Key Arrivals: Mo Evans, Othello Hunter, Randolph Morris

Key Departures: Josh Childress

The Good: They retained the services of Josh Smith, their second leading scorer, after Smith signed a $58 million offer sheet to play with the Memphis Grizzlies. They have a strong starting five of Mike Bibby, Joe Johnson, Marvin Williams, Smith and Al Horford. The acquisitions of Hunter and Morris will improve their frontcourt depth. Bibby will have the benefit of a full training camp, which should lead to improved chemistry with his teammates, especially backcourt partner Joe Johnson. They're a good fast break team that likes to crash the offensive glass. Confidence is high after the way they pushed the Celtics to the limit in the first round of last year's playoffs.

The Bad: Josh Childress flew the coup in order to hoop it up in Greece. They tend to be inconsistent on the offensive end because they rely so heavily on streaky jump shooting (Johnson, their leading scorer, was 43 percent from the field in 2007-08). Weak three-point shooting. At times, they don't seem to give their full effort, especially on the road, where they were 12-29 last season. They might be thinking a little too highly of themselves right now, due to their playoff performance against the Celtics (who clearly weren't at their best in the early rounds). The EA NBA Live simulated season shows them finishing with only 36 wins and out of the playoffs.

Fun Facts: Dominique Wilkins is the new Hawks TV analyst on FSN South and SportsSouth, joining play-by-play announcer Bob Rathbun. Former NBA sniper Mark Price has joined the team as a shooting consultant. Last season, Josh Smith joined Hall of Fame Centers Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the only players in NBA history to average 17 PPG, 8 RPG, 1.5 SPT and 2.5 BPG in a single season. What's more, Smith was younger than any of the four when they did it. The Hawks will appear on national television only once thsi season, on December 17th against the Celtics.

Historical footnote: During the 1986-87 season, local Atlanta band Tom Gross and the Varsity released a 45 rpm record for the Hawks, titled "Nothing Can Stop Us, We're Atlanta's Air Force." And here's the video:

In the latest sign of American hoops hegemony showing some weakness, fivetooltool points out that several NBA players are returning to Europe because they can get better contracts there. Why? Partially because of the increasing value of the euro relative to the dollar.

Right now one euro is the equivalent of $1.58. That compares with one euro being valued at around $1.10 back in December of 2003. So European players currently playing in the NBA have seen their salaries decline fairly substantially in the past five years relative to their home countries' currency. Why does this matter? Simple, it means that European basketball teams have become much more competitive with the NBA when it comes to salaries. More competitive than they ever have been in the past and they haven't had to undertake a single iniaitive to make that happen.

And you're starting to see mid-tier players take note of this fact. As fivetooltool notes:

Carlos Delfino is a reasonable back end of the rotation option, a point with size who can defend well enough to get minutes in Detroit a few years ago. He doesn't score well enough to be anyone's idea of a great starting option, and he's too old to have breakout potential, but he's still someone who could play 15 to 20 minutes a night for a playoff team.

He's also someone that's going to make the equivalent of nine million dollars to play basketball next year... in Russia, for Khimki BC.

In conjunction with Delfino's signing, Yahoo Sports reports that Josh Childress is considering a three-year $20 million dollar offer from a Greek team. Effectively this is more money than Childress could receive from the Hawks and it also raises some interesting competitive balance questions. Namely players being able to step outside the NBA and receive more money than they can in a slalary-capped NBA.

David Stern wanted the NBA to be a global game and he got his wish. But what if the value of the dollar means that instead of poaching the best talent from around the globe, the NBA starts being poached instead? Interesting thought to keep in mind as the dollar continues to fall. We all could see this coming once partial NBA owner Jay-Z started to flash Euros in his videos. As Josh Childress goes, so goes the NBA.

The Euro Menance [Fivetooltool]

Childress weighing offer from Greek Team [Yahoo]

Not even Hawks fans understand what's happening.

From where we were coming home after Game 2 to where we are now, it's just night and day. I'm trying to think of an adjective to describe the win and the energy in the building, but the Thesaurus is failing me, so I am forced to make up my own words. It was spectnomenal. It was fantasterful. It was ricoculous.

