<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>With training camp two days away, we ask ? and answer ? five questions facing the Hawks on the eve of the season.Q: NBA players who work with USA Basketball in the summer have a history of struggling physically once the NBA starts, with all the practice and international competition that goes on during the offseason. Is there any reason to be concerned about Joe Johnson getting fatigued early in the year?A: No. Not if you know what kind of gym rat Johnson is (he's always either playing or working out anyway). He's been one of the league's most durable players the past four years, no other elite guard has played in every single regular-season game during that span. Johnson was in pristine shape at the start of training camp for the World Championships ? his Team USA colleagues and coaches all raved about his splendid conditioning at the start of camp ? and didn't log heavy minutes on the bronze medal-winning team in Japan. He's had a few weeks to recover from competition and recharge himself in preparation for another season. The preseason should be a time for him to fine-tune his skills and get more comfortable with his new teammates. There's no way Johnson should play 40 minutes per game this season, as he did a year ago.Q: Was Josh Smith's rousing finish last season (he averaged 15.9 points and 7.4 rebounds in the final 25 games) a hot streak or something more?A: It's safe to assume that Smith's sprint to the finish last season was so much more than a streak. His snub in the Rookie Challenge during All-Star weekend awakened the competitor in the ultra-talented third-year forward. Smith's been on a mission ever since, and in case you missed him late last year, few players in the league can have an impact on the action from end to end the way he can. He worked on every aspect of his game in the summer and has added 10 pounds of muscle and has another year of experience to lean on when teams gear up to stop him in ways that they haven't before. His performance after the All-Star break is what led the Hawks to believe they could move on without Al Harrington.Q: Which newcomer has the chance to make the biggest impact on the team this season?A: Shelden Williams will contribute but go through the normal growing pains for a rookie. Solomon Jones will battle to remain on the active roster. And Lorenzen Wright will provide exactly what the Hawks knew he would when they signed the veteran center. But Speedy Claxton, who will wear a cast on his broken left hand for at least the first two weeks of training camp, remains the most important newcomer to the Hawks' cause. After passing on Chris Paul last summer, Marcus Williams and Rajon Rondo this summer and other potential opportunities to add a point guard to the roster, the Hawks decided that Claxton would be the ideal player to run their team. The only problem is he won't have training camp and the exhibition season to work with his new teammates. Claxton has to make up for that lost time quickly once the team medical staff clears him for full-contact participation.Q: Will the additions of Wright, Williams and Jones help cure the Hawks' porous interior defense or will they continue to struggle defending basket against teams intent on attacking them in the paint?A: Only time will tell if the issue can be solved with personnel or with improvement from the entire team on the defensive end. The intensity shown on the defensive end from the first day in camp will tell the story. Wright is a quality low-post defender but not necessarily known as a shot blocker. Williams and Jones were shot-blocking specialists in college but should not be counted on for similar numbers as rookies, besides, Josh Smith takes care of that department. If just a little of Wright's nastiness inside rubs off on his younger teammates the Hawks should be in better shape. They weren't just thin in the frontcourt last year. They showed no willingness to mix it up when challenged. That has to change.Q: Is it too early to start discussing wins and losses, or after two seasons of severe growing pains is the reasonable expectation for this Hawks team playoff contention?A: Yes, it's far too early to prognosticate wins and losses. But when has anyone let that get in the way of a good preseason prediction? The optimistic answer is that these Hawks, provided of course they stay as healthy as humanly possible during an 82-game season, can win 35-40 games and possibly even challenge for a playoff berth for the first time since the previous millennium. But that's the outlook with the Hawks injury list staying free of central characters for the majority of the season. A 10-game improvement from last season's 26-56 mark, however, is a realistic goal.</div>http://www.ajc.com/news/content/sports/haw...nbainsider.html
