John Paxson doesn't speak to the media very often.

He was extremely candid in his remarks about the Bulls though in an interview with David Schuster on the Score 670. You can listen to the full audio here. KC Johnson also did a nice job of transcribing some of the highlights.

The most interesting things to me were Pax's takes on Tony Snell and trade opportunities.

On Snell, it sounds like the team is losing patience with him quickly. He received a DNP the other day [UPDATE: He received another DNP against Dallas last night], and Hoiberg isn't the only one displeased with Snell's play. Here's Pax on Snell:

We’ve given Tony Snell an opportunity. And Tony has had a few moments but to be very candid, he has needed to play better and with some more consistency. That’s not been the case. As you saw the last game, Fred went with a little different lineup and Tony didn’t even play. Young guys need to take advantage of their opportunities. We need Tony to step up and do that on occasion.

Pax also addressed the possibility of a trade occurring:

We’re looking at everything. If at some point we feel like we need to make some changes, do something different with the roster, we talk to teams all the time. I know Gar is on the phone with teams every day. If there’s a way to do something different as we look at this, we certainly will. But you need two partners to get something going. And right now there’s not a lot of stuff going on this time of year. But it will all pick up as we get towards February and we’ll have a better idea about our team by then. Hopefully Mike and Jo are back and we can see if this group can find some sort of rhythm.

So it looks like Pax is waiting until February when it's more clear if the team is in contention or not and there are potentially more interested parties. That means the next few weeks are really important for this team. Remember, the Bulls are in the tax right now and they can shed salary to get under if they're not doing well.

Pax also defended his poor record of trades:

Just because we haven’t done something in the past doesn’t mean we won’t do it. We’ve made some deals at the deadline several years back.

This is laughably disingenous. Every single trade deadline move the Bulls have made has been a salary dump. They have never acquired a rotation player better than the one they were trading away. Their trade deadline moves that Pax is referencing:

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2014: Deng/Teague salary dumps to get under the cap

2011: James Johnson salary dump

2010: John Salmons salary dump for Hakim Warrick and Joe Alexander

2009: Thabo salary dump

[CORRECTION: Also traded Andres Nocioni, Drew Gooden, Michael Ruffin and Cedric Simmons to the Kings for Brad Miller and John Salmons.]

2008: Ben Wallace salary dump

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That's it. That's all of GarPax's February trade deadline moves in 12+ years on the job. The biggest player acquisitions he got in that span were Larry Hughes' bad contract in exchange for dumping Wallace's deal *shudder* and the Miller/Salmons deal in 2009.

The whole Pax interview is worth a listen. At the very least, check out KC's transcription of the high points.