Writers' Roundtable (cont.)

Joe Johnson has led the Hawks to their best start since 1997-98. AP

3. Assuming Josh Smith misses only a few weeks with his ankle injury, are you buying the Hawks (who were 5-0 entering Tuesday night's game at Chicago)?

Thomsen: Yes, because they have talent and they're beginning to believe in themselves. They needed a strong start and now that they've evaded early questions about coach Mike Woodson's future, they can be aggressive. All teams (even the Spurs) are fragile, but the Hawks have a lot of scoring and Joe Johnson, especially, has been terrific.

Burns: Buyer beware. This is the Hawks we're talking about here. I love the way they are defending as a team and sharing the ball, but they have gone off on these little runs before (just not at the beginning of the season) only to revert back to bad habits. With guys like Flip Murray and Solomon Jones playing key roles, I'm going to need to see more.

McCallum: I am buying the Hawks for this reason: They are in the East. They gained a world of confidence with last season's seven-game playoff loss to the Celtics, and, really, who are we asking them to be better than? Orlando? Philadelphia? No big deal. They will contest for first-round home-court advantage.

Mannix: The Hawks have beaten probable playoff teams Orlando, Philadelphia, New Orleans and Toronto, and they have been outstanding at making opponents pay for committing turnovers. But I'm still not buying it. The bench took a body blow when it lost Josh Childress, and as well as Flip Murray has played in his absence (12.4 points in 23.4 minutes), I don't see it holding up for an entire season. Plus, I still think the Smith-Woodson relationship is a powder keg waiting to explode. Smith thinks he is an All-Star; Woodson is not convinced. How those two manage the season will be critical to the Hawks' success.

Aschburner: No. Way back when I actually had a few dollars in my IRA to move around, I learned to buy on the dips. This terrific start is no dip for the Hawks, who reportedly have been a coach's dream through the season's first two weeks, embracing defensive chores and everything for Woodson. Again, though, it's the first two weeks. Staying relentless enough over a full season to lock down opponents -- they are allowing 85.8 points and 40 percent shooting through five games -- requires tons of work, focus and discipline. I don't think the young Hawks have that in them yet. Besides, they need another shooter.

4. Jerry Sloan just won his 1,000th game with the Jazz. What comes to mind when you consider the career of the longest-tenured coach in major pro sports? Overlooked? Underrated? Hasn't won the big one? Greg Ostertag's worst nightmare? Something else?

Thomsen: A couple of years ago, Sloan told me that he has 50 or 60 tractors on his farm in Illinois. It takes a lot of years to accumulate that many tractors; New Jersey's Lawrence Frank is the second-longest tenured coach in the East and I bet he doesn't have more than one or two.

The NBA has changed around Sloan. It has become younger, richer, more talented athletically and less skilled. But he persists. His values have stood like a mast against the storms.

Burns: Forget the wins and losses, the pick-and-roll mastery of Karl Malone and John Stockton, or the inexplicable fact that he has yet to win a Coach of the Year award. Sloan will be remembered most for his lasting 20 years (and counting) with one team. In this day of quick-trigger firings, it's just amazing that one guy could survive so long.

The interesting thing will be what happens to Sloan in the future. The Jazz are a title contender, and fair or not, some locals still grumble a bit about the old coach's inability to win it all. If Sloan were to be pushed out at some point and wind up finishing his career with another NBA team (he has never ruled it out), it would be like throwing paint on the Mona Lisa.

McCallum: Old school. That's it. Old school. Besides cleaning up his drinking, which he did several years ago before his first wife, Bobbye, died of cancer, he has never changed. Same candor. Same refusal to get caught up in hype. Same city. Same offense. Same dourness that hides the softie inside. I always feel better after spending a little time with the man.

Mannix: To me, Sloan will always be regarded as a coaching genius overlooked because of the geography of his franchise. If Sloan had racked up his record in, say, New York or Los Angeles, he would be fitted for immortality. As it stands now, he continues to be content to doff his John Deere cap after practice and do what he has always done with little fanfare: win games.

Aschburner: More amazing than the fact that Sloan has lasted this long in his job is the realization that he has wanted to. The NBA of today resembles the league Sloan played in about as much as iPods resemble jukeboxes. At some point, you'd have figured this would get old for him and embarrassing for onlookers, like Frank Sinatra working his way through the Radiohead songbook. At the very least, Sloan seemed a candidate to flatten one knucklehead or another along the way (how Ostertag or Chris Morris avoided it is beyond me). But by having such authority over his roster -- the Jazz don't tempt fate by bringing in the league's likeliest sparring partners -- this guy has aged like Clint Eastwood rather than John Wayne.