Summer League Game 1 - Game Thoughts

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Originally Posted by timaios

1 real game in 1 year.
Ian was injured all season.
Seriously... :rolleyes

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Ian might one day be as good as Francisco Elson. After a few more years of coaching he might be able to play as many games as Elson, but he has no place on a championship level team other than as a human victory cigar. Ian sucks, there is nothing about him to think he might have a future in the NBA. He excels at exactly nothing.

He's not naturally a good rebounder.

He is at best an average shot blocker.

He isn't particularly gifted offensively. Nothing stands out to say he might ever score more than the occasional 4-6 garbage points.

He doesn't defend well, and is extremely hit or miss as to whether he is even in the right position on the court.

He has poor ball handling and is extremely tentative.

He isn't decisive and the moves he does make are more often than not wrong.
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I can guarantee this. The opposing player will almost always be a better basketball player than Ian. Overall I just don't see any of the tell tale signs of a good basketball player in development with Ian. It boggles my mind that any Spurs fan actually sees even the glimmers of potential there. And bear in mind that when I say this I was one of the first to defend George Hill during his horrible summer league last year. It is as obvious to me now that Ian is not a basketball player as it was to me then that Hill had a future with the Spurs.

The worst thing about this summer leauge is that we didn't get vbookie for mma event.

But overall it's okay.

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Originally Posted by Bruno

McClinton is a shooter. SL isn't the best situation to show his skills but he had to take more than 2 shoots.

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I would say this is mostly a myth. It worked fine for Tolliver last summer.
McClinton simply looks too undersized out there. Let's not forget that he has a very quick release, yet one of his two shots was cleanly blocked.
I do expect him to be slightly more effective as the team develops some flow, so we'll see how he does in a couple of games.

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Originally Posted by timaios

1 real game in 1 year.
Ian was injured all season.
Seriously... :rolleyes

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I was hoping he would hit the weight room while he was out. Just like what Nene and Bynum did, and build more muscle. But he looks exactly like last season and I agree he doesn't seem to particularly excel at anything. We'll see where he's at in a few games.

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Originally Posted by ElNono

I was hoping he would hit the weight room while he was out. Just like what Nene and Bynum did, and build more muscle. But he looks exactly like last season and I agree he doesn't seem to particularly excel at anything. We'll see where he's at in a few games.

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I've really never been too impressed with Mahinmi since we signed him two years ago. He might come out and play great this year. But I think the assumption, that some have made, that Mahinmi will be a heavy rotation player this season is pretty far fetched. He hasn't even proven that he can play spot minutes in the NBA. Hes completely unproven.

hes injurys slowed him down a bit... we must just give him time to get back into it.

We must trust POP.

Great thoughts. :tu

Hill got better as the game went on...Blair beastly as advertised...Hairston looks like he has a shot at making an impact this year...Ian showed his rust...Gist showed nothing...Jack showed less. So that's basically 3 guys up/3 guys down for the "Summer League Six". We'll see how the latter 3 respond in the next game.

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Originally Posted by DespЏrado

I can guarantee this. The opposing player will almost always be a better basketball player than Ian. Overall I just don't see any of the tell tale signs of a good basketball player in development with Ian. It boggles my mind that any Spurs fan actually sees even the glimmers of potential there. And bear in mind that when I say this I was one of the first to defend George Hill during his horrible summer league last year. It is as obvious to me now that Ian is not a basketball player as it was to me then that Hill had a future with the Spurs.

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There's no denying Ian has NBA caliber size and athleticism. So I don't think it's entirely fair to Ian to say there's no potential there. But he still doesn't have a clue as to how to use his physical gifts and until he figures that out he's never going to amount to much. It's certainly fair to wonder whether he'll ever be able to do that though.

Ian will play behind Bonner. Book it. :(

So booked. Ian has a long ways to go before he's going to be earning meaningful minutes ahead of Bonner.

