It’s official. I have given up on the Milwaukee Bucks for the remainder of the 2011 season. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, positive to take away from this wretched season. So I’m throwing in the towel.

There was an insane amount of optimism leading up to this season. Posting a 50 win season, advancing to the second round of the playoffs, and actually looking like a legit contender in a small market. All of it, every single last bit, is gone.

When did this officially happen? I’d like to say two Saturdays ago, when the Bucks lost at home to the lowly Detroit Pistons. But I stuck it out for another week, hoping that the Bucks would prove me wrong and play some good basketball. Then I watched this Saturday’s game against the Indiana Pacers, a game in which the Bucks kept it close until the fourth quater, upon which they shot 4 for 20 or some God-awful percentage.

There are simply no more excuses for this type of effort. I would argue that the Bucks are an objectively better team than the Pistons and the Pacers, both Central Division foes. Yet the Bucks managed to lose convincingly to each of them on consecutive weekends. These weren’t close, “grind-em’-out” losses either. These were “man isn’t awesome that we get to play the Bucks?” losses.

You can’t blame injuries anymore. Brandon Jennings is back, and so is Carlos Delfino. Andrew Bogut is kind of healthy, but occasionally misses games because of migraines or back issues. John Salmons has been ineffective all season, so his recent injury is no excuse. And then there’s Drew Gooden, who’s had plantar fasciitis for months and is unsure of whether or not he’ll return this season. Also, Drew Gooden is Dan Gadzuric 2.0 with a similar contract, so if that doesn’t give you nightmares, I don’t know what does.

You also can’t blame the influx of new “talent” that John Hammond signed in the offseason. Corey Maggette was supposed to finally buy into a system that works, like the Bucks coaching staff thought they had. He gets the the free throw line way more than anyone on the team (255 attempts this season. Second is Salmons with 151). But it hasn’t translated into wins, or even better team basketball.

And then there’s Scott Skiles, the should-have-been NBA Coach of the Year last season who took the Atlanta Hawks to seven games in the playoffs and looked to have the team playing it’s best basketball since the George Karl days. His questionable lineups in crunch time lead me to believe that maybe he just forgets about some of the players he has on his bench (how many times have you screamed at the TV this season while Keyon Dooling is running the point over Jennings in the final minutes of a game?)

At this point last season, the Bucks won more than 20 games to clinch a playoff spot and actually lend some credibility to professional basketball in Milwaukee. With the All-Star break upon us this week, there’s no reason to have that sort of optimism again. Instead, we’ll be watching the NBA playoffs and wondering how a team like the 76ers or the Pacers beat us out for the rights to get slaughtered by Miami or Boston.

Sadly, it’s another lost season for the Bucks. If I can offer any shining light, it’s that we have solid, young talent in Andrew Bogut and Brandon Jennings. But being saddled with bad contracts (I’m looking at you, Drew Gooden) doesn’t help us, so I’m still guessing that the Bucks are a few years removed from making legit noise in the playoffs.

I could end this article with a crappy play-on word (‘The Buck(s) stops here’, or ‘go Buck yourself’), but I won’t. Because unlike the Bucks, I’m better than that. For now, let’s watch the Super Bowl on repeat and look forward to baseball season, because NBA basketball around here is just “Buck”-ing stupid.

Oops.