State showing interest in Vucevic. Could the Bulls somehow get Jonathan Kuminga back for Vucevic and White? Other players would have to be involved, but that's at least something that could work for the Bulls, in theory.

Minnesota is often mentioned as having interest in White, but there's not an obvious trade match for the Bulls. Timberwolves bigs Jaden McDaniels and Naz Reid have expensive, long-term deals, while rookie Joan Beringer is completely unproven.

The Bulls depth pieces have been useful this season, so there's no incentive to clean house. Between Collins, Dosunmu, Huerter, Terry, Tre Jones, Isaac Okoro and Julian Phillips, all could be in the rotation of a hypothetical Bulls playoff contender down the road.

For the playoff contention part to happen, the Bulls need to acquire some sort of frontcourt threat, and that’s unlikely to happen by Feb. 5.