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Is there a bigger tease in the NBA than the Atlanta Hawks?

Some nights they're good, like Wednesday night against the Bucks.

Other nights they're awful, like Tuesday night against the Bulls.

Up and down they go, like some kind of NBA roller coaster.

Earlier this season the Hawks opened eyes around the league by defeating the Mavs and Suns. Granted, Dallas was missing Josh Howard and Phoenix was without Amaré Stoudemire. But for a young Atlanta team striving to end the NBA's longest current playoff drought -- eight years and counting -- it seemed like a positive step.

Since then, however, the Hawks have dropped games to the Wizards (0-5 at the time), Sonics (0-10 at the time) and Bulls (2-10).

It's just impossible to get a read on Atlanta's pro hoops team.

The Hawks have talent for sure. Joe Johnson is a legit All-Star. Josh Smith is an amazing athlete, even if he still doesn't know how to play the game. Marvin Williams is starting to show signs.

Atlanta's two rookies -- Al Horford and Acie Law -- both look like keepers.

"They've got length, athleticism, they have more experience now," Bulls coach Scott Skiles said. "Horford is helping. He's a guy who's going to be a double-double player probably in this league. He's close to it right now. It's a good club."

But while many around the league respect the Hawks' talent base, there is reason to doubt whether they will be able to break that playoff drought this season.

For one, they still have some glaring holes on the roster. They don't have a true center or a big man who can work the low post. Their point guards are always injured. They don't have enough 3-point shooters who can spread the floor.

Meanwhile, the business side has come into play. Smith and Josh Childress didn't get contract extensions this past summer and are now facing restricted free agency this summer. Coach Mike Woodson is also in the last year of his contract.

An unkempt and uncommunicative hermit, living rough in the wilderness of Stewart Island, is thought to have been stealing food from Department of Conservation maintenance huts.

The man, in his 30s, is not the first to have lived rough on the island. Others have been moved on when they were found.

Several people are also believed to be living rough in northern Fiordland.

Stewart Island's permanent residents say the hermit has come to the island from somewhere else.

He has been seen by DoC workers and hunters, and quickly disappeared without speaking.

He was described as unkempt, with shaggy hair and of a large build. He was wearing dark clothes.

Constable Andrew Karsten of the Halfmoon Bay police said the man might be responsible for the theft of the food and a large pack that had a DoC uniform in it.

He said the man might be wearing the fawny green uniform, parading as a DoC worker.

Mr Karsten said all the usual residents of the island had been accounted for, so the man was definitely from off the island.


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Advertisement"Just a man who has decided to go away from civilisation," he said.

There had been three confirmed break-ins, with a couple of weeks' space between them.

The man had been seen in the Rakeahua Valley, Freshwater Track, Doughboy Bay, Masons Bay and Table Hill areas.

"Stewart Island is a very large wilderness area that is sparsely populated," Mr Karsten said.

"There are a lot of shelters, huts and caves that someone could hide in."

DoC Southern Islands area manager Andy Roberts said that when field workers spotted the man, he would quickly disappear.

He was suspected of stealing which was meant to last two men for six weeks.

He had also caused damage to recreational hunting huts and DoC huts.

Hermits would come and live on the island from time to time and workers would encourage them to move on, he said.

Pete Tait, a bed and breakfast owner and tour guide on the island, said he had only just heard about the latest man roaming the island.

He remembered a Japanese woman who lived in the hills in Bluff many years ago until she was taken away.

When Mr Tait was a Forest Service ranger a hermit impersonated him, wearing the uniform and stealing food from his stores.

LONERS IN THE SOUTH ISLAND

Resolution Island

The Otago Witness of 1906 reported a Mr Henry, who lived alone with pets including paradise ducks, weka, seagulls, kakapo and sharks. Photography became one of his hobbies. His home was a three-roomed wooden structure, with several outhouses.


"Bones, metals, stones, birds, plants, fish, books, and an occasional chat with Lady Nicotine make up the sum total of his life," the Otago Witness said. SILVER PEAKS It was a very public secret that Ross Adamson was the man who went bush for about three years in the 1950s.