Sixers get Reggie Evans, ship Hunter

A trade !!!

And again with the Nuggets. And again with one of my favourite role players involved. Yes, I like this trade because basically I like Reggie Evans, while I will NOT miss Stephen Hunter (who will ?).

We all knew we would have had issues rebounding the ball, and in Evans we get a MONSTER rebounder, considering his production-per-minute (7 in 17 minutes last season, 7.2 per 19.9 for the career !).

He’s in the Jeff Foster-category of boarding specialists, and I’m puposely bringing up another player I’ve always liked and pushed for.

Evans is probably a little overpaid and his contract is pretty long, but he’s still young (27) and he’s the kind of player that coaches and GMs like. Tradeable, I mean.  Hard worker, aware of his limits, he knows his role and does what you ask him to do.

What do we lose by trading Hunter? Well you tell me, because other than his (nice) shotblocking skills, I don’t see anything worth mentioning. Good riddance.

Looking forward(s)

Yeah, it’s off season and few things happen, unless you think that Celtics signing Scott Pollard is breaking news.

So before leaving for vacation (in the picture, Ricky engaged in the main activity he will do for the next three weeks) I thought it could be interesting to take a look at our roster NOW and try to imagine how the 2007-2008 Sixers might look like.

My take is that we have two STARTING spots to cover, small forward and power forward, assuming that Andre Miller, Andre Iguodala and Sam Dalembert are almost a lock to start at PG, SG* and C.

[*= Yes, I consider Iguodala more a SG than a SF (“a shooting guard that can’t shoot”, according to a poster of the Sixers board, which is pretty funny but not accurate), if you don’t it’s ok, but find me a nicer headline for this post, then.]

So here is my breakdown, split into “hopes” and “realistic thoughts”.

S4G rates for the season (IV): front court

Time to finish my rates with our big men

I am writing these BS.. pardon, lines, while waiting for the lottery draft, let’s hope the first italian Sixers blog brings some good luck, and that we can land another quality big man, God knows how much we need him. So:

SAM DALEMBERT

As soon as I was about to quit on our starting center (here pictured in a funny mismatch), he started playing really good.

So much for my basketball knowledge…

He really had a nice season, and finally showed some real improvements. Impressive the one from the free throw line, where he ended with an excellent 74% . Better than, say, Willie Green’s 66%…

Sam finished with 11 + 9 + 2, with 54% FG. Also reduced his fouls (!). Started being consistent, built a nice jumper from middle range. Put a strong, rebounding PF beside him and we’re ok for the next 2-3 years.