Steven Hunter is back in the Western Conference, but not close enough for many Suns fans who see him as the perfect answer to Phoenix’s backup center crater. Philadelphia, who signed Hunter to a five-year, $17 million free agent deal in the summer of 2005, dealt him along with forward Bobby Jones to Denver for forward Reggie Evans and the draft rights to Puerto Rican forward Ricky Sanchez. Now Denver has what the Suns need: an athletic, rebounding, shot-blocking center off the bench to back up Marcus Camby. And they did it while saving about $8 million in salary by shedding Evans — who likely wouldn’t have played with Nene, Kenyon Martin and Eduardo Najera all manning the power forward spot. Two years ago, $3.5 million a year was too rich for Phoenix’s blood for a backup center. Now, they are willing to go that far to coax P.J. Brown out of retirement. Hunter has a suspect knee that kept the Suns from signing him long-term at the time and there were questions whether he was focused on winning. But if he had been a free agent this summer, it’s hard to imagine the Suns not making a strong run at him.

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