It's come to this : FREE IAN MAHINMI ! ! !

[objective]

Warning: needlessly long screed ahead declaring the unleashing of Ian Mahinmi!

Time for a fresh re-examination of Ian Mahinmi, and the case I’m presenting that he has been misused and why he should be getting minutes in a rotation right now. Of course he won’t get minutes and will only be a missed opportunity and regarded as a bust, but I still feel like getting this off my chest.

The vast majority of this was written in the second week of November but never posted. And I post this now fully realizing that the Spurs were close to beating to of the top teams in the league the past couple of games and no doubt by the end of the season will be much sharper. And though Bonner, McDyess and whoever else didn't perform all that well these past two games, that wasn't the sole reason they lost. But still I say, "Free IAN!"

This is on my mind because of the Lakers-Suns game early this NBA season, where the Lakers brutalized the Suns without Pau Gasol and with Bynum being such a big factor. Now before you over-react and start exclaiming “Ian isn’t lightyears close to Bynum! He’s also too small and frail! He gets injured putting on his sportcoat! LOL @ you!” . . . Let’s look at how things have developed.

Andrew Bynum did not step onto the court a finished product. He was raw skillwise, physically unready, and untrustworthy on the court. And add to that later offcourt behavior that would make some question his dedication to the game. Later he would have two severe injuries to prematurely end entire seasons. In all these he’s not that far removed from Ian.

So how did Bynum overcome all these obstacles to become the starting center on a le team with the occasional games of sheer domination? He has the game already to be an all-star and so much more with years to come, despite serious injury concerns that linger going forward. It wasn’t an overnight process.

Two big things that we’ve not really seen with the Spurs and Ian happened with Bynum: One, he was given playing time, REAL PLAYING TIME. Even when he was hurting the team and looking clueless, he was given the time he needed to find his way. Two, the hands-on attention of a personal coach just for him to develop his skills.

After his rookie year where he saw sporadic minutes, Bynum heading into his second year was given the proper diet, the nutrition of playing in games. Make excuses if you want, like maybe Mihm and Kwame were hurt or the Lakers weren’t true contenders and had the luxury of playing him, but the fact is that Phil Jackson put him into the fire. And he wasn’t all that great. He made mistakes. Sometimes lots of them.

Bynum started 51 games his sop re year. And he had plenty of bad games. He had 14 of those starts, nearly 25% of the total, where he had 6 & 6 or much less, often with a lot of fouls. Under 6 points and 6 boards for a guy so big? Dumb fouls? What madness had struck Phil Jackson? Didn’t he have some older bench scrub he could start over him? Obviously the kid wasn’t ready.

Just look at some of the starts with games like this in the 06-07 season:

11-08 : 2 & 5, 6 fouls
11-24 : 4 & 2
11-29 : 3 & 5
02-09 : 2 & 4
02-26 : 2 & 3 in 32.5 minutes!
03-09 : 2 & 5 and 5 fouls in 33 minutes.
04-06 : 0 & 2 and 4 fouls

And that’s just some of them. He had his ups, and he had his downs. Real bad downs. People wondered if he’d ever get it. And he was such a foul machine. But he developed because he was given the opportunity to develop.

And re: the coaching. For one season in Austin Ian Mahinmi was given as close to the Bynum treatment as possible, working with Toros AC Roy Rogers on his game. And improvement happened. He wasn’t some Stromile who never got better, his game progressed! If you watched the archive games from early in the season compared with late in the season, what a difference! Even just checking the boxscores will show what playing time + hands-on attention can do great things.

But Roy Rogers was gone after that year, and Ian was mostly too hurt to play anyway the next season. And he was hurt in an offseason Grgurich camp trying to improve, he wasn’t snowboarding or something stupid, he was hurt trying to get better as a player but Spurs fans seem to hold that against him. But in all my scouring of news items, I’ve never come across any other coach who was there just for Ian, or even to concentrate with him. After Roy Rogers, that was it. He didn't have 4 years of hands on training with an all time great like Bynum with Kareem.

Who is there for Ian to work with now, or last year? Well of course now they’ve written him off and won’t give him a shot anyway. Even with Duncan was inactive earlier in the year, Ian Mahinmi couldn'’t get activated over Haislip or Ratliff even though Ian has spent two years in the system. It’s a damn shame. I understand why they did that, I’d probably do it too. If he gets playing time and performs even marginally satisfactory he’s priced himself out of their range because even just promising young bigs get nice deals (like Amir Johnson, like Jackie Butler!). I wouldn’t give him the chance to make me look dumb after not picking up his option either.

, look at Jermaine O’Neal’s career. Sure he’s washed up now and riddled with injuries, but go back to the young Jermaine. Who never really got his shot in Portland. Who was so raw and underdeveloped. That guy was in Portland for FOUR years and totaled 18 starts and averaged about 12 minutes a game in four seasons. In his fourth year, when you’d think he should have had it all down, he started an 8 game stretch in March and April of 2000 where he had monster statlines such as 2 & 0, 2 & 2, 4 & 3, 0 & 3, and 2 & 0 (against the Spurs).

