Gambo on Hunter

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I usually think Gambo is a bullcrap artist, relying on his limited imagination to spew out his brand of "information". However, on the Arizona Sports Report tonight, Gambo was on and he was asked about Hunter. He said he actually spoke to Hunter today (which gives him a little more credibility on this issue...cuz if he didn't speak to Hunter, he'd be called on it).

Anyway, he said Hunter really wants to play for the Suns, but the feeling isn't mutual. Gambo said Hunter even called D'Antoni to try and find out what's going on since he really wants to stay in Phoenix. It appears that the Suns simply haven't shown the interest in him that other teams have. He said he thinks Dallas is where he may end up (Hunter had a good meeting with Avery who feels he can replace the departing Bradley)...he also likes New Jersey..... and Atlanta has shown interest as well. He said Hunter will make up his mind this weekend.

Even though it was Gambo reporting, he didn't quote an annonymous source...he said he spoke to Hunter today (pretty hard to BS that in a public forum)....which means Hunter may indeed be gone.

Hunter has strengths...he was the second leading shot blocker in the League per minutes played...and he is pretty athletic...but he is a liability when it comes to rebounding...he seemed to always be out of position on defense...he didn't have the strength to hold his position on the block...and his free throw shooting was horrible (his FT shooting was bad even before the finger injury).

Still...I would have liked to have seen Hunter back in a shotblocking specialty role. Oh well....D'Antoni seems to be assembling inexpensive players who can fit his system...and if they can come in and perform in very limited spot duty, then they should be decent additions (providing the prolonged bench time doesn't affect their attitude). Those deep on the Suns bench have to serve double duty as chearleaders and practice fodder.

On another note...don't count on Finley coming here any time soon. I'm originally from Dallas, and a "person in the know" there told me that although Finley would love to play with Nash...and loves Phoenix....he really isn't interested in assuming a token role. He'd rather go somewhere he can start, since he feels he still has a few good years left. Dallas may end up working a deal for him, but if he's released...Finley's preferred destination (at least at this point in time)...is Chicago....his hometown...and a team that could use his veteran leadership.
 

PakistaniRambo

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interesting

Only reason we arent interested in Hunter is b/c we can't afford him, especially now that we're going to have to match atlanta's offer for joe. I felt hunter was an underrated bench player last year and we didn't play him enough. But if you think about it, the only people not expendable is our starting lineup.

as for finley, i feel the mavs are going to trade him. they cant take the risk of him coming to a contender like the suns or spurs. but if he is released, i wouldn't be surprised if he goes to chicago...but the suns would be a close second on his list i would assume. if he were to come to the suns, we would most definitely have to trade jim jackson.
 

Joe Mama

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This sounds like exactly what a few of us have been saying for a while about Hunter and Finley. I'm sure the Phoenix Suns would like to have him for their bench, but at this point the most they could offer is a LLE for a couple years. They only have about $1.25 million left from the MLE. I think it's going to take someone really special to even get them to spend the LLE at this point.

I've been saying for several weeks that Michael Finley would not want to come here because there just isn't any playing time for him. Even if the Phoenix Suns decided not to re-sign JJ, Finley would look at the roster and see that he would be fighting to get starters minutes here.

This all sounds about right to me. I'd rather have Lonnie Jones anyhow. :)

Joe Mama

PS - I hope everyone I've sold on Jones understands that I haven't seen him play since last summer. Even then I only saw him play in a couple of games.
 

PhxGametime

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Joe Mama said:
This all sounds about right to me. I'd rather have Lonnie Jones anyhow. :)

Joe Mama

PS - I hope everyone I've sold on Jones understands that I haven't seen him play since last summer. Even then I only saw him play in a couple of games.


Do you have gamefilm on Lonnie Jones? Trade for Burke? lol

Is Jones a Steven Hunter type of player?
 

Joe Mama

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BbaLL_31 said:
Do you have gamefilm on Lonnie Jones? Trade for Burke? lol

Is Jones a Steven Hunter type of player?

I wish I did have game film on Lonnie Jones. Of course you know how good I am about getting that to people. :)

As far as size Jones is almost identical to Hunter. He's very long and athletic. In the limited time I saw him it seemed like Jones is a much better rebounder. He looked really good at blocking shots, but remember that those are much easier to come by in the summer league.

Joe Mama
 

PhxGametime

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Joe Mama said:
I wish I did have game film on Lonnie Jones. Of course you know how good I am about getting that to people. :)

As far as size Jones is almost identical to Hunter. He's very long and athletic. In the limited time I saw him it seemed like Jones is a much better rebounder. He looked really good at blocking shots, but remember that those are much easier to come by in the summer league.

