<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">It's never easy to be traded. But to be traded only to have the deal rescinded is a case of insult added to injury. Steven Hunter experienced that firsthand when the Sixers tried to send him to New Orleans last February. The 7-footer was in limbo for a week while the Hornets' medical staff pored over his exam results until finally declaring him damaged goods and shipping him back to the Sixers. "When they traded me, they pretty much gave me up for nothing," the center said Oct. 25 after the Sixers' preseason win over New Jersey. "I kind of took that personal and was pretty insulted by that, so I wanted to come back and show people the real Steven Hunter." If what he showed in the final two preseason games is the real Hunter, then the Sixers will be thankful that trade never went down. Against New York on Oct. 24, Hunter was one of the few bright spots for the Sixers in a lopsided loss. In 22 minutes, he scored 12 points, hauled down seven rebounds and blocked two shots. The next night against New Jersey he was even better, registering 13 points, eight rebounds, three blocked shots and an assist. Now this is the player the Sixers thought they were getting when they signed Hunter as a free agent in the summer of 2005. "He played two real nice games. I thought his attention to detail (Tuesday) night and his attention to detail (Wednesday night) was excellent," Sixers coach Maurice Cheeks said. "I think a lot of guys fed off that. I think one of the things he does so well is working underneath the basket, where big guys cannot find him, and when guards come down the lane, they find him a lot for easy shots. I think his attention to detail, his preparation for the game has been great for us. "When you get a big guy playing like that, clogging the middle, not running a play for him and he ends up scoring baskets, I think it does a lot for his confidence." And though he set career highs last year in almost every statistical category, Hunter averaged just 3.9 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in 69 games -- not quite what the Sixers had expected. "Last year, with Steve, I think a lot of it was mental," Allen Iverson said. "You look at that situation, and you really don't think a guy's comfortable mentally with his role on a team, it just gets frustrating. It's easy to know what he has to do every night. We want him to rebound the ball, be aggressive rebounding. We want him to block shots for us and we want him to get those easy baskets like he got (Wednesday) night. "When we penetrate to the basket, all I want is him and Sam (Dalembert) to just have their hands ready and know that the ball is coming, because a lot of times I will throw the ball at the last second just to throw the defenders off. That's all we want him to do is rebound, run the floor, block shots and dunk the basketball like he did (Wednesday) night. If we get that Steven Hunter backing up Sam, and Sam playing the way he's capable of playing for a whole season, the sky's the limit for us." Hunter, who played college ball at DePaul, was drafted by Orlando in 2001 with the 15th overall pick. After three years with the Magic, he was traded to Cleveland with Drew Gooden and the draft rights to Anderson Varejao for Tony Battie and two second-round picks. That was in July. In August, he was waived and signed as a free agent with Phoenix. With the Suns, Hunter averaged 4.6 points, 3.0 rebound and 1.3 blocks in just 13.8 minutes a contest. During one notable game in March 2005 he had five blocks. The opponent? The Sixers. That summer, Sixers president Billy King made Hunter his biggest free-agent acquisition, but the player quickly proved a disappointment. Forced into a starting role at the beginning of the season because Dalembert was hurt, Hunter averaged 35.5 minutes through the first four games of the season. Despite the increased playing time, however, he averaged just 2.75 rebounds. Although his play picked up a bit toward the end of the season -- he averaged 6.3 boards and 12.1 points over the last seven games -- he rarely seemed comfortable. Through this year's training camp and preseason, he said, that has changed. "It's like night and day," Hunter said. "I know Coach Mo, I'm very familiar with his style and his rotations and how he coaches, and I'm familiar with just playing in the scheme of his offense. I'm much more prepared this year than I was last year." If Hunter can continue to play well, and Dalembert stays healthy and can be the dominant center the Sixers hope he can be, that gives the Sixers some interesting options. Not only would they have a valuable backup center, but they'd also have the choice of playing the two together and posing an extremely athletic and mobile frontcourt. Hunter would like to see that happen. "I wish Coach would do that sometime, but he's the coach," he said. "I think that would be great. Hopefully that's something for the future." For now, he'll remain Dalembert's backup, but there will be plenty of minutes up for grabs. The trade that never was might be the best thing that ever happened to Hunter. "To me, how professional he's been, how hard he's played has been a testament to him," Chris Webber said. "I think if he blocks shots and rebounds and stays in that little hole where A.I. can give him the ball and we can feed him and he just goes up so aggressively, I think that's all we need. If you really think about it, no disrespect to the Ben Wallaces and Alonzo Mournings, but that's what they do -- block shots, rebound and they have a high percentage because they're not taking shots besides dunks and jump hooks." </div> Link It just goes to show you how horrible a GM Billy King really is. Steven Hunter is obviously worth more than a second round pick, and he obviously showed it last season. At times he even out shined Dalembert. Given his age and potential, Hunter can be a great player for us down the line. I'm glad to see him still aboard.
a second round pick is definately nowhere near what he is worth, but hunter really needs to step it up this year and show that.
<div class="quote_poster">Answer_AI03 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">a second round pick is definately nowhere near what he is worth, but hunter really needs to step it up this year and show that.</div> Hunter already stepped up last year and proved he is worth more than a second round pick
The bottom line is that Billy King is a knucklehead who I wouldnt let run my NBA Live 07 team let alone an NBA one.
I'm very happy that Steven is still a 76er. I was extremely upset when the trade was originally reported last season. Although, Hunter and Dalembert are very similar in terms of playing style, the two have shown the ability to play well while on the court at the same time. BigMo when he use to post here, stated that one of the reasons they planned on trading Hunter was due to his attitude. How he walked around believing he was an all star. However, I still don't see anyway that can be true.
