Hunter released

[George O'Brien]

There must be a minimum number of minutes factor

It's ranked by fouls per game, not minute.

Supposedly it is by 48 minute game, which is the NBA.COM way of doing it by minute.

 

[elindholm]

Supposedly it is by 48 minute game

Dude, read the freaking post: Bold is per game, after that is per 48 min.

 

[Joe Mama]

That is some scary stuff. It's pretty bad when you lead the NBA in fouls per game, and you don't even play 25 minutes per game. Of course as has already been pointed out if Jake Voskuhl would just stop some of the silly fouls he might not even be on that list.

Joe Mama

 

[devilalum]

Interesting list. Hinrich is the only outside guy on the entire list. What's that all about?

I am puzzled by this list. There must be a minimum number of minutes factor, because I can't believe Jahidi wouldn't be on the most fouls per minute if there isn't. You gotta admit that when Jahidi fouled you, you knew it.

IMO Jahidi is a step slow and often gets there just a split second too late. He lays some good fouls on people but he also gets a lot of "and 1's"

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

also, did anyone else notice that jake's fouls/48 was at 7.7 - FAR exceeding anyone else's per 48? no one was even close!

also, not good that we've got #1 and #11 as our two best power players.

 

[Gaddabout]

The Suns run a lot of screens with Voshkuhl. In addition to his other problems, I would expect to see an unusual amount of offensive fouls in his ledger.

I think many of Voshkuhl's defensive fouls could eliminated with better team defense. Period. Vosh is not a shot blocker, but you still see guys driving players into the middle like Shaq's waiting in their defense.

Amare needs to get better on defense, both as a straight-up defender and as a weak-side defender. He moves his feet just fine, but sometimes he's shuffling himself right out of position. He'll also learn to better scout his opponent, and undervalued part of preparation. That's just a matter of time and training.

 

[George O'Brien]

Jake is definitely not a shot blocker, but his main problem on defense is lack of anticipation. He seems slow because he doesn't seem to figure out what the offensive player is trying to do until too late.

Guys who drive the basket have tendencies. Most right handed guys will try to go around defenders to the right, which is why "overplaying" works. Forcing many offensive players to go left means they are taking shots from uncomfortable angles. But some guys like to go left, which is why knowing the opponent is so important.

I don't know how much time the Suns players spend watching tapes of their opponents, but I'm sure it isn't enough. Jake is hardly the only Sun that lacks proper anticipation or makes the wrong defensive choices.

During the summer league, it was pointed out that Lampe's offensive play was not very impressive, but part of that was because the Sun's coaches focused entirely on defense. If they are putting more effort into defense, it is a huge change from the FJ days.

 

[cly2tw]

Jake might not have Ben Wallace like anticipation but Duncan once said that Jake defended him as well as anybody could. Apparently, he must be a reasonable man-to-man defender. The problem with the Suns is that nobody besides JJ is a good man-defender. They thus have to gamble on getting steals and let their opponents drive by them too easy. Yes, you need Ben Wallace in that case to cover your asses. What else is new? If the Suns can't improve their man-defense on the parameter, they need a Ratliff or Ben. Period. But for what Jake is paid, he is worth the money.

 

[elindholm]

I don't know how much time the Suns players spend watching tapes of their opponents, but I'm sure it isn't enough. Jake is hardly the only Sun that lacks proper anticipation or makes the wrong defensive choices.

I very much agree. But shouldn't such tape-watching be organized by the coaching staff? An assistant coach could splice together tapes showing the offensive tendencies of various opponents (both teams and individuals). Then the players could watch them during their time "off" from their allegedly grueling schedule of 8-10 hours of exercise a week.

In the past you have energetically defended the coaching staff, but I don't see how this weakness that you've pointed out can be anything other than a coaching problem.

 

[George O'Brien]

It is always hard to know how much is the youth of the players and how much is the coaching. It is equally hard to know how much of what was and wasn't done was due to Frank Johnson and how much due to the failures of the rest of the coaching staff. D'Antoni made some changes to what FJ had set up, but it was not practical to make wholesale change.

That being said, the Suns have a lot of things that need to be changed on both offense and defense if this is going to be a playoff team. It will not be easy.