If you think Hawks fans are stunned, though, man, Celtics fans sound downright lobotomized.

Did that really just happen? Was it all a bad dream? I knew going to bed last night that those would be my first thoughts waking up. I have to admit that I'm still dumbfounded. I don't know if I'm supposed to sooth people's fears and assure them that everything's going to be alright or if I should be slamming on the panic button and declaring a threat level green in Celtic Nation.

Inevitably, the spotlight is falling on Kevin Garnett, who, jeez, can he really come up short again? (Garnett wasn't much help late last night.)

Listen, it still seems pretty likely that the Celtics are gonna win this series. But, man, the Hawks suddenly got awfully scary. A first-round exit? For the team the reinvigorated basketball in Boston? No way that could happen, right? Right?

Writing a preview for this matchup is nearly impossible, because it sort of presumes that the Hawks have a good enough chance to justify expending the necessary mental energy. And they don't. But of course nothing short of a sturdy wooden chair and several rolls of duct tape will keep me from talking about it.

The season series: Boston won it in a 3-0 sweep.

Bad news for the Hawks: The dirty birds lost all three games by double digits.

Good news for the Hawks: After losing the first game by 23 points, they lost the last two by only 10 points each. That's progress. Sort of.

Reality check: In the teams' last meeting on April 12, it was Atlanta's starters versus Boston's reserves during the fourth quarter. Note that Atlanta desperately needed a win to clinch their first playoff berth in almost a decade. And they still lost by 10. As bad signs go, that ranks somewhere between waking up next to a bloody horse's head and finding out that Soylent green is people.

Celtics player(s) to watch: Kevin Garnett put the Hawks in his hip pocket this season. In the first game, KG had 27 points, 19 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 blocked shots. In the second game, he scored 20 points, snatched 16 boards and stole the ball twice. In the third and final game, Garnett had went off for 24, 6, and 4 despite sitting out the entire fourth quarter. So I think it's safe to say Atlanta doesn't have an answer for KG, unless it involves a Celtic Pride-style kidnapping.

Hawks player(s) to keep an eye on: He averaged only 15 PPG on 31 percent shooting against the Celtics, but Joe Johnson is Atlanta's captain and best player. He's going to go down, but he'll go down shooting. Also, Mike Bibby has a lot more playoff experience than Rajon Rondo, who has none. Of course, my grandpa has a lot more life experience than I do, but I'm pretty sure I could beat him in a game of one-on-one.

Key(s) to the series: Boston's best-in-the-league defense. It should smother the Hawks like a plastic grocery bag on a baby's head. (Warning: Do not put a plastic bag on your baby's head; it may cause skin irritation.) The Celtics could probably score 95 PPG and win this series. Actually, make that 90 PPG, since Atlanta never scored more than 89 points against Boston this season.

Prediction: Unless something unthinkable (like a KG's right leg falls off) or bizarre (like both of KG's legs fall off) happens, the Celtics are going to win this one 4-0, where the first two games will be blowouts, the third game will be close all the way, and the fourth game will be close until the Celtics pull away in the fourth quarter.

The Hawks went onto win, and after commissary review, David Stern said to roll back to the clock and replay the 51.8 seconds, with Shaq picking up only his fifth foul. Know what would be great? If he fouls out ten seconds later.

It sounds like the Hawks stat crew has a history of blunders, which raises the great philosophical question: if there's a scoring error in Atlanta, and nobody finds it until the next day, does it really impact the standings? Well, Christ, Atlanta was .500 before this game was taken away, and a .500 record is, like, second in the East, I think. So this might actually make some kind of ripple in the standings.

So Atlanta better play well in the final 51.8 seconds. If Dwyane Wade tries to drive to the basket, Al Horford would do well to deny him, or say, "Hey you, get your damn hands off the ball." This, of course, might constitute a technical foul that would be charged to Joe Johnson.

