http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/36973/20050811/sixers_grab_steven_hunter/ Sixers Grab Steven Hunter 11th August, 2005 - 6:31 pm RealGM - Philadelphia 76ers President Billy King announced today that the Sixers have agreed to terms with free agent center Steven Hunter. Hunter is expected to sign with Philadelphia on Friday, Aug. 12. "We felt Steven was one of the top free-agent big men out there. He is an extremely important addition to our team," King said. "He is young, athletic and a natural shot-blocker. This move really strengthens our front court." In four NBA seasons, the 23-year-old, 7-footer has averaged 3.9 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.10 blocks on 54.4 percent shooting from the field in 221 career games with two teams - Orlando (2001-04) and Phoenix (2004-05). Last season with the Suns, Hunter averaged 4.6 points and 3.0 rebounds in a career-high 76 games (3 starts) and appeared in all 15 playoff games off the bench, averaging 4.0 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.20 blocks per game.
Phoenix's bench is looking pretty sad and pathetic, and their starting line-up is REALLY looking shaky!
So the 76ers get from out of Marc Jackson's contract to reduce payroll, then turn around and sign Hunter for 5yr 16M?
Hunter is a heck of a more defensive presence than Marc Jackson, and a much lower yearly contract. The years are a little problem with Hunter's deal considering concerns of his work ethic/focus, the 3 mil a year for a c is not bad. Phx is no longer elite in the West, I think they will have to fight hard with the likes of Dallas, Seattle or someone else (Denver?) for home court in the first round. Terrible, terrible, offseason.
Wow. Stephen Hunter was a key contributor off the bench for Phoenix. He fit their system well. I can't believe how this team is falling apart. It's funny. Colangelo won GM of the year last seasn and now look! I didn't think he deserved it at the time either. I thought the Nash signing looked brilliant last season, but what when he breaks down and they've still got him for a few more years? That contract won't be looking so good. Now that Quentin Richardson is gone, Joe Johnson is all but gone and even their 8th man is gone, it's just not looking so good for them. Who have they added? Raja Bell. They've lost their three point shooting on the wings and their backup center. Ouch.
Phoenix is in trouble. If they can get creative and deal Shawn Marion for an actual BENCH (small forward, maybe a backup center or power forward), they might be OK. What a fiasco.
i wonder how far over the cap the 76ers are right about now. Billy King LOVES to dish out money like there's no tomorrow
I think that the only reason that Steven Hunter still has a job in the NBA is because he happened to play for a team that is tailor-made for his skills last year.
I was in Dallas this morning and Norm Hitzges on The Ticket was blasting the Mavs up and down for letting Hunter get away. The guy that comes on after him (I forget his name), then made fun of Norm because Hunter is no good. Supposedly, the Mavs told Hunter up front he would only play 10-15 MPG at the most and the Sixers told him he would play TOGETHER with Dalembert sometimes. What a joke! The Mavs won't miss him because he wouldn't have played much anyway. This guy is not worth throwing a fit over.
Seriously. We're talking about Steven Hunter here. What's he going to give the Mavs that Dampier can't give them at 3 times the price.... er.... or something like that.
Steven Hunter is so bad that he makes Dampier look like Shaq Seriously, Hunter is so bad that the ORLANDO MAGIC cut him two years ago. He couldn't even get playing time behind perennial all-stars Andrew DeClercq and Pat Garrity, yet Suns fans last year deluded themselves into thinking that he was a great off-the-bench spark.
C'mon. Even without Q-Rich and JJ (and Hunter), phoenix is still a very good team. Those guys were only as good as they were because of Nash. Though I think it's strange they didn't ask for Childress or Harrington in the JJ trade, I think Diaw will have a break out year being on a team with Nash. Mind you, they can potentially get Spreewell, Finley this summer. Maybe Demarr Johnson that alot of you covert so much. Are they as good as last year? Probably not, but will they finish ahead of every team not named San Antonio... probably.
You have to be kidding me. They lose their secondary ball-handler in JJ, and don't replace him with anybody that can handle the rock. Which puts even more pressure on Nash. Their bench is being stripped clean on a team that didn't really have a bench to begin with. They already used most of their money on Raja Bell who would be a good pickup for depth, but is hardly starting material. And with Kurt Thomas, they go back to a traditional lineup, when it was the matchup problems that made them so dangerous, running Amare with 4 three point shooters. The thing that really allowed them to run team out of the building wasn't just Nash pushing the ball and Amare getting layups. The biggest weapon they had was running the ball and getting open threes with their trailing wing players. Now they lose 900 three pointers from Q-Rich and JJ. I don't think there's any chance that they end up with more wins than Houston, Dallas, and probably even the Nuggets. Maybe if they can get Finley, I'll change my stance. But they don't got much money left. Signing Finley is not a slam dunk by any means.
I'm going to forget about Pheonix for a minute (only because they no longer, nor did they ever strike the fear of God into my heart; do you remember that 41 pt 4th qter we had against them?? AND NOW WE ADDED STROMILE?? Please! We WILL wipe the floor with these guys. Houston's only competition in the west will be San Antonio, MAYBE Dallas (but I'm not counting on that ) ANYWAY..... Billy King, if for some reason you should stumble upon this (or Kelly, hey, you work for SI, you can pull strings, can't you??), please explain to me why you insist on singing ANYONE to a LONG, LONG, BLOATED contract. Kenny Thomas did not deserve that. Willie Green did not deserve that. Kyle Korver did not even deserve half of that. Maybe I excuse the Dalembert contract becuase after all "you can't teach height" (allthough, you don't neccesarily NEED it either, i.e. last season: Suns, Sonics). Now Billy, your a Duke grad, I automattically respect you. You played for Coach K, I automatically love you. Getting into Duke requires a minimum 1450 SAT score. Yet you make some of the worst moves EVER! WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF STEVE HUNTER???!!!! I don't understand Billy, I just don't understand.