I watched the game and loved how much Hill has developed. His aggressiveness and decision making looks a lot better. Running the point for the SL will only help out come training camp.
Blair was a very pleasant surprise. I was not sure if he was going to be able to continue the board cleaning effort he started in college. After seeing the ball go into the middle of a 'scrum' and Blair bounce out not once, but twice with the ball for a put back was awesome.
Nice to see Hairston developing his 3 point shot. He seemed confident and worked thru the issues from the first half. I have always liked his athleticism, but worred about his size. If his 3 is reliable, he is a legit option for coming off the bench at 3.
I am hoping that Gist has a better next couple of games. Same for McClinton.
Ian was not too impressive except for that beautiful move in the second half. That was smooth, confident and effortless. It had me going, where did this guy come from? Here hoping we can see more of that guy in the future.

Since winning this game doesn't count, maybe McClinton was guarding Thornton to see what McClinton could handle. Hill is going to make the Spurs, so it's McClinton that needs the test.

Thank you for the summary TIMVP. It's encouraging to see solid games from Blair and Hairston and GH especially. Disappointing about McClinton, but I'm not expecting much from him. Mahinmi's SEVEN fouls are pretty alarming. I'm still worried this team does not have enough capable big man depth, and I really hope there is some way to get Gooden signed.

ian mahinmi = busts

seems like only french posters and ianfans are tryin to back him up...excuses im tired of that shit...2yrs waiting and counting....

Not sure if it's been posted, but if you missed the game you can check out the video highlights here - http://www.nba.com/spurs/gameday/090712.html

:toast

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Originally Posted by TDMVPDPOY

ian mahinmi = busts

seems like only french posters and ianfans are tryin to back him up...excuses im tired of that shit...2yrs waiting and counting....

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i'm not sure i even saw french posters defending him. :)


i'm not especially a Ian fan but i think many people tend to forget that he has always responded well at all the challenges the spurs offered him.

he was good with the very few time he had in the NBA and he was very good when he had to be the main man with the toros. after that, his injury happened. so, right now, i don't think he ever failed with this franchise.


and these SL games are just awful: no gameplans, all one one one.........don't really know what conclusions could be made from these games.


still, there's a long long way to be a useful NBA big man, but i don't see any reason to bash him right now.
he'll probably have to fight for some time behind tim and dice, since blair seems as good as expected and i expect Bonner to have a solid season (helped by the fact that the other 3 pts shooting big man, Haislip, will be a fail IMO).

hey guys you can check out these games as well as other games on summerleague at justin.tv/jimo2305

So what its been 2 years. Ian is only 22. I say since we don't have many good big man depth options, continue to roll with him. A lot of the Ian haters are giving McClinton a pass, but trashing Mahinmi for one SL Game. Seriously Ian hasn't played in a year, if that's the case he did pretty well. For our team's sake, I'm just hoping he pans out.

I think Jack McClinton is going to have to move to the PG position to have any chance in this league. It may take a year or two in the development league or overseas or something to hone his skills but he is just too small for shooting guard in the NBA. If he had unbelievable quickness like AI or something then maybe he could. But who has that? He will be limited offensively at the 2 and will get dominated by bigger players on the defensive end.

I watched enough of him on video to see that he has good ball-handling skills. He can create his own shot. If he could develop a PG mentality with the passing game, he would have a shot at the league. But not at SG.

great recap

I really don't understand the rage against Mahinmi. As the roster is contructed, Mahinmi is the 6th out of 6 bigs on the roster. There aren't any expectations for him to do much of anything. In fact, the signing of Haislip probably means Mahinmi will be wearing a suit for most of the season.

After watching the game again, Mahinmi had a few flashes of competence. Most notable was that play near the end where he received a pass at the three-point line, took a dribble, executed a spin move and finished with a left-handed hook. If that's not a flash of talent, I'm not sure what is.

His first move of the game was also pretty damn good. He got rejected but that was an advanced move for a 22-year-old big.

