Thursday, April 2nd, 2009...7:49 am
Toros Watch: Ian Mahinmi
The Toros, despite having the most talented team in the D-League, are a miserable 3-7 in their last 10. Much like their big brother to the south, they’re not cruising into the postseason on a high. But they won against Tulsa last night, and we hope the 131-119 victory portends for greater things to come.
As we’ve previously noted, Quin Snyder has had a hard row to hoe. The team has added or subtracted many pieces this season. Despite the riches of talent the team is still working toward fitting those pieces into a cohesive whole. When Mensah-Bonsu was with the team, they really hit a stride and went 6-2. Since then, the team has not played with the same consistency. Last night, Coach Snyder had all his talented pieces playing at full throttle as the Toros raced out to an early lead in their blow out victory. If you haven’t caught my drum beat: this team is talented. Against Tulsa, Malik Hairston, Dwayne Jones, and Marcus Williams each had 26 points. DeMarcus Nelson bested his teammates by 3, scoring 29 and adding 6 boards and a pair of steals. I’m hopeful that Nelson will eventuate into a summer league and camp invite.
The aforementioned 4 players should all be playing elsewhere next year. Jones and Williams may not find an NBA home, but I suspect they’ll take a bigger contract in Europe for the 09/10 campaign. They’re good players. And who knows, maybe they’re only one strong camp away from earning a place in the Association. They’ve played extremely well for the Toros this year and are amongst the D-League’s best players. Malik Hairston is on assignment for the Spurs, with whom he’s contracted through next season. So when you go to a Toros game, you’re likely watching a future member of the Spurs rotation blossom into a player. And, as I mentioned above, DeMarcus Nelson is strong camp candidate. You have a much better chance of seeing future Spurs by attending an Austin game than you do by watching the NBA Draft late into the 2nd round. In a sense, the Spurs draft has a third, forth, and fifth round that is the D-League season.
This all leads to a place you may not expect. The Toros are about to add yet another will-be-elsewhere-next-season player to their roster: Ian Mahinmi. Ridiculous Upside is reporting that Ian Mahinmi will rejoin the team in the coming days. In his initial report, Scott Schroeder of Ridiculous Upside wrote:
…[Ian Mahinmi] is going to return this season for the Toros, coming back from what was earlier believed to be season-ending surgery.
Mahinmi, named to the First Team All D-League team last season after spending nearly the entire season with Austin instead of San Antonio, was expected to be out 6-10 weeks as of January 31. Mahinmi had to have surgery to remove a small piece of avulsed bone in his right ankle. I have no idea what that means, but it sounds like it was way worse than the injury that took Sun Yue out for the season. Either Ian Mahinmi is defying the french stereotype, or Sun Yue isn’t the national hero I thought he was. Sun Yue.
Actually, as recent as March 15th, Greg Popovich assumed he was out for the season, but he’s apparently healed well enough to make Austin the most (on paper) talented team in the league. They could start this lineup right now: DeMarcus Nelson, Marcus Williams, Malik Hairston, Mahinmi and Dwayne Jones. That’s scary.
This doesn’t bode well for the rest of the D-League. Last season, Mahinmi averaged 17 points and eight boards, shooting 62% from the field…
The Toros next play at home against Iowa on Saturday. The Iowa game opens a four game home stand that extends through next week. I’m excited to see how this team plays heading into the postseason. The Spurs/Toros have done an incredible job of putting a talented, exciting D-League team on the floor this season. Consider the list of players that have been on their bench over the course of the season: Blake Ahearn, Anthony Tolliver, Marcus Williams, Malik Hairston, Andre Brown, Pops Mensah-Bonsu, Dwayne Jones, DeMarcus Nelson and Ian Mahinmi. The Toros are not an after thought for the Spurs-they’re a prominent fixture in the Spurs program.
In a recent conversation, Scott Schroeder made this remark to me:
“The Spurs are doing amazing things with the Toros. Austin is just so far ahead of the curve right now in terms of really being used as a development team. The other D-League teams should eventually catch up, but it’d be near impossible to exceed what the Toros are doing right now.”
Update: A press release from the Toros confirms that Ian Mahinmi is in fact on assignment.
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5 Comments
April 2nd, 2009 at 12:00 pm
It’s good to hear that Mahinmi has recovered ahead of expectations. It’s a shame that’s it’s too late for him to get any minutes for this Spurs season, but I’ll definitely be waiting for ‘09-’10, regardless if we win #5 or not.
Go Spurs Go!
April 2nd, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Also, I’ve never seen a Toros jersey until I clicked the Marcus Williams link, but they really need something more original. No disrespect to the team, of course.
April 2nd, 2009 at 12:08 pm
They try to fashion themselves after San Antonio, jerseys included.
April 2nd, 2009 at 2:53 pm
The success of the Toros just shows what a quality organization the Spurs franchise is. But it doesn’t help us on the level that really matters (the NBA) if we spend our time and resources developing future contributors to the League, only to watch them sign with other teams, a la Pops. I’m still waiting for one Toro to make a significant, worthwhile contribution for the Spurs. Given the trend of the Toros thus far, hopefully that day comes soon.
April 2nd, 2009 at 3:59 pm
NickyDubs,
I would say the following. First, I agree that worthwhile contribution should be the measuring stick, but I would caution that we be careful to define what that means. Second, this is the sort of thing that has a curve. I think we’ll start seeing a good bit of fruit very shortly. Third, I would argue that some worthwhile things are already taking place. For example, it’s a big deal that the Spurs are figuring out how to make this work. That’s half the battle, and they are far ahead of every other team in the league. Another example is Malik Hairston. If you recall, Hairston was drafted and cut by the Spurs prior to being allocated to Austin. 5 years ago that would have been an impossibility—back then he was simply a wasted draft pick. But in Austin they were able to evaluate and groom Hairston. Now he’s on the roster—and he showed this season that he is already capable of filling in when injury strikes. He should only get better and work his way into the rotation, perhaps as early as next year. Those are just two quick examples. One more, and then I’m done. The Mensah-Bonsu situated demonstrated that the Spurs can manufacture mid and late season roster improvements in Austin. No one is saying that he’s as good as Gooden. But suppose the Spurs didn’t land Gooden. Based on what Pops has done with his minutes in San Antonio and Toronto, the Spurs would not have been completely helpless. Mensah-Bonsu would have helped, just not as much.
Something to keep in mind. From what I understand, the operating cost of a team like the Toros is less than what most end of the bench NBA players make. In other words, the Spurs are getting all sorts of bang for their buck in Austin.
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