{image1}If you're anything like me, you haven't exactly been obsessing over the start of the NBA season for the last month. In fact, an 8-0 Badgers football team, a roller coaster season from the Packers and the historic baseball postseason combined to utterly obscure the run-up to the 2004-2005 NBA campaign.

Add to that the fact that this year's Milwaukee Bucks have an even lower profile than last year's team did at this time, and you end up with a whole lot of apathy. If that's the case, though, Bucks fans are not alone. The NBA hasn't been this boring since the pre-Bird and Magic days of the late 1970s.

Quick, how many divisions are in the league? Four? No, six. And let's not even start on what they're all called.

The Bucks, at least, are still in the Eastern Conference's Central Division, which now is home to only four other teams: Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and Indiana. NBA realignment will affect playoff seeding (the three division winners will rank 1-2-3) but little else has changed. Eight teams still qualify for the post-season in each conference, and many still consider the Bucks a long shot to do so.

But coach Terry Porter and his team retain their confidence. After all, no one expected them to win 41 games and make the playoffs last year.

This season, there are just as many questions and even fewer familiar names. Here's a quick glance at what could be another surprising edition of your Milwaukee Bucks.

New Guards: The T.J. Ford injury saga is just as murky as it was last February. The Bucks and Ford maintain that he'll be back, but there is no public timetable for his return.

Instead, meet Mike James and Mo Williams, your new point guard tandem (along with returning vet Erick Strickland). James, a defensive type, averaged 9.3 points between Boston and Detroit last year. Williams is a second-year slasher that played with Utah last season. The preseason skinny is that James is another solid, unheralded Larry Harris acquisition, while Williams could impress the locals with his bursts to the hoop.

Old Gray Mares: Toni Kukoc (36), Joe Smith (29) and Strickland (30) return to provide the steady leadership that served Milwaukee well last season. Smith, who is still young for a 10-year vet, is a major key for the Bucks now that center Brian Skinner is back in Philly. Kukoc always seems to be the best player on the floor when he's playing well. And Strickland provides some continuity at the point while James and Williams settle in.

Doughnut Committee: The Bucks will try to fill their annual hole in the middle with four different big men: Dan Gadzuric, Zendon Hamilton, Zaza Pachulia and Daniel Santiago. The unit's best attribute may be its nightly allotment of 24 fouls. Bucks fans love Gadzuric, but it remains to be seen if he'll ever be more than a guy who occasionally dunks on the break. Hamilton, when he returns from a knee injury, is worth watching; like Skinner before him, the Bucks were impressed with how well he played as an opponent. Pachulia is a raw, 20-year-old from Turkey who likes to run. And Santiago is reliable if underwhelming.

The Enigma: Trading Tim Thomas for Keith Van Horn last year was like trading a groin pull for a herniated disc. While Bucks fans called for Van Horn's head, it was really an injured hand that contributed to his wretched 8-ppg performance against the Pistons in the playoffs. For his career, he's averaged 17.5 points and 7.4 rebounds a game, and he can shoot the three (39.9 percent last year). But he's been a victim of great expectations ever since the Sixers took him second overall in the '97 draft. If the history of fan-dom is any guide, he'll probably perform inversely to the amount of nightly "You suck, Van Horn!" jeers emanating from the Bradley Center seats.

The Stars: Michael Redd is clearly the Bucks biggest star. Now, the 25-year-old all-star needs to handle the pressure. Level-headed and a hard worker, just about everyone who writes about basketball for a living believes he'll follow his 21.7 ppg, breakout campaign with another strong season.

Hopefully, Desmond Mason's career arc is on the same trajectory. A transcendent talent, the Bucks would love Mason to start hitting the 18-footer with some consistency, up his rebounds (which dipped to 4.3 last year from 6.5 in 2002-'03) and become a clampdown defender. Anyone who's ever seen him suit up knows that the talent is there.

How will this year's Bucks fare? It's difficult to say, but you have to admire the team's makeup. In a sport dominated by video game incarnations of its star players, lousy shooting and defenses that hibernate until the playoff pairings are announced, the Bucks cut a low profile, play hard each night and win their share of games. We'll add them up in early April and see how they did.