There's definitely a chance he never amounts to anything but he's at the very least intriguing. 6-foot-11, 250 pounds, can jump, run, has some offensive polish and was arguably the best big in d-league at the age of 20. I don't understand why him having a bad game after missing the last year is cause for a meltdown. It's not like the Spurs are counting on him for big things this year.

And even though Mahinmi played pretty bad, he still outplayed Earl Barron -- a player who is six years older and was starting in the NBA a couple seasons ago. We'll see how summer league progresses but after one game I don't see reason to label Mahinmi as a bust for life.

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Originally Posted by timvp

I really don't understand the rage against Mahinmi. As the roster is contructed, Mahinmi is the 6th out of 6 bigs on the roster. There aren't any expectations for him to do much of anything. In fact, the signing of Haislip probably means Mahinmi will be wearing a suit for most of the season.

After watching the game again, Mahinmi had a few flashes of competence. Most notable was that play near the end where he received a pass at the three-point line, took a dribble, executed a spin move and finished with a left-handed hook. If that's not a flash of talent, I'm not sure what is.

His first move of the game was also pretty damn good. He got rejected but that was an advanced move for a 22-year-old big.

There's definitely a chance he never amounts to anything but he's at the very least intriguing. 6-foot-11, 250 pounds, can jump, run, has some offensive polish and was arguably the best big in d-league at the age of 20. I don't understand why him having a bad game after missing the last year is cause for a meltdown. It's not like the Spurs are counting on him for big things this year.

And even though Mahinmi played pretty bad, he still outplayed Earl Barron -- a player who is six years older and was starting in the NBA a couple seasons ago. We'll see how summer league progresses but after one game I don't see reason to label Mahinmi as a bust for life.

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Agreed. Summer League never fails to expose Spurs fans.

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Originally Posted by timvp

After watching the game again, Mahinmi had a few flashes of competence. Most notable was that play near the end where he received a pass at the three-point line, took a dribble, executed a spin move and finished with a left-handed hook. If that's not a flash of talent, I'm not sure what is.

His first move of the game was also pretty damn good. He got rejected but that was an advanced move for a 22-year-old big.

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Thank you! He played subpar most of the game but that last play was astonishing to watch. Not a lot of big men in the NBA have that move in their arsenal and yet 22 year old Ian Mahinmi has it down.

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Originally Posted by timvp

I really don't understand the rage against Mahinmi. As the roster is contructed, Mahinmi is the 6th out of 6 bigs on the roster. There aren't any expectations for him to do much of anything. In fact, the signing of Haislip probably means Mahinmi will be wearing a suit for most of the season.

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So you think that if he doesn't show significant improvement in the rest of the games the Spurs are better off letting him walk and potentially saving the money? Honest question.

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Originally Posted by timvp

After watching the game again, Mahinmi had a few flashes of competence. Most notable was that play near the end where he received a pass at the three-point line, took a dribble, executed a spin move and finished with a left-handed hook. If that's not a flash of talent, I'm not sure what is.

His first move of the game was also pretty damn good. He got rejected but that was an advanced move for a 22-year-old big.

There's definitely a chance he never amounts to anything but he's at the very least intriguing. 6-foot-11, 250 pounds, can jump, run, has some offensive polish and was arguably the best big in d-league at the age of 20. I don't understand why him having a bad game after missing the last year is cause for a meltdown. It's not like the Spurs are counting on him for big things this year.

And even though Mahinmi played pretty bad, he still outplayed Earl Barron -- a player who is six years older and was starting in the NBA a couple seasons ago. We'll see how summer league progresses but after one game I don't see reason to label Mahinmi as a bust for life.

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Me neither. I definitely want to see more games. Although I do think that if he's not able to bring anything to the table, I rather use his roster spot on somebody like Bowen.

i know and while ago i was checking some clips and highlights of eddie house and how we compare him to mcclinton if mcclinton wants to be succesful in nba he will have to hit that three like he did in college every time hes open because thats what eddie house does give him some time and ian manhimi hes young we gotta be patient