Let the record show that on Thursday afternoon, at 1:37 p.m. MDT, Steven Hunter actually smiled.
Since his arrival in Denver last season, he has spent more time on a surgeon’s table than in NBA games, where, instead of participating, he glumly slumped at the end of the Nuggets bench, looking like a guy just pulled over for speeding.
“It was very frustrating,” Hunter said of last season. “I played in the least amount of games I played in my whole career. I was hurting all year. I’m trying to turn this into a positive.”
And on Thursday, there was Hunter, smiling about his rejuvenation, talking about change like a candidate.
“I’ll just keep working hard, and hopefully good things will happen,” the reserve center said.
We shall see. Yes, Denver lost big men Marcus Camby and Eduardo Najera in the offseason. And there isn’t much competition in the low post, save Chris Andersen. But Hunter has yet to earn the trust of coach George Karl, who recalls Hunter as “inconsistent” in last season’s training camp — the only time Karl watched Hunter, a 2007 offseason acquisition, for an extended period of time.
“If the season started tomorrow, I couldn’t tell you who would be the third guy off the bench,” Karl said. “Renaldo Balkman, Steven Hunter, Andersen — all those guys are on my radar, but I don’t have any idea.”
In the first two days of this training camp, Karl was pleased with Hunter’s energy, although in the third practice, held Thursday, in which Denver scrimmaged extensively, Karl said, “I didn’t think he was that good.”
Hunter, who turns 27 on Halloween, is entering his eighth NBA season. But after often starting at center for Allen Iverson’s 76ers in 2005-06 and 2006-07, he joined Iverson’s Nuggets the following season and only played in 19 games, a career low, while rehabbing from knee surgery.
“I’m working hard. I definitely want to play this year,” the 7-foot Hunter said. “I believe I’m one of the fastest runners on the team. Us collectively, we have to make up . . . the 13 rebounds per game that Marcus had. But I think we can do it, and I think I can be a big part of it.”
Howard returns
The Nuggets have signed veteran forward Juwan Howard to a one-year minimum, nonguaranteed deal, adding another big man to the mix. Howard, 35, played for Denver from 2001 to 2003 and has had a prosperous career, averaging 15.3 points per game.
In 2006-07, he averaged 9.7 points per game and 5.9 rebounds for Houston, but last season, he didn’t get his regular minutes for Dallas — 7.1, compared with his career average of 33.3 — and he averaged only 1.1 points.
“He’s a heck of a player, and he has a respect in our locker room already with some of the players who played with him here,” Karl said. “I don’t think we’d bring him in if we didn’t think he’d have something left.”
Benjamin Hochman: 303-954-1294 or bhochman@denverpost.com
