Jason Terry sticks out like a pristine Mercedes in a used car lot. The Hawks' restricted free agent point guard is the best available talent on a market where no big names remain, but few teams have been willing to give Terry a test drive.

The Utah Jazz, with plenty of money to burn, tried to stick their key in the ignition in July, but its contract offer was nowhere near what Terry, or his agent Raymond Brothers, believes he is worth.

So with only a perfunctory qualifying offer from the Hawks, Terry is slated to make $2.93 million in the upcoming season unless he can somehow strike a multiyear deal with his current employer by training camp. That would mean that Terry --- one of five players in the NBA to average at least 17 points and seven assists last season --- couldn't cash a better paycheck this offseason than Speedy Claxton.

Terry, who'll turn 26 next month, certainly could get more money next summer if he becomes an unrestricted free agent, but what gives now?

"I can't say that I'm shocked or amazed," Hawks general manager Billy Knight said. ''It's not a reflection on him --- and it's not a [sign] that we don't want him, either. . . . There is no set [timetable] for when players of his caliber sign contracts."

Dion Glover returned home Friday from a "mini-vacation" in Denver, where he had more than just a casual visit with Nuggets officials.

In addition to meeting with Nuggets general manager Kiki Vandeweghe and coach Jeff Bzdelik, the Hawks unrestricted free-agent guard also was in the Pepsi Center for two days working out and scrimmaging with players, including Nuggets first-round pick Carmelo Anthony and recently signed point guard Andre Miller.

"Things went all right," Glover said.

The up-close-and-personal look might have helped Glover, who started 42 games and averaged a career-high 9.7 points last season, his fourth with the Hawks.

"Dion volunteered to come in, and he's left us with a favorable impression," Bzdelik told the Rocky Mountain News. "Dion plays with great effort. He's an excellent defender. He attacks the rim well."

The Nuggets are close to signing reserve point guard Earl Boykins to a multi-year deal. They are considering Glover, Jon Barry, Steve Smith, Voshon Lenard and Stephen Jackson as options at starting shooting guard. Vandeweghe said he expects to make a decision this weekend.

This isn't a typical free-agent visit, it's a full-scale tryout.

After arriving Tuesday night in Denver, shooting guard Dion Glover spent Wednesday and Thursday scrimmaging with players at the Pepsi Center, most of them Denver Nuggets. That has enabled team officials to get a close look at Glover, who played his first four seasons with the Atlanta Hawks.

"He's played hard," Nuggets coach Jeff Bzdelik said. "He's played well. Dion plays with great effort. He's an excellent defender. He attacks the rim well."

Other shooting-guard candidates the Nuggets are considering are Steve Smith, Voshon Lenard, Jon Barry and Stephen Jackson. Glover is hopeful the Nuggets soon will extend him an offer.

"They're going to talk over the next few days with my agent (Brian Dyke) and, hopefully, it will happen," said Glover, who will work out again today and is not sure when he will return to Atlanta. "(The workouts have) been going real well."

Several low-profile free agents have auditioned this summer at the Pepsi Center. It's unusual, though, for a player the caliber of Glover, who averaged 9.7 points last season, to do so.

"Dion volunteered to come in, and he's left us with a favorable impression," Bzdelik said.

If you can't figure out why AOL Time Warner's sale of the Hawks, Thrashers and Philips Arena operating rights to Texas businessman David McDavid isn't done by now, you're not alone.

"I woke up the other day and thought, 'Why in the world is this taking so long?' " McDavid said Wednesday from his Dallas office. "I can't figure it out, either.

"I don't know how many times I've talked to my attorneys and accountants and people, and they say it's almost done, and then it doesn't get done, and for the life of me I don't know why. . . . And I don't know that it's anybody's fault."

Some experts say that as protracted as the process seems --- 107 days since McDavid and AOL signed a letter of intent on the deal --- it isn't unusual for such a transaction.

