When the Hawks acquired Toni Kukoc, the smart money said he'd be on his way again by late summer.

	New Hawks forward Kukoc is back to being a triple double threat.

In fact, not hours after the Hawks made the deal, they were receiving feelers, including one firm offer, believed to have come from a Western Conference contender.

Surprise. Kukoc isn't going anywhere. The Hawks see him as the key to their playoff hopes next season and to their chance of becoming a contender in the near future.

"Toni is just what we need," coach Lon Kruger says. "He's a guy we can run our offense through. He takes the pressure off Jason [Terry] and our other young guys. Our offense is much better with Toni on the floor, much more fluid. We can finally look to expand from a very basic system now that he's with us."

And Hawks general manager Pete Babcock says plainly that "Toni was a very important part of the deal. We got him because we want him on our team. I told him when he walked into my office the first time: we want you to be Toni Kukoc. Not somebody else. You play your game and the rest of the guys will catch up to you."

It doesn't show in their record -- the Hawks are 2-8 since Kukoc first stepped on the court for them Feb. 28. But what do you want from a young team that won't have starting center Theo Ratliff until early-April, if at all, that has its alternate center, Lorenzen Wright, out with a sprained thumb and is finishing a tumultuous season in which there have been 19 different lineups and a league-high 23 players on the roster and 12 on the injured list. "And that's a team that doesn't hide players," Sixers coach Larry Brown noted.

	HAWK HEAVEN Kukoc with Atlanta
	Date	Pts	Reb	Ast.
	Feb. 28	12	5	4
	March 2	28	7	3
	March 3	19	5	2
	March 5	24	5	8
	March 7	26	11	7
	March 9	12	1	2
	March 10	16	7	2
	March 33	20	10	11
	March 16	25	6	7
	March 17	29	10	10

While Kukoc was not a Brown favorite, the coach apparently did not want to lose him. He offered Matt Geiger as a substitute, but the Hawks said that was a deal breaker.

The numbers tell you why. Heading into the Hawks game with the Lakers Monday, in 10 appearances in Atlanta Kukoc is averaging 21.1 points, 6.7 rebounds, 5.6 assists, shooting .516. He has made 25 of 49 three-pointers, improving his overall number to .449, fifth in the league. He has had three games of 40 minutes and works 33 minutes a night more on average than he did in Philly. He has posted two triple doubles in his last three games. Against Vancouver nine days ago, Kukoc showed his true colors -- only 2 for 9 at the half, but with eight assists.

"Toni is drawing so much attention," Terry said. "I draw attention when I penetrate but not nearly as much as Toni because he's so long and he can make that layup and finish over taller guys.

"Toni attracts attention the way Allen Iverson or some of the other top guys do, but the thing with him is there is no b.s. in his game. Maybe it's from playing with Michael Jordan, but Toni is a very straight forward player. When he gets it he's going to either shoot it or put it on the floor and create for somebody else. Mike did that and Toni plays the same style."

Kukoc raises an eyebrow. "I've been playing this way all my life." That is on the international scene, since he was 16.

As well as he fits in on the court -- and according to young Hawks as a wise old senior player at age 32 -- Kukoc is not comfortable, according to close acquaintances. He took a psychological beating from Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Phil Jackson during their long, bitter war with general manager Jerry Krause in Chicago. He did not fit Brown's idea of how you fit in with Allen Iverson so he became an afterthought in Philadelphia. Now, he's with a painfully young team, wondering what's next.

"What's the average age here, 24?" he asked one evening. Precisely.

A friend says Kukoc will be fine in Atlanta. The weather is much like that of his native Croatia. Compared to Chicago and Philadelphia, the media is far less rapacious because Atlanta is a one newspaper town, radio sports talk is devoted to football in the winter and the TV outlets go through the motions.

Even more importantly, Kruger will not embarrass a player and Babcock is probably one of the five nicest men in sports.

They are very much aware of Kukoc's back problems because Hawks trainer Wally Blase was the No. 2 man in Chicago for seven years. Blase believes he can hold his patient together.

"He's like an old car. You want to nurse him, get as much as you can out of him and not do any damage to him in the process."

At the end of any night, Kukoc's back is hurting, his feet ablaze with pain as he tries to extend bursts of brilliance. Blase believes that the problems of his plantar fascia stem from a line that leads to his back though a hip flexor. There are plans to treat the foot problem with a laser blaster.

Kukoc believes his back problems can also be corrected with treatment. "That's what I'm hearing and I want to believe it."

Blase said Kukoc's length is his undoing. "His legs are so long, his thigh muscles and stomach muscles so tight they sort of pull him forward and that's bad for the back. What we hope to do is treat him successfully with massage and stretching. We did that in Chicago pretty successfully when we were both there."

That would allow Kukoc to finish the three remaining seasons on his contract both comfortably and productively. For the Hawks this would also be a blessing. Imagine getting three more good years out of your old classic car.

Jeffrey Denberg, who covers the NBA for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.