<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Steven Hunter emphasized two things since revealing during the playoffs that he would explore free agency this summer: He wanted to stay in Phoenix and he wanted long-term security. Hunter got the latter on Thursday from Philadelphia, accepting a five-year contract worth $16.5 million with the 76ers. The deal's final year is a player option. Phoenix offered the 23-year-old center a one-year guarantee of almost $1.7 million, the biannual exception that the Suns had left to offer after using most of the $5 million midlevel exception to land guard Raja Bell. Phoenix was limited to a two-year offer, at best, with the biannual exception, which may be used to land a replacement. There is interest in 11-year veteran Brian Grant, an amnesty-rule casualty with several teams chasing him.</div> The Arizona Republic This is a low blow for Phoenix. It hasn't been a great off-season so far for them. Hunter was a valuable backup center and now that he's gone, Phoenix will look to give more minutes to Amare which can drain him most of games and it can also make him more prone to injuries.
Amare played nearly the whole game last year. Their off-season hasn't been that bad at all. I was happy to get rid of Q and get Raja and Kurt. It did hurt to lose JJ and Hunter, but I told you that when Hunter said he wanted to re-join the Suns D'Antoni said he was not interested. There is a reason for that. He sat out for a long period of time and I e-mailed one of the writers for the paper about it and he said it was problems with the coach and he was not trying that hard...I told you guys it was going to happen.
Personally I think at this point that Hunter wasn't that good. He had a pretty terrible shot, FT%, he also missed a considerable amount of easy passes from Nash. He was a decent defender, but I think Phoenix thought that by acquiring Kurt Thomas that they will get a guy who can at least catch the ball and shoot.