"This is not unexpected. The purchase of a sports franchise has become a very sophisticated deal," said Jack Williams, a Georgia State University law professor who specializes in sports and business law. "There are a lot of rights to be transferred, and that takes time. This really isn't taking that much longer than other [similar] sales."

Dion Glover said discussions are getting "pretty serious" with the Denver Nuggets. Sounds as if that's also the case with Predrag Drobnjak.

Glover, a free-agent shooting guard who played his first four seasons with the Atlanta Hawks, said Tuesday he plans to visit Denver by the end of the week. And David Bauman, the agent for Drobnjak, a restricted free-agent center with the Seattle SuperSonics, said he is having ongoing discussions with Nuggets general manager Kiki Vandeweghe about an offer sheet or a sign-and-trade arrangement.

Vandeweghe said an exact day has not been set for Glover's visit, and that the Nuggets hope to resolve their search for a shooting guard by the end of the week. Vandeweghe said next week the Nuggets plan to have more extensive negotiations with Drobnjak.

The 6-foot-5 Glover is one of a handful of shooting guards the Nuggets are considering. He averaged 9.7 points last season for the Hawks, and has a career average of 8.1 points.

"That's somewhere I'd really like to play," Glover said of Denver. "I'd love to be part of a rebuilding franchise. Denver would be a good situation. They're a young team, they've got Carmelo (Anthony) coming in, and I think they're going to have a great player in Andre Miller."

The Nuggets are deciding this week whether they would prefer to go with a young shooting guard or a veteran, how much they want to pay and whether they're willing to tender a contract for longer than one year. Other candidates include Steve Smith, Stephen Jackson, Voshon Lenard and Jon Barry.

"I hope I'm at the top of their list," Glover said.

Hawks center Theo Ratliff is expected to come home today from New York, where he played in the EBC streetball tournament in Rucker Park. He said he plans to congratulate Hawks coach Terry Stotts and general manager Billy Knight, now that the two have been retained.

Ratliff also likely will make this request of Knight: Bring in some veterans.

"We have had all young guys here. When you try to have all young guys lead your team, it's a disaster," Ratliff said. "We need a veteran guy at the point guard or the [shooting] guard."

Ratliff, 30, will be entering his ninth season as a pro. He led the league in blocked shots for the second time in his career with 3.23 rejections per game and averaged 8.7 points, 7.5 rebounds in 81 games --- the most he has played in five seasons. He admits that losing in Atlanta the past two seasons has been difficult.

"You want to win, be competitive and play the game the way it's supposed to be played," Ratliff said. "I don't think that's been stressed enough since I've been here. With a veteran guy, you have somebody else to speak up when things aren't going right. Not just me. It doesn't work if it's just me all the time."

One possibility Ratliff suggested was free agent and former Hawk Steve Smith, who recently won a championship ring with the San Antonio Spurs.

"He knows the game, what it takes to win --- the extra things it takes to be a better team," Ratliff said.

Contacted by phone in his hometown of Detroit, Smith reiterated his interest in returning to the Hawks, especially since they finally have some structure in place despite delays in the sale of the team. Smith has had talks with Denver and Miami, but said,"I still have the most interest in Atlanta."

Terry Stotts no longer has to tango with other NBA teams for jobs. And Billy Knight has an answer for free agents who wonder aloud whether he or Stotts will be around at the start of the season.

They both will. The "interim" tag was stripped from Stotts and Knight on Monday, when Hawks president Stan Kasten announced that the two were given two-year contracts to remain coach and general manager, respectively.

"The first of many contracts with the Hawks, I hope," Kasten said. "We are very excited about the possibilities ahead with both Billy and Terry."

The moves put to rest what appeared to be a summer-long holding pattern while the team is being sold to Texas businessman David McDavid. Kasten said he brought together AOL Time Warner and representatives of McDavid's group on Friday, and the parties decided to end the suspense and do what made sense with only seven weeks left before the Hawks begin training camp.

