FanHouse Steven Hunter

Raw Like Sushi was the name of a Neneh Cherry album. It also could end up being the title for the Hasheem Thabeet rookie highlight video.

Of course, if you think this guy is green now, Memphis coach Lionel Hollins says you should have been around for his first workout after the Grizzlies took the 7-foot-3, 267-pound Connecticut center with the No. 2 pick in last June's draft.

"He was really bad,'' Hollins said. "Even though he's a shot blocker, he only had to stand in the paint in college. Now you've got guys attacking you and how you have to go meet them, he knew none of that. He had no footwork. He had no jump hook. He had nothing. And I can say that out of all the rookies in this draft, he probably has come the farthest. He has the farthest to go, and he still has a long ways to go.''

We all know about the NBA's salary cap -- a limit teams are allowed to spend on players. The cap is soft, and the vast majority of teams exceed the salary cap on an annual basis. Rarely will a team spend a whole season, let alone multiple seasons, under the cap.

But there's also something called a minimum team salary, the level of player spending teams must exceed each year. The collective bargaining agreement signed in 2005 sets the minimum team salary at 75% of the salary cap level. For the upcoming 2009-10 season, that minimum salary would be $43.2 million.

Would you believe that the masters of the cheap, the Memphis Grizzlies, have found a way around the minimum salary? And would you believe it explains the Zach Randolph trade?

The Nuggets far exceeded expectations this season. The team ranked not as the squad most likely to scare the snot out of the Lakers, but as the old guard least likely to return to the postseason in the New World.

Chauncey Billups, Nene, Kenyon Martin, Carmelo Anthony, George Karl, Chris Andersen, J.R. Smith and Joe Dumars changed that. The opening week trade for Mr. Big Shot completely transformed the spirit of the team, as did Karl's summer decision to focus on defense, even at the expense of his stars' allegiance. Everything else went right, for the most part.

But the franchise sit has payroll cuts to consummate, and little in the way of burgeoning youth to fill the holes. By trading the promise of cap space (in the convenient form of Allen Iverson) for Billups, the Nuggets trade a minor rebuild for contention. It worked -- the Nuggets were legit contenders. But what now? How can they possibly get better?

Desperate for NBA news -- any NBA news -- in this basketball-starved month that is September? Here's a big one for you: the Nuggets and 76ers got together for a trade that sends Reggie Evans to Philly in exchange for Steven Hunter. Okay, it's not quite the Allen Iverson blockbuster that went down the last time Denver and Philly traded with each other, but it could still end up being pretty interesting, at least from Philly's perspective.

The Sixers are getting a rebounding machine: Evans averaged 7.5 rebounds in just 17.1 minutes per game last year, which translates to a league-high 19.7 per 48 minutes. He was more or less buried on Denver's depth chart, though, especially with Kenyon Martin returning, but in Philadelphia he could end up starting.

At 6-8, Evans is a bit small for power forward, but he's a strong defender and obviously knows how to clean the glass, so he could be a decent stopgap until rookie Jason Smith is ready to assume a starting gig. The Sixers also received the rights to 6-foot-11 Ricky Sanchez, who spent last year in the D-League. I don't know much about him, but hey, he's 6-foot-11, why not?