By Jim Owczarski Sports Editor Published Nov 02, 2012 at 11:00 AM Photography: David Bernacchi

At the end of last season Milwaukee Bucks head coach Scott Skiles said that going forward, each member of the team would need to get better individually in order for the collective to take a step forward.

At the beginning of the season, Skiles isn't quite sure if that has happened. This preseason the Bucks went 3-5, which included a four game losing streak. There were moments of brilliance on both ends of the court, and mental lapses that frustrated the coaching staff.

"Unless you have an unbelievable bailout player or two; unless you have multiple All-Stars or a couple Hall of Famers on your team, things like that, to cover up for everybody else's mistakes, if you want to be a team that doesn't have those things and still has a lot of success, everybody's got to be totally committed and focused, understand what they're supposed to do, do their jobs with no excuses and those are just three or four things," Skiles said. "I could probably add another 15 more. Those are the things we're going to have to do to get to that point."

What he does know is the team is focused on getting off to a better start to the year.

"At the end of the year we're always saying, 'aw man, we're so close,'" Brandon Jennings said. "I feel like if we take the beginning of the season and approach it like 'We gotta win every game, we gotta start off great,' then I think at the end of the season, when it's time to make that run, we won't have no problems."

The air left the balloon of the 2011-12 season quickly as the team began the lockout-shortened season losers of six of its first eight and fell to as many as eight games below .500 after the first two months of the season. A run in March and April nearly pushed the Bucks into the Eastern Conference playoffs, but the team struggled down the stretch to finish four games behind the Philadelphia 76ers for the final spot.

The Bucks began the 2010-11 season going 7-13 and also finished ninth in the East – two games behind the Indiana Pacers.

Even in the team's successful 2009-10 campaign, the Bucks' last playoff appearance, they started the season 9-11.

In 2008-09, Skiles' first season at the helm, the team started 8-12 and finished last in the Central.

"We know that we'd like to have a good month to start the season," Skiles said. "Most of the time in the past few years we've been having to play catch up. We fall behind and we've been able to hang in and everything but you'd like to get off to a good start so you're not playing from behind."

The look of the Eastern Conference has changed beneath the defending champion Miami Heat, as new faces and injuries have put at least the start of the season in flux for many teams.

Dwight Howard is gone from Orlando, but Andrew Bynum is in Philadelphia. Derrick Rose is out with a blown knee in Chicago, but the Brooklyn Nets have added Joe Johnson. Indiana's Danny Granger is hurt, but Boston is motivated.

Every team has questions, and the Bucks hope an infusion of length in the front court meshes with Jennings and Monta Ellis to create mismatches at both ends of the floor, and take the first steps toward walking though the door that leads to the postseason.

"We have that expectation every year," forward Ersan Ilyasova said. "It doesn't matter where we're at. We always approach with that mentality, a winning mentality. It's not like we start the season like oh, we're probably not going to make the playoffs. It's never that way. We're always start looking forward to being in the playoffs."

Click to the next page to meet the 2012-13 Milwaukee Bucks.

THE 2012-13 BUCKS

Samuel Dalembert
Age: 31
Need to know: Led the Houston Rockets in double-doubles (10) last season.
Fun fact: Became a Canadian citizen in 2007.

Mike Dunleavy
Age: 32
Need to know: Shot 47.4 percent from the field last year, just off his career high of 47.6.
Fun fact: Favorite NFL team is the Green Bay Packers.

Monta Ellis
Age: 27
Need to know: Has averaged at least 20 points per game in four of the last five seasons.
Fun fact: Was a McDonald's All-American and Parade Magazine's Co-Player of the Year at Lanier High School in Jackson, Miss.

Drew Gooden
Age: 31
Need to know: Recorded 13 double-doubles last season.
Fun fact: Has been involved in six trades that have included 38 players.

Tobias Harris
Age: 20
Need to know: Averaged 20.8 points per game in the Vegas Summer League
Fun fact: His father, sister and brother have all played, or are playing, college basketball.

John Henson
Age: 21
Need to know: Was a two-time ACC Defensive Player of the Year.
Fun fact: Has a superstition – knocking on wood.

Ersan Ilyasova
Age: 25
Need to know: Coming off a year in which he recorded career highs in points (13.0) and rebounds (8.8).
Fun fact: Became a professional basketball player at the age of 15.

Brandon Jennings
Age: 23
Need to know: Averaged 18.7 points per game in only playoff series appearance in 2010.
Fun fact: Was Parade Magazine's National Player of the Year out of Oak Hill Academy.

Doron Lamb
Age: 20
Need to know: Is Kentucky's all-time leader in 3-point shooting (47.5 percent).
Fun fact: Was a McDonald's All-American out of Oak Hill Academy.

Luc Richard Mbah A Moute
Age: 26
Need to know: Averaged a career high 7.7 points per game last season.
Fun fact: Is the prince of his village of Bafia (Bia Messe) in Cameroon.

Joel Przybilla
Age: 33
Need to know: Led the Trail Blazers in rebounding four times.
Fun fact: Portland traded him to Charlotte in Feb., 2011, which included a draft pick the Bobcats later sent to Milwaukee. That pick turned into current teammate Tobias Harris.

Larry Sanders
Age: 23
Need to know: Led the Bucks in blocks 26 times.
Fun fact: Designs skateboard decks during his free time.

Ekpe Udoh
Age: 25
Need to know: Had 33 multi-block games last season.
Fun fact: Made All-Defensive teams in the Big 12 and the Big Ten.

Beno Udrih
Age: 30
Need to know: Led the Bucks in assists 15 times last year.
Fun fact: Father and brother have also played professional basketball.

Jim Owczarski is an award-winning sports journalist and comes to Milwaukee by way of the Chicago Sun-Times Media Network.

A three-year Wisconsin resident who has considered Milwaukee a second home for the better part of seven years, he brings to the market experience covering nearly all major and college sports.

To this point in his career, he has been awarded six national Associated Press Sports Editors awards for investigative reporting, feature writing, breaking news and projects. He is also a four-time nominee for the prestigious Peter J. Lisagor Awards for Exemplary Journalism, presented by the Chicago Headline Club, and is a two-time winner for Best Sports Story. He has also won numerous other Illinois Press Association, Illinois Associated Press and Northern Illinois Newspaper Association awards.

Jim's career started in earnest as a North Central College (Naperville, Ill.) senior in 2002 when he received a Richter Fellowship to cover the Chicago White Sox in spring training. He was hired by the Naperville Sun in 2003 and moved on to the Aurora Beacon News in 2007 before joining OnMilwaukee.com.

In that time, he has covered the events, news and personalities that make up the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Hockey League, NCAA football, baseball and men's and women's basketball as well as boxing, mixed martial arts and various U.S. Olympic teams.

Golf aficionados who venture into Illinois have also read Jim in GOLF Chicago Magazine as well as the Chicago District Golfer and Illinois Golfer magazines.