Joe Mama


I recently promised a member here some film on Raja Bell but I can't get the 2nd VCR working because the remote is needed to turn on the TV/VCR button or TV/Video button (whichever it is)... I probably feel how you felt all that time.

BTW I did get to see a few more games of Milos Vujanic though, just not sure, if the Suns will ever bring him over and he now wants to be Traded? I shoud've listened to Eric...


Did Jones go to a small College? That's pretty rare, that I didn't know much about him... I may not get to see a Prospect during season but I read my magazines all the time. OT but I forget names a lot though but Mindaugas Katelynas was the MOST VERSATILE player listed from Southern Conference and I would've tried to tape a game of him but I looked at stats PTS 7.8 REB 4.8 Jr year and I didn't think with those kind of numbers that he'd be a NBA Prospect... I'm going to be getting Fullcourt and start buying VCR Tapes before season :) I have 8 tapes right now already... if the Suns Trade that 1st Round Pick or even the 2nd Rounder AGAIN... :mad:
 

George O'Brien

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I have been puzzled about why Jones did not end up on an NBA team last year after a good summer league. Something is going on that is not apparent.

I have been lukewarm about Hunter, so I'm not terribly surprised the Suns feel the same way. The holes in his game are such that he seems unlikely to be much of a contributor this season, and certainly not worth the money he would cost.
 

sunsfn

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I think the deal with Hunter is that he seemed to upset D'Antoni a lot with his play. I am not sure what the problem was except he seemed to be out of position a lot. Hunter tried to block a lot of shots and he did, but D'Antoni did not like something he was doing and I think D'Antoni does not want to put up with him anymore.

Joe, where did you see Lonnie Jones play? what summer league? was it on the suns last year?
 

JCSunsfan

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The Suns offered Hunter the LLE early on. He is the one who decided not to take it. Now that we've got to pay JJ a max deal, Hunter's deal is off the table.

He obviously had an inflated view of himself, or a bad agent. For the Suns, its probably good that we did not commit to him, it might have made it even harder to re-sign JJ.
 

Joe Mama

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sunsfn said:
I think the deal with Hunter is that he seemed to upset D'Antoni a lot with his play. I am not sure what the problem was except he seemed to be out of position a lot. Hunter tried to block a lot of shots and he did, but D'Antoni did not like something he was doing and I think D'Antoni does not want to put up with him anymore.

Joe, where did you see Lonnie Jones play? what summer league? was it on the suns last year?

yes, I believe he was with Cleveland's summer league team last summer. I thought I saw him at least twice and maybe three times. I have NBA TV.

Joe Mama
 

scotsman13

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personally i like hunter. i think he did a very good job against duncan when he guarded him. he didnt do as good of a job when he had to move outside like he did vs. dirk. one thing i think is important to remember when him is that he is only 23 years old. and we are still very light on players on the block.
 

Dr. Dumas

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sunsfn said:
I think the deal with Hunter is that he seemed to upset D'Antoni a lot with his play. I am not sure what the problem was except he seemed to be out of position a lot. Hunter tried to block a lot of shots and he did, but D'Antoni did not like something he was doing and I think D'Antoni does not want to put up with him anymore.

Blocking shoots was Hunters best quality. I don't blame Hunter a lot for being out of position. He would usually go over to block a shot or try and help out if a defender was beat. It's the responsibility of the other players to rotate and cover Hunters man.

I will be sad to see Hunter go.. I think he's young and very athletic and will only continue to get better with playing time...
 

Gaddabout

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Guys, I have it on pretty good authority this Hunter thing is a personal thing with D'Antoni. He doesn't like Hunter as a player. Thinks he's a doofus who will never learn (because he had to be told many things over and over and over again). Point blank: D'Antoni doesn't want him. The rest of the Suns staff may have interest in him, but when the coach has such a low opinion of a player, it's kind of pointless to start bidding on the player as a free agent.
 

thegrahamcrackr

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Gaddabout said:
Guys, I have it on pretty good authority this Hunter thing is a personal thing with D'Antoni. He doesn't like Hunter as a player. Thinks he's a doofus who will never learn (because he had to be told many things over and over and over again). Point blank: D'Antoni doesn't want him. The rest of the Suns staff may have interest in him, but when the coach has such a low opinion of a player, it's kind of pointless to start bidding on the player as a free agent.


That sounds like the best reasoning to me. Wasn't there mention a few days ago that Hunter really wanted to come back here but wasn't getting any love from the Suns?
 

