Skiles, Paxson see hope as Bulls build brick by brick.(Chicago Tribune)

Byline: K.C. Johnson

CHICAGO _ Reminded that Sunday marked his one-year anniversary as Chicago Bulls coach, Scott Skiles cracked wise.

"Is that all it's been?" he said, laughing.

But general manager John Paxson grew serious when asked to compare Skiles' team at 1-10 with last season's team that started 4-10, at which point Paxson fired Bill Cartwright.

"We were (4-10) with a veteran team," Paxson said. "The signs of us getting better weren't good. We weren't playing hard. We were selfish."

The 2004-05 Bulls are allowing 2.8 more points and scoring 1.4 fewer points than last season's team, which was 4-7 after 11 games en route to a …