Can McGrady show old magic with Hawks?

ATLANTA Tracy McGrady remembers when it wasnt cool to be in Atlanta during basketball season. It's a sports town, but it was football and the Braves, said McGrady, who spent the first seven years of his NBA career tormenting the Hawks with the Toronto Raptors and Orlando Magic. The Atlanta Hawks were the last thing people wanted to come and support, because the Braves were so good, football was going well. Everybody loves football. Basketball is a little bit different. You've got to be winning in certain cities to fill the stands. A lot of franchises go through droughts, but this is a team that's on the rise. McGrady believes he can keep that rise going and has one year to prove it, having signed with the Hawks for the veterans minimum. I feel like I fit in with this team, said the 32-year-old McGrady, who averaged eight points for Detroit last year in his 14th season. Having an All-Star like Joe Johnson and Al Horford and having a player like Josh Smith, their core guys really had me wanting to be a part of their group. It says a lot about Coach (Larry) Drew, for him to be a first-year coach and take this team to the second round, with the teams that were in the East, and being able to get over that hump and beat Orlando. I just felt like I could add to it. Everything feels good, he added. I feel confident in what I can do this season and help guys win ballgames." The Hawks share that confidence, which is why they are taking a flier on the two-time NBA scoring champion. It's the kind of flier a team takes when it finishes 26th in scoring in a 30-team league, and when it may see scorer and three-point shooter Jamal Crawford leave in free agency. While last year's Hawks were a little light offensively, they were good enough to finish fifth in the East they'd have finished second in any division but the Southeast, which was won by eventual NBA finalist Miami and had powerful Orlando come in second. The Hawks knocked off favored Orlando in the first round, then took Game 1 of the East semifinals in Chicago before falling in six to the top-seeded Bulls. While McGrady's history of playoff failure is well-known he's never led a team past the first round so is what he can bring to the table when he's healthy, which he says he is. The Hawks are counting on the latter. We're going to look to him to be one of the vocal leaders, forward Josh Smith said. He's a guy that has experienced things. One thing that hes experienced is a short season like the Hawks are heading into. Everything is so condensed, said McGrady, who was 19 and in his second season in 1999, which was a lockout-shortened 50-game sprint. The travel is pretty bad. It's heavy and it's tough on your body. A 66-game sprint is probably the last thing McGradys body needs, as it has suffered plenty. Since 2005-06, he has suffered back, elbow, ankle, knee and shoulder injuries, and until last season, he had played as many as 70 games in a season once (2006-07 in Houston). His 2009-10 season split between Houston and the New York Knicks was a nightmare. But last season was a renaissance of sorts. He played in 72 games for the Pistons, and while he didn't garner references to finding the fountain of youth, the season also slowed the talk that he's done. Drew believes that if used the right way, McGrady can be a major contributor. "It's important that we get him the ball pretty much in his sweet spot," Drew said. "I don't want him to have to work as hard getting to where he gets to operate. We have some things that we'll do to get him where he can be effective." The Hawks believe in their new veteran teammate. He can create a lot of mismatches, said Smith, who acknowledged McGrady was his favorite player in high school. He's playing a little point guard so he can definitely get some looks down there on the blocks against somebody else's point guard. He's a pretty good passer as well. "T-Mac still demands double-teams on the post," Johnson added. "I see him being a vocal leader, a guy that can come in and play big minutes. A guy that can come in and distribute, can score as well and lead by example. He's been doing that for the last three or four days of camp." McGrady believes that this offseason helped him recapture his old form. "In the last two years I haven't been able to have a normal offseason my offseason consists of rehabbing and just trying to get my body in shape, get my knee strong," he said. "This offseason I just went back to my original offseason workouts, and that's just conditioning and playing basketball. "I've never been a guy to play basketball in the offseason. I've always done my individual work by myself and with my trainer. This season I took a different approach: to get in shape, strengthen my knee and play basketball with some of the guys. My body feels great." He certainly feels younger than his teammates are making him feel. "He had his old shoes on. I said, 'Hey, Marvin Williams, remember when we used to wear those in high school?'" Smith said with a laugh. "He was like, 'C'mon, man. You guys are making me feel old.'" "It's been like that the last two years last year when I played with Mike Bibby, now playing with Tracy McGrady, point guard Jeff Teague said. I used to wear his shoes when I was younger, now he's on my team. He looked at me the other day and said, 'You make me feel old. Man, you were 8 when I first came into the NBA, Teague continued. I told him, 'Yeah, but you were only 16. You're not the usual type of player.'" Johnson took up for his fellow 30-something. "He's not even old," said Johnson, who turned 30 in June. "He's like 32. That's not old. He's just been in the league since he was 17. So yeah, he's old in basketball age, but he's not old. He's 32. It's kind of funny to say that." McGrady acknowledges he's flattered to be around so many who idolized him. "That's cool. I appreciate me being able to inspire those guys and them looking up to me when they were younger," he said. "Now I'm a fan of those guys because they're great players. That's how it works out. If you take care of your body and you put your work in on the basketball court, you have guys along the way come up to you and say they appreciate you and they watched you when they were at a certain age. That's a great feeling to have because I was that same player."