After signing Dwyane Wade and Rajon Rondo last summer, the Chicago Bulls had a lot to feel positive about. They started the campaign strong and were once four games above .500 with an 8-4 record.

However, the team has been struggling lately, losing six of their past seven games, mostly due to inconsistencies with the production from their bench. Just recently, their VP and General Manager, John Paxson, shared his thoughts on what the team needs to improve on to get back to their winning ways.

“The area we really do need to improve with is our athleticism. That’s been evident this year. We’ve got some vets who know how to play and can score. But when you look around the league and the way the game is now, that’s an area we have to address. That is a part of the plan. We’ll try to do that obviously through the draft and free agency if we can. You always have the trade option. Right now, our roster is what it is.”

The 56-year-old front office executive acknowledged the lack of bench production as well as revealing what he and head coach, Fred Hoiberg, have frequently discussed.

“Statistically defensively, we’ve been pretty solid. We haven’t been great at end-of-game situations but overall we’ve been pretty good. We’ve wanted to play with a little more pace, a little quicker. In this day and age, if you’re not advancing the ball quickly and allowing defenses to set up and you’re fighting the clock, that becomes an issue.”

“One of the things I see and Fred has talked about is we get in fourth quarters and we really stop pushing the pace and the ball stops moving. That’s been one thing that has really hurt us. It’s been a point of emphasis. We need to get on the practice floor and keep finding ways to do it. You have to find a way to move the ball and make defenses shift. And the other thing is we’ve just really gotten inconsistent play from the guys coming off our bench. Losing Doug [McDermott] for that period of time with a concussion really did hurt us. It messed with our rotations a bit.”

The Bulls currently sit last in the NBA in three point conversion, to which Paxson thinks can be improved if McDermott or Nikola Mirotic can find their stride and rediscover their shooting touch.

“(The lack of 3-point shooting) has hurt us. There’s no question about it. We’re last in the league in 3-point shooting in a league that needs it. We acknowledged that going in that that would be an issue. We did think — and still think — that Niko and Doug have the capability of being 40 percent 3-point shooters. That’s what they need to be.”

The silver lining for this team is it's still very early in the season. There's still plenty of time for their players to get used to playing with one another. Should they be successful in addressing their areas of opportunities as well, it wouldn't be surprising to see the Bulls display playoff basketball form soon.