Four years into the league, he gets some late season burn and he still is so raw that it doesn’t just happen all at once. Four years of practicing the not-so-common nba practice against Rasheed, Sabonis, and Brian Grant and he still wasn’t ready to deliver immediately.

THAT is now Ian Mahinmi.

This is my “FREE MAHINMI” cry. So many Spurs fans want to lash out at him for being a bust. Well I say that if he’s a bust, he’s a bust because of the Spurs. If Andrew Bynum was given the Ian treatment the Lakers wouldn’t be the same team, maybe not even close. Nobody is an NBA-ready player until they’re made into an NBA ready player. And the Spurs aren’t making him, they’re burying him.

PLAY IAN NOW. , START Ian NOW. Be forewarned. You play him now and he will have games with a lot of fouls. He will have games where you look at his statline and wonder what he was doing out there. There will be defensive foul-ups, bad shots, errant passes, costly turnovers, dumb fouls and assorted other problems. That is the learning curve, that is his burden. But if ANYTHING is to be gained from the investment in him, it has to be now.

Play him now. Even though the Spurs have wasted this valuable time early in the season when the schedule was so wide open with so many days off and practice time available. But now when he might still have some shred of conditioning left from camp. Play him now because he can’t go to the d-league. Now because if you play him and he is a total catastrophe after a respectable trial of 10-15 games you still have plenty of time to work in the Bonners and Ratliffs and whoever. Now because he’s not just a Stromile, he’s not just a Jackie Butler. He has talent. We’ve seen it. It’s there. Quit on him now and you’ll never get it, maybe no team in the future can get it out of him.

He can help this team. He can help in a big way if you play him enough and give him the opportunity, but it has to be a real opportunity. Because we all know a team with a healthy Duncan, Parker, Ginobili and can carry almost any big stiff to the playoffs. Even if Mahinmi is bad, it won’t hurt the Spurs to find out now.

He’s still barely 23 years old. He’s younger than George Hill. He’s younger than Hansborough. And still younger than Jason Thompson, Courtney Lee, Al Horford, Jeff Green, Rodney Stuckey, and Al Thornton (by 3 years!), just to name some but not all.

FREE IAN MAHINMI

[Thompson]

With Finley out and Hairston in Austin (unless they recall him), maybe they'll have Ratliff in street clothes for a couple of games and give Ian or Haislip a little time. Any time, even garbage time (which we seem to have little of lately).

I can't see how Ian could be that bad from what we already know about him, unless the Spurs are trying to re-sign him cheaply (at the expense of this year, which I don't see happening). He wasn't the best center in the D-league for nothing a couple years ago, and he had a few good games in summer league.

[HarlemHeat37]

I'm all for Ian getting a chance since Ratliff sits out a lot of games as a precaution anyways..it's not going to happen though..

I believe there's a reason he isn't playing though, more than just disappointing with his play..his play in preseason wasn't bad, so I don't know..

[DesignatedT]

no

[itzsoweezee]

the spurs are too small. they need to give a lot more pt to ratliff or mahinmi. they aren't going to win a championship with this lineup.

[SenorSpur]

At this point, I don't see any negatives toward throwing him out there for some spot minutes. What makes this an even better idea is that Ratliff is racking up DNPs and McDyess' minutes are limited. Therefore, the Spurs are a smallish frontline. Since the team is losing to top-level talent anyway, I don't see the harm in giving the kid some PT.

[spurtech09]

yes!!!!!!!!!!!

[MannyIsGod]

no.

[TIMMYD!]

Yes.

[slick'81]

i wonder when terry mings was old and ineffective if people wondered what jack haley could do given some minutes lol

[objective]

i wonder when terry mings was old and ineffective if people wondered what jack haley could do given some minutes lol

is there a logical reason to 'wonder' about that?

Because there's not a lot of similarity between a 30 year old Jack Haley who had already logged over 50 career starts and proven he wasn't very good and a 23 year old Mahinmi who was buried by the same people who decided Scola wasn't worth keeping.

[weebo]

I agree. At worst, this guy could be an extra six fouls.

[The Truth #6]

I expected this to be another horrible rant, but the OP makes a decent argument here. Obviously not everyone will agree with the idea but I think there's merit to this idea. Ian knows the system better than Dice and Theo. The FO's ridiculous pride is what's holding them back. He didn't prove to be an All Star, however its possible he could still contribute.

There's all this talk of experimenting with the lineup, but its very tame by any objective measure. It's a lot of reshuffling the veteran deck. Hairston and Ian know the system better than most of the new guys, and their athletic abilities could possibly help on defense. At least for the games against the bad teams, which are plentiful.

[relic]

Yes!

[gospursgojas]

Yes free him so he can get injured again and you will stop looking to him as the savior of the spurs

[TDMVPDPOY]

lol comparing this bust to a young Jermaine oneal = epic phail...

JO only blossom cause he was first option when he went to the pacers and loggin heavy minutes

mahinmi will never get that sort of opportunity on the spurs...

