The Hawks have been pointing to this day since October. They have made it clear that their top priority this summer was signing restricted free agents Josh Smith and Josh Childress, keeping them in Hawks uniforms.

The difficulty of that task becomes known Tuesday, the first day NBA teams can negotiate with free agents.

(ENLARGE)

Josh Childress' versatility makes the forward attractive to several teams.

Rich Addicks/AJC Staff (ENLARGE)

Josh Smith is one of the top free agents on the market.

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Contract terms can be agreed to at any time but nothing can be made official until July 9, after the league's one-week moratorium is completed.

The Hawks will have competition for both players, with Smith vaulting to the top of the list of available free agents in a summer where finances for most teams will be tight.

Both Smith and Childress can sign offer sheets with other teams, but the Hawks have the right to match any offer. The Hawks will get first crack at Smith, who is expected to meet Tuesday with his representatives and Hawks management, the first day they are allowed to do so by league rules. Such a meeting with Childress could also occur.

"We want to sit down and talk to [the Hawks] first and gauge their interest and see exactly where we are," said Wallace Prather, one of Smith's agents. "I think everybody realizes that Josh loves it here and loves his teammates and loves playing in his hometown. If everything goes well, hopefully, we wont have to talk long. But if they send us off to find another offer, then we'll have to do that as well."

Smith is expected to be in Philadelphia for a visit later in the week. And the 76ers, with more than $11 million in projected salary cap space, can offer Smith a lucrative, frontloaded deal greater than the $45 million offer the Hawks made — and Smith turned down — last summer, when Smith was eligible for a contract extension.

Philadelphia president Ed Stefanski hasn't mentioned Smith by name, per league rules, but in his description of what the 76ers are looking to do this summer, the image of the player he's described could easily be Smith.

"We're trying to build like Detroit, meaning we're not looking to have that one superstar, but we want to have a lot of good players on the floor together," Stefanski told the New York Daily News. "... but we're really looking for people who are athletic and long and defensive-minded. That's our first priority."

Smith, 22, is one of the league's premier shot blockers, finishing second to Denver's Marcus Camby in each of the past two seasons.

In his fourth NBA season, Smith joined all-time greats David Robinson and Hakeem Olajuwon, one of his basketball tutors last summer, as the only players in league history to average 17-plus points, 8-plus rebounds, 3-plus assists, 2.8 blocks and 1.5 steals in a season.

Robinson did it twice and Olajuwon four times, but neither did it before his 27th birthday.

Smith is the first non-center to do it and is also the first NBA player to block at least 225 shots and make 25 or more 3-pointers in the same season. And he's had three straight seasons with at least 200 blocks and 25 3-pointers.

Hawks general manager Rick Sund has said repeatedly that the team intends to match any offers made to Smith and Childress. And as recently as last week's NBA draft he made it clear that the Hawks' priorities were to handle this business above all else.

However, he didn't divulge any of the details of his plans for free agency other than to say "it's going to be a process."

The Hawks do have some things working for them during this process that other teams do not. Because they are working with their own free agents they can offer six-year contracts while other teams can offer only a maximum of five years.

"I think what you have to do and what I've always done is you go over your thoughts with [contract] terms, years and range and go from there," Sund said.