Al Horford aced every test of his rookie season.

He was prepared for everything.

Everything except for what took place Monday at Philips Arena — the morning after.

The Hawks' season came to an abrupt end Sunday afternoon in Boston in a 99-65 Game 7 thumping at the hands of the Celtics.

Horford's previous two seasons ended with the afterglow of NCAA tournament championship runs at Florida, each one brimming with the promise of what was to come next year.

Now he and his Hawks teammates face a summer of uncertainty.

Two of their key players, Josh Smith and Josh Childress, are restricted free agents and must be re-signed; the price tag for both could be huge.

Hawks coach Mike Woodson and his staff have contracts that end June 30, and Hawks general manager Billy Knight is in a similar situation, with the team holding an option on his contract for next season.

"I don't know what to do with myself, man," Horford said Monday as he walked down a corridor to his car. "I know we lost, but I just don't know what to do with myself. You're just done.

"Obviously, you know the season is going to end at some point. But in school, you kind of knew what you had going on next. Here you're done and you're just ... done."

Keeping a nucleus together for next season, and possibly another run to the postseason, is the only thing on the minds of the players.

"I hope everything works out for the best," Horford said. "You know the NBA is a business. And you never know what the guys are thinking. But if it were up to me, we'd have everybody back. We might have to make an addition or two. But at the end of the day, I feel confident with the guys that we have. We have good chemistry, and we got good results. And you just don't want anything to mess this up."

The Hawks might not have a choice. Woodson and Knight aren't even on speaking terms, and haven't been since it came to light that Knight recommended to ownership at the February trade deadline that Woodson be fired — a recommendation rebuffed by ownership.

And there are lingering contract situations involving Smith and Childress. Both will have suitors on July 1, the first day teams can woo free agents.

And both players repeated Monday their desire to remain with the Hawks.

"You don't spend as much time in this organization as we have and not feel like there's work to be done," said Smith, who finished the regular season as the Hawks' second-leading scorer and rebounder and their leader in blocks and steals, and he was sixth in the voting for the league's Defensive Player of the Year award.

"What we can't control is how things play out from here. All we can do is let the process work itself out."

Not being able to control his future, Childress said, is the only tough part of the process.

"It's a management decision," Childress said. "And it basically comes down to a decision of what direction the organization wants to go in. Do you want to start fresh again? Or do you want to work with what you have, add a few pieces and keep it going? That's something I can't control, and nobody in this locker room as players can control. It's a managerial decision that has to be made above us."

Woodson said Monday that the Hawks' first step toward getting back to the playoffs next season is to make sure Smith and Childress are kept in the fold.

He wouldn't comment specifically on his status or his working relationship, or lack thereof, with Knight, saying only that he didn't want to disrespect the accomplishments of his team.

But he did acknowledge that the uncertainty of the Hawks' immediate future is a reasonable concern for his team.

"It's tough because I know these guys, particularly a young guy like Al, are looking to me for guidance and leadership," Woodson said. "I think in our case, our guys have made a strong push to bring them back. They put themselves in a position as a young team that's growing for the future, to show management and the fans that they're worthy of coming back.

"So I can't help but think our ownership group will do the right thing and sign them both back, and continue to add some pieces so we can continue to grow in a proper manner, in terms of the way I think we should, and be a productive team here in the future."

For his players, that future means keeping the core intact, and that includes Smith and Childress as well as veteran point guard Mike Bibby, who is eligible for a contract extension this summer.

"That's the biggest thing right now is getting this group back, getting the two Joshes back," Marvin Williams said. "They helped turn this entire thing around. Hopefully, we get it done, and then everybody has to get better this summer. We've had a little taste of what could be, and it was good. Now we want to pig out on it."