[objective]

he won't get the opportunity because they won't let him get the opportunity.

It's not like anyone since Robinson has had a stranglehold on minutes with their stellar play except Horry.

Don't forget, Pop was so convinced that George Hill couldn't play that he buried him against the Mavs until it was too late.

AND Pop buried Stephen Jackson on the injured list for an entire season just to keep feeding Steve Smith and Terry Porter. And don't ever forget, without injuries to both Smith and Ginobili at the start of 02/03, Jackson would have never gotten his chance.

[objective]

Yes free him so he can get injured again and you will stop looking to him as the savior of the spurs

where did I write that he was the savior?

Oh that's right, I didn't paint him as the HoF messiah. In fact I wrote an entire paragraph about the problems I expect would happen if a miracle occurred and he did get time and it wasn't flattering. I even gave examples of the times in Bynum's and O'Neal's young careers when they were first given opportunities and how poor they performed, especially O'Neal. Those are the reasonable expectations I laid forth.

This is about swallowing some pride and getting something out of him while still able. This thread wouldn't exist if the rest of the Spurs bigs were just incredible out there. He could provide things up front that the Spurs don't have right now. But he sure won't without a modest opportunity.

These are all reasonable and objective requests about the roster and the rotation.

You've never read me post about trading Manu or Parker or firing Pop or anything like that, and you can go ahead and search through my entire posting history.

This isn't outlandish. It's not trading Parker for Paul, or Manu for McGrady, or Bonner for Lebron. It's a minor tweak early in a basketball season that could pay off big.

And if it doesn't?

Well, it's not like Bonner and McDyess are going to forget how to play if their minutes are cut down for about 20 games or so.

[tp2021]

I mean, if the SPurs want to use the beginning of the season to evaluate and all that, why not put him in there? If any one of our bigs goes down and we are forced to play him, we would be ed if he hadn't gotten some PT earlier in the season.

[EP Money Man]

Get Manhimi in the starting lineup. I mean COME ON!!

Is he retarted?

Lets go!!! Were "all in" this year anyways. Just do it. I mean if we can play a rook (that is a beast) that gets in foul trouble early (3 in 1st Q) lets just start Yawn. Let Yawn and Tim mix it up. Besides Dice should be a backup for Tim to limit Tim's minutes.

Starting 5:
Yawn C
Tim PF
Manu SF/SG/PG
Bogans SG
Tony PG

Yeah thats right, like Pop said when we were going down in the playoffs, its time, the "BIG THREE NEED TO PLAY TOGETHER!!!" Start Manu. Lets face it, he is the "playmaker" but doesn't have the same juice off the bench he used to.

Just limit Manu's minutes, take him or Bogans out first 6 mins and bring in Hill first.

Bench should then be:
Hill SG/PG (first to come in, let him run the offense)
Dice PF/C (roaming for that mid-ranger)
Blair PF/C (beasting)
RJ SF (cutting. and I mean mad cutting to the basket)
Mase SG (PG but not really, only in pick and rolls w/Blair)

Fin's injury is a blessing in disguise. And Bonner should be a situational player (almost no situations).

[LongtimeSpursFan]

Ratliffe and Ian should not be part of any Spurs regular rotation. There is a reason why the Spurs did not renew the team option on his contract. He nor Ratliffe are not part of the Spurs future.

[itzsoweezee]

Ratliffe and Ian should not be part of any Spurs regular rotation. There is a reason why the Spurs did not renew the team option on his contract. He nor Ratliffe are not part of the Spurs future.

you realize that the spurs are not beating the lakers without another 7 footer, right? you think blair, bonner, or mcdyess can guard gasol/bynum?

[murpjf88]

you realize that the spurs are not beating the lakers without another 7 footer, right? you think blair, bonner, or mcdyess can guard gasol/bynum?

you do realize that 5 fouls in 10 minutes isn't going to beat the lakers either.

[VI_Massive]

I'm in favor of Ian getting minutes early in the season to see where he is, see if he can be useful etc.

The only valid arguments against it, I think, are:

1. The team has evaluated Ian in practices and he's not playing well enough to warrant game time.

2. The team is having a hard enough time integrating new players and can't afford to add the growing pains of working in another young, inexperienced guy.

I can understand either or both of these being true and preventing him from getting time.

But, it seems that the team has kind of decided they know what they have in Ratliff and are sitting on him as the spare big man. Not spending a ton of time getting him into the mix, etc. Since that seems to be the case, I think they should activate Mahimni and give him some time out there to see what they have.

[thOOdee]

you realize that the spurs are not beating the lakers without another 7 footer, right? you think blair, bonner, or mcdyess can guard gasol/bynum?

exactly .... there are many intangibles that a 7 footer brings. especially one playing alongside timmy. I would prefer theo, but even an EXPERIMENT w ian in the mix is worth watching against the length of other top teams. IT CAN'T BE WORSE THAN THE RASHOS, ELLIS, BUTLERS, AND BONNERS of the past teamed w timmy.