HAWKS SEASON PREVIEW: POINT TO MAKE

With every step he took during the Hawks’ playoff run against Boston last season, Mike Bibby’s critics took notice.

He looked a step slower. Those 3-point daggers he once drained routinely weren’t falling. That unshakeable swagger he wore like body armor during his swashbuckling playoff showings in Sacramento was gone. It was replaced by the shell of a 30-year-old point guard approaching the twilight of a stellar career.

Those critics had all but written him off by the end of the series, assuming he was nothing more than a high-priced rental for the Hawks’ playoff push. Surely he would be auctioned off by this season’s trade deadline.

Bibby has already sounded a warning for those writing an ending to his story.

“People have doubted me before,” Bibby said. “But we’ll see. The one thing I know is that winning takes care of everything in this league. We win, and things will turn out right.”

It all starts tonight for Bibby and the Hawks, who open the season in Orlando.

How long Bibby remains at the controls of this team is the $15 million —- his salary in this final year of his contract —- question.

Speculation that the Hawks are just holding on to him until the February trade deadline is just that. But there has been no discussion about a contract extension, either. It leaves unanswered questions about if, and where, he fits into the Hawks’ long-term plans. It’s also an issue about what effect those questions have on this team, especially if he’s not in the blueprint for the future.

Hawks general manager Rick Sund is not worried. Bibby’s situation isn’t time sensitive. The Hawks don’t have to move Bibby at all. They can play out the entire season, albeit taking on the added risk that they lose him in free agency in the summer if he has a great year.

Sund also has the benefit of having been in a situation before in Seattle where major questions needed to be answered. He discovered that patience usually wins out. Nine players, the coach and general manager were all in contract years when the Nate McMillan-, Ray Allen- and Rashard Lewis-led Sonics won 52 games, the Northwest Division title and advanced to the second round of the playoffs in 2005.

“I’ve always been a Mike Bibby fan. Unfortunately for me, he’s always been on the opposing team,” Sund said. “And I’ve met with him [about all this] and he knows it’s a great opportunity not only for him as well as for the Atlanta Hawks … because when teams are successful, things always tend to work out for everybody.”

That’s the only concern for Hawks coach Mike Woodson, who benefited from last year’s playoff run with a new two-year contract.

“Listen, Mike’s a pro,” Woodson said. “He’s been around long enough. He knows the dynamics of this league. And quite frankly, this isn’t the first time he’s been [in a contract year]. So he knows what’s at stake.

“The fact is, he’s in great shape right now. And I don’t want him to feel like there is any added pressure. So my job is to help Mike Bibby help our team. I just want him to play and be Mike Bibby. He has to do his part, just like every other man on this team. It all goes hand in hand.”

Bibby’s hand was the focus in February when the Hawks acquired him in a multi-player deal with the Sacramento Kings. Bibby missed the first 36 games of the season after October surgery to repair a torn ligament in his left thumb.

He was still wearing a cumbersome wrap on his hand when he hit the floor for his first practice with the Hawks in Los Angeles, the day after the All-Star game in New Orleans and a day before the Hawks faced the Lakers.

Bibby injured his heel against the Lakers and was never completely healthy but guided the Hawks to a 16-17 mark to finish the regular season, averaging 14.1 points, 6.5 assists, 3.2 rebounds and 1.1 steals in just over 33 minutes.

But his playoff numbers dipped (10.3 points, 3.1 assists and 3.1 rebounds), prompting the speculation about his future that continues today.

Yet, no one imagined the Hawks crashing the playoff party the way they did without Bibby.

“He’s the one thing, the veteran point guard presence, they were missing,” Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. “They were always a dangerous team before that because they’re so athletic and present so many matchup problems. He was the last piece, the one thing that they didn’t have that they needed to get to the next phase.”

Is he the man to lead the Hawks beyond that phase? With second-year point guard Acie Law IV waiting in the wings, the issue won’t go away.

“This might sound simple, but I don’t know how you operate without both of them,” Hawks captain and All-Star shooting guard Joe Johnson said. “You want Acie learning from Mike, and then when Acie gets his shot he goes in and tries to be as good or better. But having both of them makes us better. And hopefully we keep Mike going all year and into the future, because you can’t overstate how important it is in this league to have a true point guard.”

Johnson knows that better than anyone. He shot 47 percent from beyond the 3-point line during his last year in Phoenix playing alongside Steve Nash. Nothing can compare to playing with a master point guard, he said, a guy who improves the play of everyone around him.

“They don’t come a dime a dozen,” Johnson said of elite point guards. “They’re not falling out of trees around the NBA, so when you have one you better take advantage of having him.

“And Mike was a huge addition to our team. He brought a different wrinkle for us as a playmaker and a guy that can score and knock down shots all in one. He pretty much got us to the playoffs. He made the defense play honest and did everything we could ask. And with him being healthy from the start, I think it’s going to be a lot better year.”

Whether that year stretches beyond the trade deadline depends on how the Hawks fare, if they can weather an early schedule that includes 10 of their first 16 games on the road.

Bibby insists he’s in it for the long haul either way.

“It’s not my decision to make,” he said. “The only thing I can do is go out there and play. I’m a big believer in things happening for a reason. I think I came here for a reason. And I didn’t even know that Atlanta might be a possible destination when the trade stuff started heating up last year.

“But I’m a patient man. I can wait. And I’m not worried. I’m going to go out there and play like always because I control my own destiny.”

SEASON OPENER

> Who: at Magic

> When: 7 p.m. today

> TV; radio: SPSO; 790 AM

 CGI rendering by JEMAL R. BRINSON / Staff
two hands on a 'MIKE BIBBY OUIJA" board