 

[Gaddabout]

I very much agree. But shouldn't such tape-watching be organized by the coaching staff? An assistant coach could splice together tapes showing the offensive tendencies of various opponents (both teams and individuals). Then the players could watch them during their time "off" from their allegedly grueling schedule of 8-10 hours of exercise a week.

The have team film sessions like any other sports organization. But, like any profession, the guys that standout are the guys that do their own homework. There's no excuse for players not to be well prepared these days. The team's A/V department can put together a terabyte of digital video, slap it into a specialized database, and send the player off to watch gigs and gigs of video on any player in any situation (from multiple angles?) from the comfort of their own laptop.

I think the NFL and the NCAA have cornered the market on digital asset management (check out eMotion), followed closely by MLB. NBA has always had video scouting, but I think they've only come along the last few years with the player resources. They are definately there for the taking, though.

 

[George O'Brien]

Back to Hunter,

The more I read about him the more curious I become about exactly what was going on. According to Patricia, his contract was:

Steve Hunter .......... 8/29/01 4 $6,209,363 rc '05

This would mean that his salary for this year would be around $1.8 million this year. It doesn't seem like much, but it is more than the Cavs signed Traylor for.

Hunter started 23 games for the Magic in the 59 he played in, but his season average was only 13.4 minutes a game. On thing that sticks out in his game by game stats is that Hunter got most of his minutes in November, but soon after Johnny Davis replaced Doc Rivers, his minutes dropped off dramatically.
His minutes picked up briefly in late Feb, but fell off in early March. Looking at his game by game stats, it appears that he had a number of DNP coaches decision rather than injuries.

Apparently Davis was running a "center by committee" program:

Andrew DeClercq 71 games, started 53 - 17.1 minutes per
Steven Hunter 59 games, started 23 - 13.4 minutes per
Zaza Pachulia 59 games, started 2 - 11.3 minutes
Sean Rooks 20 games, started 0 - 13.5 minutes (joined the team in late Feb)

Hunter's numbers in November were dramatically higher than later in the season because he played more. He started 13 of 14 games and 21.1 minutes, averaged 5.8 ppg with 53.7% shooting, grabbed 4.2 rpg but had 2.0 blocks per game. His rebounding was below par and his free throw shooting was worse than Shaq, but he showed some promise at least.

 

[F-Dog]

Back to Hunter,

The more I read about him the more curious I become about exactly what was going on. According to Patricia, his contract was:

Steve Hunter .......... 8/29/01 4 $6,209,363 rc '05

This would mean that his salary for this year would be around $1.8 million this year. It doesn't seem like much, but it is more than the Cavs signed Traylor for.

OK, if you want to know...

'rc' means rookie contract. The fourth year on rookie contracts is a team option, which has to be exercised before the rookie's 3rd season IIRC. The money is determined by where the rookie was drafted (Hunter was drafted about 15th overall). The Magic elected not to exercise Hunter's 4th-year option, so they obviously didn't think he was going to be worth $1.8m; by declining the option, (I believe) they made Hunter a UFA this year, although the team did retain his Bird Rights.

The next thing that happened involving Hunter was the Orlando/Cleveland trade. Orlando needed to include extra salary for matching purposes in that trade, and they still had Hunter's Bird Rights laying around. So, they offered Hunter a big S&T contract to Cleveland with a million-dollar buyout, and Hunter agreed to go along because it was free money; Hunter's rights went to Cleveland in the trade, and they not-so-promptly paid his buyout and waived him.

Nobody is going to pick up Hunter's contract during the waiver period--I think it runs something like $5m over three years, and Hunter is a minimum-salary-type player. So, when the waiver period expires (in about a week, according to Eric), Hunter will be a free agent.


So, to answer your questions:

--Nobody was ever going to pay Steven Hunter $1.8m this season.
--Orlando has given up on him; they were the team that drafted him 3 years ago.
--Cleveland was never interested in Hunter, except as the cheapest possible way to make Drew Gooden's salary match Tony Battie's.
--Hunter essentially volunteered to put off his free agency in exchange for $1m, so he won't become a free agent for another week.

 

[George O'Brien]

Sounds right on the money issue.

I'm still not clear why Rivers liked him and Davis didn't.