The Atlanta Hawks have signed free agent center Amal McCaskill to a contract, it was announced today by VP/General Manager Pete Babcock.

He replaces Nazr Mohammed on the active roster. Mohammed was placed on the injured list today due to a stress fracture, fifth metatarsal in his right foot. He's expected to miss four-to-six weeks.

Undermanned and seemingly overmatched, the Hawks could've easily thrown it in Wednesday night against the defending Eastern Conference champion New Jersey Nets. Glenn Robinson and Jason Terry wouldn't let them.

Making a sizzling Hawks debut, Robinson tried to carry the wounded team on his back. The Big Dog did all he could, scoring 34 points with 10 rebounds and eight assists, but it wasn't enough as the Hawks lost 105-94 on the night the Nets lifted banners for their Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference titles.

Michael Lee of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution reports that the Hawks will open the season without their leading scorer and rebounder. Shareef Abdur-Rahim will sit out tonight?s game against the defending Eastern Conference Champions, the New Jersey Nets with a stiff back.

"We're short-handed without 'Reef, but the rest of us have to pick up the slack," said forward Glenn Robinson. "That's means I'll have to get a couple more rebounds for us, a couple more assists. Everybody is going to have to bring something extra. We've got a lot to prove this year," Robinson said. "We've got to compete with the best, and that starts with the best team in the East last year."

This is just the fifth game that Abdur-Rahim missed because of injury in his six year in the league. He didn?t practice on Tuesday, stretching with trainer Wally Blase instead. The team is hopeful that Abdur-Rahim will return to the lineup for Thursday?s home opener against the Jazz.

The Hawks missed 319 games to injuries last season, more than any team in the league. They start the season with Chris Crawford (knee surgery) and DerMarr Johnson (four cracked neck vertebrae) on the injured list. Nazr Mohammed had a bone scan Tuesday on the bruised right foot that has kept him out of action for a week. His return has yet to be determined. Mohammed played all 82 games last year.

As was reported first on RealGM on Friday, Shareef Abdur-Rahim is still suffering from back pains stemming from a fall in Orlando last season.

Today, the Hawks listed Shareef as questionable on the injury report for the season opener on Wednesday in New Jersey.

The national media has it all wrong, and the Atlanta Hawks can?t wait to show them how wrong they are.

Last season, the collective national (and most local) media stopped paying attention to the Hawks after a miserable first couple of months.

After they stopped watching, the Hawks pulled it together, finishing the season with an impressive 19-17 record, not bad for a team left for dead after December.

This season, the talking heads and supposed experts are all spewing the same off-base myths and suppositions about the Hawks based on those first two months, and the players have taken notice.

Jason Walker looks at the myths that define national opinion of the Hawks and why they maybe wrong.

Micheal Lee of the AJC takes note of some of the players that are hot, and others that are not.

It seems New Jersey has one on each side of the ledger, while Washington may have a legend on the downswing.

Jeff Denberg of the AJC breaks down what he sees as the coaches that are being looked at very carefully this season.

Perhaps people in Minnesota, New York, Atlanta, and Toronto will be watching a few NBA head coaches with their collective backs to the wall.

Michael Lee of the AJC writes that Lon Kruger begins his third year as Hawks head coach with only one holdover on his staff -- Gar Heard, still the top assistant, still Kruger's right hand man.

Eric Musselman took his spunk and motivational speeches to Golden State, and Rick Mahorn was dismissed. They have been replaced by Terry Stotts, the longtime top assistant for George Karl; and Steve Henson, who has had a relationship with Kruger dating to his playing days at Kansas State.

And, by hiring NBA legend Alex English as director of player development, Kruger has added a fourth assistant to the fold.

With this group, Kruger says he has the right mix to back up his bold guarantee and take the Hawks to the playoffs for the first time since 1998-99.

Jeff Denberg of the AJC writes that a guarantee is defined as an assurance for the fulfillment of a condition.

There are guarantees of freshness, of good taste, but not on the quality of your cellphone signal.

Guys make bar bets and guarantee their point of view with a sum of money.

But no one would guarantee on-time airline arrival, the taste of your mother's pot roast or the success of your favorite sports team. Until, that is, Lon Kruger convinced his bosses (Hawks president Stan Kasten and general manager Pete Babcock) that this would be a good thing.

Kruger decided he had so much confidence in the players Kasten and Babcock gave him that he was willing to guarantee his team would at least rise as high as eighth in the NBA Eastern Conference with a playoff finish for the first time in four years.

The AJC reports that though Shareef Adbur-Rahim, Theo Ratliff and Glenn Robinson give the Hawks a front line with All-Star credentials, this is not the first time the team will play a season with such a group.

On five other occasions, the Hawks had a frontcourt manned by players who were All-Stars at some point during their careers. However, the results didn't always guarantee a playoff spot, or even a winning record.