"That's great news," said Hawks center Theo Ratliff, who was in New York preparing to play in the Rucker basketball tournament. "At least we know we got a coach. I thought if Stotts had the job at the beginning of the year [last season], we would've been a lot better."

Hired as an assistant coach last August, Stotts replaced Lon Kruger on Dec. 26 and led the Hawks to a 24-31 record, but the team went 21-20 the last 41 games of the season. The uncertainty surrounding the ownership change had Stotts in limbo for months. He interviewed for assistant coaching jobs with at least three teams and head coaching jobs in Philadelphia and Milwaukee, which hired Terry Porter last week.

Charles Smith sat on the bench wearing a jersey, but it was strictly for style. Though he never left the bench, he jumped with the occasional fist-pump and congratulated his teammates just the same.

This late in the summer, with NBA training camps just around the corner, Smith stops playing on a summer rec team with former Dunbar teammates to avoid injury.

But being on the sidelines is something Smith has gotten used to. After what he thought was a breakout year with the Spurs two seasons ago, Smith has seen his NBA world fall apart.

He has bounced around with teams as good as the Spurs, as bad as the Clippers, and as ugly as the Trail Blazers. And as fall training camps approach, Smith has been left on the outside looking in. He has drawn interest, but not offers, from the Atlanta Hawks and Miami Heat.

Timing, he has learned, is everything in the NBA.

"It's frustrating," said Smith, during a recent visit to a men's summer league at Texas Wesleyan. "Just as I thought I was about to break it wide open, I took a step back. This job can definitely frustrate you. You have to remember this is a business and try and keep your game right."

The Atlanta Hawks will keep general manager Billy Knight and coach Terry Stotts for the upcoming NBA season, a source told The Associated Press.

The move was not unexpected but their jobs had been in jeopardy because of the proposed sale of the team from AOL-Time Warner to David McDavid. The slow pace of negotiations left the Hawks with little choice but to bring them back.

The source close to the team, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the decision would be announced at a news conference Monday.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on its Web site that Knight and Stotts would likely be kept for the 2003-04 season.

Stotts was named coach of the Hawks on Dec. 26 when Lon Kruger was fired. The team went 24-31 after the change.

Given the uncertainty with the pending sale, the Hawks allowed Stotts to talk with other teams. He was a finalist for the head coaching job in Milwaukee, where he once served as an assistant, but lost out to Terry Porter.

Even though it may appear otherwise, the Hawks have no intention of forfeiting the 2003-04 season. It has been nearly three weeks since the free-agent signing period began, but the Hawks have seen more departures than additions while the team awaits David McDavid's McPurchase.

Ira Newble darted off to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Glenn Robinson was carted off to the Philadelphia 76ers in a four-team trade. Former Hawks assistant Alex English followed Robinson to the City of Brotherly Love, taking an assistant coach position with the 76ers last Wednesday.

And, had Terry Stotts beaten out Terry Porter for the Milwaukee Bucks job, the Hawks wouldn't have had any member of last season's coaching staff still around. That Stotts remains is not for lack of trying.

So, what have the Hawks gained? Terrell Brandon (a player who won't play again), Randy Holcomb (a player who may not see the opening-day roster) and $2.42 million in cap space that has gone unspent. Not exactly the buzz needed to inspire a fan base that had the second-worst attendance in the NBA.

But Hawks interim general manager Billy Knight said that he was "optimistic" that he could field a competitive team this season --- even though a lot of the second- and third-tier free agents have already found homes.

"It's not the ideal situation we're dealing with," Knight said. "It's not the way we would set it up, but we're dealing with it. We have a lot of balls in the air. . . . And we're going to do what's best for this team this year. We won 35 games last year and want to improve on that."

Before the Hawks can improve on that, they need a full roster. The Hawks have just eight players signed for next season. The Hawks have yet to make an offer to restricted free agent Jason Terry, whom Knight called "our top priority." They still have holes to fill at shooting guard and small forward, where Stephen Jackson, Jim Jackson, Steve Smith, Voshon Lenard and Dion Glover are the top available talents.