Bulls beat new-look Raptors but continue slow-playing the trade front

TORONTO — Help might not be coming.

Not a trade, not a single move by the Feb. 8 deadline.

It’s a reality Bulls fans need to start embracing.

The front office won’t be peer-pressured into trying to keep up with the Joneses — or, in this case, the Pacers, Knicks and Raptors.

In the last few weeks, the Knicks acquired OG Anunoby, the Pacers grabbed Pascal Siakam and the Raptors added RJ Barrett, Bruce Brown and Immanuel Quickley. Those teams reside in the same zip code as the Bulls and are looking to make a leap this season or build toward something in the immediate future.

The Bulls? Crickets so far.

Coach Billy Donovan made it clear before the 116-110 victory against the Raptors on Thursday that his franchise would not react based on what other teams in the Eastern Conference are doing.

“I haven’t really ever heard [the front office] say, ‘This is going on, this is happening; we’ve got to go do something,’ ’’ Donovan said. ‘‘I think everything, from my perspective, has always been well thought out, looking at the team, how to make it better. We’re always doing that through the course of the season, looking for ways to make us better. But I haven’t had a conversation like that. Like, ‘Hey, Anunoby is going to New York. We’ve got to do [something].’ I’ve never had a conversation like that with them at all.”

Maybe he should.

Since Zach LaVine and his representation made it clear in November that they would be open to be sent elsewhere, the front office has been unable to find a trade partner.

That has left the Bulls playing the slow game.

What about Alex Caruso? There’s a long line of teams that covet his skill set. DeMar DeRozan? Depends on the executive you’re speaking with. But executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas was only looking to move off LaVine, then reassess.

It’s a simple plan that has become quite a challenge.

First, there’s the remaining money on LaVine’s max contract, which runs through the 2026-27 season with a player option of just under $49 million in the final year. Then there’s LaVine’s availability.

He already has missed 17 games with a right foot injury, then in the third quarter against the Raptors, he rolled his right ankle going to the rim. LaVine went to the locker room, came back out and gave it a go for a few minutes in the fourth quarter, but it was obvious he wasn’t right.

“I could tell when he got back in there that he wasn’t moving great,” Donovan said. “I think he wanted to keep going. He could never get himself going.”

Center Nikola Vucevic didn’t have any problems against a smaller Raptors lineup that was missing big man Jakob Poeltl (ankle, illness). He had 24 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists, and it should’ve been more. Donovan admitted that they needed to search out Vucevic more than they did.

But Vucevic wasn’t complaining.

“With them missing Poeltl, we knew they had a little bit of a size disadvantage, and we were trying to take advantage of it,” Vucevic said. “There were probably some more opportunities, but sometimes it’s tough because they were switching and helping a lot. We did a good job of moving the ball and being aggressive.”

That aggressiveness showed itself late. Coby White hit a go-ahead shot with just over two minutes left, DeRozan put the Bulls up by four with two free throws, then White iced the game with a driving floater with 19.7 seconds left.

The Bulls (20-23) have taken two of three from the Raptors this season with one more meeting left.