Surely, you heard the sales pitch from the Milwaukee Bucks in recent weeks, the one that went: Don't worry, there's plenty of season remaining, the schedule is top-heavy with home games and we're only a game or two out of the eighth playoff spot.

Well, back-to-back home losses to two of the NBA's worst teams put a merciful end to that playoff talk. At least temporarily, anyway.

For the Bucks' sake, it should be permanent. The playoffs aren't going to happen for this team, and it's time management came to grips with that.

Indeed, first-year coach Larry Krystkowiak would be better off if he dropped the Ned Yost imitation and went Jim Mora on everyone.

Surely, you recall Mora's memorable rant when he coached the Indianapolis Colts.

"Playoffs?" Mora screamed. "Don't talk about the playoffs. Are you kidding me? Playoffs? I'm just hoping we can win a game."

The Bucks should feel the same way. Watch them play and you'll see why the playoff talk was the funniest thing to come out of Milwaukee since Frank Caliendo.

Instead of hoping for the playoffs, the Bucks should be figuring out how to blow up this team and start over.

Any major change in direction would be complicated by the iffy job status of general manager Larry Harris, of course, but the time has come to put this underachieving team out of its misery.

The Bucks have been trying to build a winning team around guard Michael Redd since the Big Three disbanded and, five seasons later, it's time for the project to end.

It has become obvious that it's just not going to work with this group of players. Harris has assembled enough talent to get the Bucks to the playoffs, especially in the Eastern Conference.

But the team is led by Redd and Mo Williams, terrific scorers and solid citizens who simply haven't been able to set the kind of hard-nosed, unselfish tone a marginally talented team needs to win in the NBA.

The Bucks' culture has changed very little in five years. They aren't strong mentally or physically.

They play unselfishly on offense only in spurts and are incapable of playing tough defense. They can't sustain good, solid play for a game, much less a string of games.

Management's answer has been to throw different coaches at the same players. Terry Porter, Terry Stotts and Krystkowiak all had the same message, saying the Bucks would share the ball on offense, play tough defense and that the players would be held accountable, but little has changed.

The only logical conclusion one can draw from this basketball version of Groundhog Day is that it's not the coaches who are the problem, it's the players. Krystkowiak's patience finally appears to have worn out, which is a good thing.

Unfortunately, it's too late.

The Bucks have proven that they lack the proper chemistry to win consistently. Indeed, the only way to fix this team is to dismantle it. Except for young big men Andrew Bogut and Yi Jianlian, everyone is expendable.

With the trade deadline approaching, the Bucks would be better served by blowing up the team and starting the rebuilding process now because the playoffs are a pipe dream with this group of players.

Contact Tom Oates at toates@madison.com or 608-252-6172.