Ian Mahinmi close to signing with Mavs, fouling out of season opener
It would appear that the biggest source of San Antonio Spurs fans “backup quarterback syndrome” is ready to sign with the place that seemingly invented it-Dallas.
Ed Sefko of the Dallas Morning News reports that the Dallas Mavericks are close to signing Spurs free agent center Ian Mahinmi:
Mahinmi (6-11) played 26 games for the Spurs last season and is an unrestricted free agent. He averaged 3.9 points and 2.0 rebounds in six minutes per game last season. Several NBA sources said the 25-year-old Frenchman is ready to make a significant improvement moving forward.
The Mavericks signed center Brendan Haywood to a six-year deal last week, but Erick Dampier is on a non-guaranteed contract. Dampier is likely to be either traded or waived before the Mavericks would have to pay the $13 million for the final year of his deal.
If the Mavericks secure Mahinmi, who would at the very most require the bi-annual exception of about $1.9 million, it could be a sign that Dampier no longer is in the team’s plans.
Ian Mahinmi for the bi-annual exception unfortunately is a very solid move for the Dallas Mavericks, especially considering the last young, athletic center prospect the Mavs had-Ryan Hollins-received a bigger deal from David Kahn, and Mahinmi is probably already the better player of the two.
A first round draft pick in 2005, once Mahinmi finally arrived stateside he immediately caught the eye of Spurs fans everywhere as the most athletic center on the roster since David Robinson decided to hang them up. But thanks to a series of ankle injuries, a penchant for picking up quick fouls, and being buried on a depth chart that had no time to develop such a raw player, Ian Mahinmi struggled to make it into the rotation.
Though the Spurs invested a lot of time and resources waiting for Mahinmi’s talents to payoff, the development of DeJuan Blair and bringing in prized European big man Tiago Splitter probably made Mahinmi an expendable luxury.
But oh what a luxury he might be. Someday. Which has always been the tease with Ian Mahinmi. Blessed with great length and more fluid than explosive athleticism, Ian is not necessarily as unskilled as most raw projects in his situation are. With a decent jump shot and one or two viable NBA moves, Mahinmi looked solid when placed in one-on-one situations.
Given simple tasks in which his athletic gifts could take over, such as trapping a pick and roll, Mahinmi was aces. In one of his only moments of extended run in fact, Mahinmi was able to completely shut down the Houston Rockets/Aaron Brooks potent pick and roll attack (albeit in a game already decided).
In Mahinmi’s time in the fourth quarter the Rockets involved him in five pick and roll situations, gaining only a marginal advantage on a Brooks three-pointer which is hard to fault Mahinmi with. The other four times Mahinmi and Hill were able to force Brooks to retreat or make a pass to no advantage.
Most fans think of Mahinmi in terms of shot blocking and protecting the rim, but it’s here that he shows the least discipline. But watching a seven-footer stay in front of and coral Brooks on the perimeter and then recover to the rim, that was a revelation.
Placing Mahinmi in five-on-five situations, however, often found the young big man completely out of position and more often than not picking up a foul or five in his limited minutes. Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News probably summed it up best, comparing Mahinmi to Blair and noting the difference between those that “get it” and those that don’t.
So Blair is a round mound stuck on the ground, and Mahinmi is the opposite. He has the classic NBA frame. The Spurs drafted him because of this, and because a slice of video once teased what was possible. Then, in France, he slammed with the force of Amare Stoudemire.
Given that, the Spurs tutored him overseas, and they drilled him in Austin. They waited for the bad-luck injuries to heal, hoping the game had sunk in. But they knew he was always going to be, at best, a manufactured player built in a lab. He would never be a natural, as Blair is.
Mahinmi is still young, and still talented. Throughout the season while I may have argued with those that demanded playing time for him, it does not mean I was not also intrigued by his game. It would be nice to see one more year of development in San Antonio, just as it would be nice to see him go to some other place besides Dallas.
Unfortunately, not all late first round foreign draft picks pan out as nicely as Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and (hopefully) Tiago Splitter do.
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