Back To Fundamental Charlotte Basketball — So if Charlotte beat Boston, and Cleveland beats Charlotte, that means the team that beat the Celtics can't beat the team who also once beat the Celtics and has also beat another team last year in the playoffs who once beat the Celtics this year. I'll have a flowchart on your desk explaining all this first thing tomorrow morning.

LeBron James had 31 points, which he's done several times, but he never had 19 or more rebounds before, and that happened. Anderson Varejao also had a career high in rebounds against the team that initially tried to sign him during that holdout. Awkward? As Charlotte left the court that night, Michael Jordan and Varejao casually caught glances of each other and a Kelly Clarkson song raced through each of their heads.

All Right, We're Good — All is well in Boston as they got their 30th win against the New Jersey Nets, 86-77. And 30-4 is still just about as impressive as 30-3. Although, if it were my team? Yeah, I'd panic. Panic long and good. 30-4 is, like, a miserable record.

Oh By The Way, Dallas Won — During a break in the Mavericks-Sonics game, Jon Kitna tried to throw a t-shirt into the stands, but the shirt slipped out of his hand and fell harmlessly to his feet. Paris Lenon tried to retrieve the shirt for him, but he accidentally kicked it into the first row.

• Yee-Haw! I've said it before, but I'll say it again: Joe Johnson is the Armadillo Cowboy. Why? No reason. But please give me this, OK? Seriously. It's the only thing that keeps me going these days. I think I have the black lung, Pops. *cough* Minnesota held a one-point lead after Marko Jaric's layup with 2.2 seconds left, but the Armadillo Cowboy nailed an 18-footer at the buzzer to lift the Hawks — CAW! — to the 90-89 victory. "Two and a half seconds is a lot," Jaric said. "I'm upset right now. I was less than three seconds from hot hero sex."

• Who's Team Is This Again? A day after scoring 51 points, Iverson may have been even better, dropping 35 points and 12 dimes to lead the Nuggets past the Mavericks 122-109. A.I. made 12-of-19 shots and was 11-of-13 from the charity line. It was his first 30-10 game of the season. Kenyon Martin, who it's nice to see back raping rims again, had 18 points and seven boards.

• Fooked. The Heat are a [expletive] mess. Shaq doesn't want to "[expletive] communicate," Pat Riley isn't happy with wearing a [expletive] mic during games, and the team can't even beat the Portland [expletive] Trail Blazers. Brandon Roy, who finally found his shot again (it was in his pants leg!), scored 25 as the Blazers posted the 112-106 win.

But he is no less entertaining, albeit in his own special Slava way. Medvedenko just signed with the Atlanta Hawks, so you're not likely to ever hear from him again. But the good news is that the Hawks gig puts him in closer physical proximity to Joe Kines, upping the chances of the two of them having a conversation. If that were to happen and make its way onto YouTube, I would retire, just so I could sit at home and watch it 250 times a day.

Thanks to Marcel Mutoni at the NBA FanHouse for providing us with this special opportunity to enjoy Slava, one last time.

Hawks News & Notes [NBA FanHouse]

• 1. Remember Dominique Wilkins? Yeah, It's Like That. It's a sports resurgence of sorts in Atlanta, is it not? The Hawks, who have endured seven straight losing seasons, improved to 3-1 with a 104-95 win over the Cavaliers in OT on Tuesday. Joe Johnson scored 25 points for the winners. Meanwhile, LeBron James' long-awaited review of the new ball is in. "It's not a good basketball. It kind of feels like a basketball you buy for your kids at Christmas or something."

• 2. Yao, Baby! Shane Battier returned to Memphis, but Yao Ming stole the show with 24 points — 11 in the fourth quarter — as the Rockets beat the Grizzlies 86-80.

• 3. Shaqless In Seattle. Are you ready to put up a poster in your room featuring a guy named Posey, kids? James Posey's go-ahead three-pointer with 19 seconds remaining lifted the Heat — minus Shaquille O'Neal — to a 90-87 win over the SuperSonics.

