Hunter to leave Pheonix - Dallas-Mavs.com Forums

Nash13 · 06-19-2005, 09:24 AM

Hunter Will Pass On Option In Phoenix; Voskuhl Undecided
18th June, 2005 - 2:56 pm
AZCentral - According to Steven Hunter’s agent, Marc Bartelstein, the center plans to pass on his $745,000 option to return to the Phoenix Suns .

Hunter wants to stay with Phoenix but is not interested in the $1.7 million exception slot.

"I think Steven's value is much higher than that," Bartelstein said.

Bartelstein’s other client, Jake Voskuhl, is still undecided on his $1,875,000 option, however, the Suns management seems confident he will pick it up.

I think the Mavs should offer anything he wants up to the MLE. He'd fit this team better than a Swift or Gadzuric. Plus the Suns have bigger fish to fry this offseason.

ddh33 · 06-19-2005, 12:37 PM

He's young, athletic, can block shots, rebound decently, and played Duncan well (although Timmy was hobbled some). You could do worse...The real question is his consistency? He's never had that.

Lebanese_Fan · 06-19-2005, 03:13 PM

GET STEVEN HUNTER. NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW. Great backup. I am a big fan. He is 23 years old and he talked about plans to gain 20 pounds to be more effective at CENTER. He wants to succeed and he doesn't mind being a backup. Him coming from the bench for defense and van horn for offense. Maybe he can in 2 years be our starting center. NOBODY knows.

LRB · 06-19-2005, 04:45 PM

We should offer him the Full MLE just to make sure that Phoenix has to go that high to keep him. I think that he would be a decent, but not necessarily great, fit for our need for an athletic big man. But if we can hamstring a conference rival either by depriving them of a needed player or making them use their MLE just to keep what they've got, then I'm all for it.

grndmstr_c · 06-19-2005, 04:56 PM

When you look at Hunter there are a lot of nice tools to work with. 7', athletic, rebounds, blocks and finishes well. Not sure that he's all that good a basketball player, though. Still, he's young and has room to grow as a player, and the skills he brings are ones the Mavs could use.

dirno2000 · 06-19-2005, 06:24 PM

Hunter isn't worth anything near the MLE...somebody may give it to him but it won't be us. And while it would be nice to see the lose him, it would by no means cripple them.

I'd be surprised if Cuban spends the MLE this summer. The only available center even remotely worth it is Gadzuric and I'll believe that the Bucks will let him walk when I see it. Even if they take Bogut, he's probably better suited to play the 4. He was one of the weakest players at the Chicago camp and got pushed around by Grey and Bookout in the NCAA's.

If we can't get Gadzuric, I think the hope is that Pavel and DJ improve enough to give you 15 minutes per game collectively. When this team is healthy, Dirk is going to play about 38 minutes which only leaves KVH ten minutes behind him. The rest of his minutes will most likely be spent backing up Damp.

If we can't get Gadzuric, I think the hope is that Pavel and DJ improve enough to give you 15 minutes per game collectively.

Thespiralgoeson · 06-19-2005, 08:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by: dirno2000

If we can't get Gadzuric, I think the hope is that Pavel and DJ improve enough to give you 15 minutes per game collectively.

I agree that Hunter isn't worth the MLE by a longshot, but I'd still love to have him. I also agree that Gadzuric is the most appealing available player we need. However, if we don't get Gadzuric, than I'm by no means comfortable with just hoping DJ and Pavel can fill the void. Maybe I'm just being negative, but I'm honestly not expecting either of them to ever turn out to be anything. I have some hope for Pavel, but I don't think DJ will ever be an effective player. There's no way that either of them will be able to play significant minutes next year.

dirno2000 · 06-19-2005, 09:20 PM

Quote:

Maybe I'm just being negative, but I'm honestly not expecting either of them to ever turn out to be anything. I have some hope for Pavel, but I don't think DJ will ever be an effective player. There's no way that either of them will be able to play significant minutes next year.

You may be right about both of them because they weren’t close to being able to contribute to an NBA team this year. I’d also agree that Pavel’s more likely to improve because he already has a skill (shooting) and he isn’t as wild assed as DJ. My analysis is based on what I think will happen, not what I want to happen. With the payroll at ~$95MM and a possible double luxury tax looming I just can't see Cuban spending the MLE unless we have a chance to get an impact player. And the names I see kicked around on this board aren't impact players. I wouldn't mind bringing in Traylor or Hunter on cheap short contracts but neither would half the teams in the league. Hunter is opting out for a reason and the reason is that the market for big men is skewed.

Plus like I said, there aren’t many minutes to go around at the backup 4/5 barring a trade or another injury plagued season.

Lebanese_Fan · 06-20-2005, 01:46 AM

The teams with salary cap will not look at Hunter. Teams that have the MLE will not spend it entirely on him because they need talent. We already have plenty of talent, so we can offer 3 million a year for hunter and get away with it. I don't think he is restricted which is eve better. I believe he is the 9th pick of Orlando 4 years ago. He needs some minuets and he will keep improving.

3 Mil is perfect salary for Hunter.

jayC · 06-20-2005, 11:29 AM

Brian Cardinal got something like 50 million from Memphis. A lot depends on what teams with cap space do in the offseason.

Nowitzki 4 3!! · 06-20-2005, 01:10 PM

I think that Stephen Hunter is exactly the type of athletic big man that Cuban has been salivating over, but in today's free agent market, every other owner/general manager thinks exactly the same way. JayC brought up a good point that if such a super spare like Brian Cardinal can get a monster deal for being able to stroke a three at a low percentage, then someone will throw a large chunk of change Hunter's way.......If Hunter does come here I would be more than pleased, but I wouldn't get my hopes up.

Lebanese_Fan · 06-20-2005, 01:33 PM

Guys, must remember that the mid level exception might get divided to 3.2 and 1.8. So the max we can offer is 3.2. And as i said, no team with salary cap is looking for a backup, they are looking for starters. This is good for us. We offer the max (3.2) and wait and see if hunter wants to come to dallas.

freestyle · 06-24-2005, 09:59 PM

I like what I saw of him in the playoffs. He is more athletic, younger and exciting than Dampier. With 20 pounds and some more time he will become a better player. He has a much higher upside. My guess is Hunter will want a legitimate chance or promise to start to leaves the Suns unless the money is outrageous.