hes not shaq, of course, but he can be a high quality 20 minute player, who at 7 feet would give us a nice shot blocking option and IMHO, he still has a tremendous upside.

It's probable that we may not be able to spend large amounts of money in the future, but fringe deals--like for instance paying Hunter,lets say 4 years 14MM. if we add in two draft picks and sign Jackie Butler

that is 4 players, long term at 6mm per, which would be an acceptable variance IMHO. There is a lot of upside with Hunter, and he gives us that 7 foot player with athletiscm we dont have. He doesnt need to start, but 15-18 minutes off the bench would be swell.


we are going to have to make a decision on whether to dump someone here because there are to many players. I dont see JYD getting minutes with Rose here, unless someone is injured.



You can also see more and more why I would sized two like JR Smith and perhaps a guy who we can bring along slowly for a couple of years off the IR.

We really dont have a true 2G except Houston. Crawford is more of a combo guard.

this is what bugged me about Rose/Taylor. Those were 3 players we could have just either dumped in Mooch and Vin and Nazr if we couldnt sign and trade for a better player like Swift, we could have traded to a team with cap space for a low #1

Now your in a situation where your looking at buying out or waiving 2-3 players with multiple years making over $6mm a year. Thats pretty bad business.

The priority should be Kwame Brown

Kwame was never available for what we have to offer.

Hunter is Camby-lite without the monster games and disappears often.Id rather go after Doleac as a backup,if Zo eats into enough of his minutes,the Heat might listen to an offer.

Posted by nyk4ever:

I honestly don't know much about Steven Hunter other then watching him in college and from what I'm looking at his stats. He's never really gotten any kind of substantial minutes to prove what he can do on the court so I wouldnt mind throwing some exception money at him.

thats how you get your cap back in order. Instead of paying back ups 8mm, pay them 2.5-3mm$. As for his play, I think that big men take time to develop--this kid is young enough to be a senior in CBB this year and he has shown that he can play. At his size, with his athletiscm and upside, 2-3mm a year for 3-4 years is a reasonable rate.

Add an athletic 7 footer who can block shots, see if we can add a young quality SG and a back up PG for depth and lets see where we can role.

Its a no-brainer we need size. If we were willing to throw a good deal of bad money at 32 YO Baker, you can throw less money at 23 YO Hunter[because Pheonix will have trouble with $$$$-signing amare and johnson] we need a change up guy at C to come in for KT who can block shots and play well above the rim.

All the name guys are going to cost a fortune, Hunter is a very smart value player.

We don't need to spend money on a rahim, we now have enough at that position. We NEED a 7 footer, and one that makes sense. He makes a lot of sense. he has proven to be a high quality back up, and quite frankly, there is just a limited # of athletic 7 footers on the planet!
I think low budget moves, piecing in some young athletic size at 2 and 5 is our offseason is the way to go.

please Steven Hunter is not a Swift clone. Swift scores. Steven Hunter is garbage and a career backup on a good team. I'll take him for mle type money but I will not be content with having him as our center for years to come.

Posted by gunsnewing:

please Steven Hunter is not a Swift clone. Swift scores. Steven Hunter is garbage and a career backup on a good team. I'll take him for mle type money but I will not be content with having him as our center for years to come.

No, he's not Swift and he's not garbage. Let me explain something, it is VERY VERY VERY unlikely we get Swift, Kwame Brown, etc... we ALREADY pay KT starter type money, we have 2 other post up players who will demand time in Sweetney and Taylor, were paying Rose a huge chunk of change, it just doesnt make sense to think we are going to be acquiring these so-called name players. Hunter is athletic hes 7 foot, he can be had, and he will be comfortable playing 15-18 minutes + he has a great deal of upside. You have to think of things like chemistry and problems with having to many guys who deem they need starter minutes.


we can also try to position oursleves to draft Chris Taft, perhaps even by giving up the later pick. he would also fit the bill and maybe we can use the MLE on a 2G.

I think Hunter would be a good 2-3 mm $ guy, and if not, there are drafting oiptions which can also be cheap.

But we need someone who can block shots and give more of a defensive presence in the lane as our back up for when we face clubs like orlando.

Posted by gunsnewing:

I've seen steven hunter and he's nothing to get excited about. If he was a legit starting center Amare wouldn't be playing out of position.

I don't like Gadzuric either but he is a lot more talented on offense and blocks as many shots and rebounds better.

whatever the maximum MLE is, dan gadzuric is going to get it. If its from us, that can also be fine. But its likely to cost us over 30mm$

Posted by gunsnewing:

what if we can draft a center even if its with the 29th pick and see what we have between him and Butler. A lot better than wasting money on steven hunter.

alright looking at his recent stats he has been doing pretty well especiaaly blocking shots. If we can draft a great true SG and sign Hunter we should be in very good shape.

a lot of things depend on where we draft and who is actually in the draft because the draft precedes FA. If we draft big early, than you can get the drift.

Posted by nyk4ever:

Posted by gunsnewing:

what if we can draft a center even if its with the 29th pick and see what we have between him and Butler. A lot better than wasting money on steven hunter.

alright looking at his recent stats he has been doing pretty well especiaaly blocking shots. If we can draft a great true SG and sign Hunter we should be in very good shape.

You say you saw him and he's garbage but now that you're looking at his stats he's ok? Stats don't always tell you the whole story, especially when your Steven Hunter and averaging less then 15 minutes a game. The reason Amare starts out of position is because Steven Hunter is not consdusive to the Suns run and gun style of offense and Amare and Marion are. sorry rod

lol when the Knicks played them he was playing like crap and if you look at his game log for the season he was. He looked like a stiff out there! Ask Marv and Silver. He looked so awkward offensively like he didn't know what to do with the ball. I remember people here paying particular attention to him and most were saying he's garbage after the game was over. But if at worst all he can do is block shots then he would help us if we can get him for nothing. Trust me I've learned to look past stats after seeing Nazr Mohammed in person. lol


[Edited by - gunsnewing on 03/07/2005 20:54:04]