• 4. 76ers' Dynasty Ends Abruptly. Jermaine O'Neal had 16 points and 11 rebounds as the Pacers dealt the 76ers their first loss of the season, 97-86.

• 5. It's The Feel-Good Hit Of The Fall. NOOCH won its home debut in Oklahoma City, as Chris Paul had 22 points and 11 assists in a 97-93 win over Golden State. "We're still trying to build an identity,'' Paul said. "It's only four games into a new season. It's still possible for us to finish 4-78. You never know.'' Now that's positive thinking.

It's hard to believe, but the NBA season is just around the corner. So come with us now as we present five tiny tidbits on each team, just to get you in the mood. Today we begin the Southeast Division, so do us a favor and send your tips to tips@deadspin.com.

• 1. The Highest Flyers In The NBA! The 1986 Hawks apparently had a slammin' music video to the tune of "The Atlanta Hawks: Atlanta's Air Force", by the timeless supergroup T. Grose and the Varsity. And if that doesn't grab you, how about a Tyrone Nesby rap? — (Thanks to Hotlanta Matt and J.E. Skeets).

• 2. Red Storm Warning. Speedy Claxton's sister, Lisa, currently is in her second season as a point guard for the St. John's women's basketball team.

• 3. He's Zaza, Dahling! Zaza Pachulia is possibly the best-dressed player in the NBA. "When I'm dressed nicely and when I feel good, I play well and my day is going good," he said. According to Salim Stoudamire, "The best dresser is probably Zaza. He's always got the Armani suits, stuff like that, with the little shoes that point up in the air."

• 4. Two-Timer. Assistant coach Bob Bender is the only person to have played in NCAA title games with two different teams. He was a freshman on Bob Knight's undefeated 1976 Indiana team, and was point guard at Duke from 1977-80, including an appearance in the 1978 title game against Kentucky.

• 5. The Lower 48. The Hawks haven't advanced beyond the second round of any playoff format since 1961, the NBA record. They also hold the record for most consecutive years without winning an NBA title, at 48.

OK, so this is pretty much the very definition of a random YouTube finding.

These dudes, just driving around, looking to grab a bite to eat ... they look outside their car window and see the Atlanta Hawks mascot driving a scooter down the sidewalk. Apropos of nothing. And then he has some bike trouble ... aw, jeez, you just have to see it.

Atlanta Hawk On Motorcycle [YouTube]

If you're a young buck who hasn't had much of a chance to see Dominique in action, or you just need a reminder, give this a look:

Best in-game dunker of all-time. He had a power and explosiveness that allowed him to come out of nowhere and posterize anyone, almost at will. Congrats, 'Nique.

And the better news for Dominique? He doesn't have to share a stage with Dick Vitale. Dickie V was on the ballot, but did not make the cut. I can sense that many of you are very distraught right now.

Report: 'Nique, Dumars, Auriemma Hall-bound [FoxSports.com]
Vitale doesn't get enough votes [HeraldTribune.com]

It was an odd twist of fate, but the Atlanta Hawks could have ended up being the Boston Celtics. Sort of. The franchise started as the Tri-Cities Blackhawks (the cities being Moline, Ill., Rock Island, Ill., and Davenport, Iowa), in the NBA's inaugural season, 1946. Red Auerbach was their coach. Among their first draft picks were Bob Cousy and Bill Russell. But they traded Cousy to The Chicago Stags (who later folded, with the Celtics then snapping him up), also traded Russell, moved to Milwaukee, then to St. Louis, and finally, in 1968, to Atlanta. Got all that?

The Hawks are also known for: one NBA Championship (1958), coach Lenny Wilkens (he won his 1,000th game there), Dominique "The Human Highlight Reel" Wilkins, and of course, Zelmo Beaty. Want to learn more? Check out these nifty blogs:

3. Hawks Blog. For a team that's not doing so well, they sure seem to have quite a few solid blogs. Hey, we admire that.
2. Impending Firestorm. Great spot for Hawks commentary, is very consistent, plus, what's this? A juicy plagarism controversy?
1. Atlanta Hawks Blog. The best Hawks analysis around.