F-Dog

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Gaddabout said:
Guys, I have it on pretty good authority this Hunter thing is a personal thing with D'Antoni. He doesn't like Hunter as a player. Thinks he's a doofus who will never learn (because he had to be told many things over and over and over again). Point blank: D'Antoni doesn't want him. The rest of the Suns staff may have interest in him, but when the coach has such a low opinion of a player, it's kind of pointless to start bidding on the player as a free agent.

If this is true, then I just lost some respect for D'Antoni.

Having guys who pick things up right away (like Amare) may be how you win COY awards, but it's not what coaching in the NBA is about. If you want to be a difference-maker as an NBA coach, you've got to get results out of dumb players and headcases.

The Suns currently have a real need for size and shot-blocking, and they don't have anybody at all who can play post defense against Duncan or Garnett. Dumb or not, Steven Hunter has proven that he can guard those guys better than anybody the Suns have, plus he's an outstanding shot-blocker. Hunter even seems to have a good attitude.

If the Suns can get Hunter back for $1.7m/year for 2 years (which is all they are allowed to spend), D'Antoni should be the first one shaking Hunter's hand after he signs the contract.
 

George O'Brien

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F-Dog said:
If this is true, then I just lost some respect for D'Antoni.

Having guys who pick things up right away (like Amare) may be how you win COY awards, but it's not what coaching in the NBA is about. If you want to be a difference-maker as an NBA coach, you've got to get results out of dumb players and headcases.

The Suns currently have a real need for size and shot-blocking, and they don't have anybody at all who can play post defense against Duncan or Garnett. Dumb or not, Steven Hunter has proven that he can guard those guys better than anybody the Suns have, plus he's an outstanding shot-blocker. Hunter even seems to have a good attitude.

If the Suns can get Hunter back for $1.7m/year for 2 years (which is all they are allowed to spend), D'Antoni should be the first one shaking Hunter's hand after he signs the contract.

Rumor mill suggests he will sign with someone else this weekend.

Hunter's reputation as being a slow learning is a carryover from his days in Orlando. The Magic fans that posted on our site explained that Hunter seemed to make the same mistakes over and over which is why their coach gave up on him.

D'Antoni seemed to have the same problem with him, which is why he didn't play more. It seemed like he would have a really good game followed by a couple of bad games where he did very little.

It would be very nice if Hunter developed his skills to go along with his talent. But how long is the wait worth it?
 
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George O'Brien said:
Rumor mill suggests he will sign with someone else this weekend.

Hunter's reputation as being a slow learning is a carryover from his days in Orlando. The Magic fans that posted on our site explained that Hunter seemed to make the same mistakes over and over which is why their coach gave up on him.

D'Antoni seemed to have the same problem with him, which is why he didn't play more. It seemed like he would have a really good game followed by a couple of bad games where he did very little.

It would be very nice if Hunter developed his skills to go along with his talent. But how long is the wait worth it?



He can't sign this weekend. He can sign with everyone else when the moratorium ends.
 

George O'Brien

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wilecoyotesupergenius said:
He can't sign this weekend. He can sign with everyone else when the moratorium ends.

Bell couldn't "sign" either, but he can come to an agreement.
 
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George O'Brien said:
Bell couldn't "sign" either, but he can come to an agreement.


Just trying to be accurate, because some contracts CAN be signed before the moratorium ends:

1. Teams can sign their first round draft picks to a standard rookie "scale" contract

2. Teams can sign their second round draft picks for one season at the minimum salary, or one season plus an option year at the minimum salary.

3. Teams can re-sign players who have finished the fourth season of their rookie "scale" contract for the raise specified in the scale

4. Teams can re-sign players who are subject to the right of first refusal for 125% of their previous salary, or the minimum salary plus $150,000, (whichever is greater).

All others have to wait for the moratorium to end.
 

playstation

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nope. we still don't have any cap room. all we have is 2 firsts (that won't even be available until amare is like 28, but that doesn't matter since they suck anyways as mid-first-rounders) and a trade exception (for a year, and can't be combined with any other exception).

this is called getting reamed all around. sarver just tossed billy knight's salad.

i don't care how bad jj wants to leave, you don't let him go for that. that's just horrible, ESPECIALLY considering TODAY'S coro article in the republic and how JJ himself said he'd be fine if the suns matched.
 

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According to a guy at ISH, the Suns might be $8.5m under the cap after they make their trades, if they renounce all of their exceptions (including the trade exception they'll be getting from Atlanta).

Then, they have to sign Raja Bell, starting at $4.2m (?)...leaving $4.3m left to spend on free agents.

:confused:
 

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