Jeff Denberg of the AJC writes that this is more like it for Lon Kruger -- a roster of talented, healthy and committed players after two years of misery.

A coach who refused to complain when things were tough, Kruger can quietly exult because the Hawks now have the physical tools to end their three-year playoff famine, their longest in 25 years.

They start training camp Tuesday with the strongest and deepest squad Kruger has had.

The combined record of 58-106 over the past two seasons tended to obscure Kruger's record as a turnaround coach in college when he enjoyed success at Pan American, Kansas State, Florida and Illinois. In those days, Kruger recruited the talent. Now, he relied on general manager Pete Babcock.

And after adding Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Theo Ratliff, Nazr Mohammed and Ira Newble the past two years, Babcock has supplemented them with a veteran 20-point-a-game scorer in Glenn Robinson and an interesting rookie point guard in Dan Dickau.

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