Rather than tossing out a random number of wins for this season, Woodson said he's simply pushing his team to achieve bigger and better things than they did with last season's trip to the Eastern Conference semifinals.

"We're at a stage now with our team where I think that's the logical thing, taking the next step," he said. "And now that next step is trying to get out of the second round of the playoffs and trying to challenge for a spot in the Eastern Conference finals. That's the next step."

If that seems like a rather bold prediction, consider the source. This is the same coach who refused to count his team out when they were down 0-2 to Boston in a first-round playoff series two years ago.

"After that Celtics series, no one thought we would snatch one of those top four spots in the conference, no one gave us a shot," Woodson said. "You can complain all you want about how we did it, but we did it. My belief is that you push to take the next step and for bigger and better things than you've done before. If you get to the Eastern Conference finals and find a way to win it, anything can happen after that."

Smith still in stitches

Josh Smith still had stitches in his left hand late last week. But the heavy gauze wrap that he sported in the days immediately after cutting his hand open during a pickup game two weeks ago had vanished.

"I've still got my Frankenstein going," Smith said with a smile as he wiggled his fingers so his stitches could be viewed. "I'm just waiting to get [these stitches out] and get it all done so I can get out there for camp. It's healing up fine, though."

Smith said he'll probably have to keep some sort of protective wrap on his hand for the first week or two of camp to prevent any complications. Other than that, he said he'll be "ready to go."

Upon further review

An offseason statistical analysis revealed a team flaw that Woodson hopes the Hawks have cured with their summer work.

The Hawks were the second-worst free-throw shooting team (.737 in the regular season) and the third-worst (.744) in the playoffs of the eight teams that played in the Eastern and Western Conference semifinals, finishing ahead of only Orlando (.715 and .722) and Cleveland (.742 in the postseason).

"If someone had told me we'd shoot that poorly from the free-throw line and still win 47 games and make it to the conference semifinals, I'd have told you they were nuts," Woodson said. "The worst part is we have guys that can make free throws, but we lost six or seven games at the free-throw line last year.

"I'm not going to dwell on it with this team, but if you're talking about making the jump from where we finished to 50 or 55 wins, you have to be lights out from the free-throw line. That's the only way you can feel good about going to the line and putting games away when you have to."