Chicago Bulls vice president of basketball operations John Paxson believes the team remains united despite their underwhelming start to the season.

The Bulls entered the season hoping to compete for the playoffs. However, they struggled right off the bat and accumulated just nine wins out of 27 matches entering Saturday's showdown with the Los Angeles Clippers.

Amid the struggles though, Paxson is confident about his team and his head coach, Jim Boylen. When asked about whether the players still buy in on Boylen, Paxson emphasized that the team still shares the same goal

Per K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago:

“We recognize players have a voice in this day and age. They’re empowered in a way they’ve never been. And that’s a good thing for the league. They’ve taken that and used that in a positive way for the league. We talk to the players. Thad, we’ve spoken to. The one thing I am confident is guys in that locker room share the same goal. They are together,” Paxson said.

“There’s never going to be a perfect situation. There’s always some conflict. It can be teammate to teammate or coaches to players. That’s inevitable in this business. I don’t expect this group to fracture. I’d be disappointed if they did. All the guys in that locker room expressed to us their character and that’s not where they want to go or would ever go. I believe when they tell me that. I know that when things are bad or you’re not winning as much as you should, people want to point fingers. I’m not doing that internally. And we can’t do that internally. Once you do that, you’re in trouble.”

The Bulls remain hopeful that they will be able to compete for the playoffs, and that seems still possible given that the back half of the Eastern Conference is relatively weak. Chicago is just three games behind the eighth-seeded Orlando Magic.

There are still a lot of games to be played, but the Bulls need to start stringing wins if they want to remain in the playoff race. The first step? Be on the same page — something which should be shown rather than said.