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i saw some of him against denver. 2 fouls in about 4 minutes. same old ian.
Many pro-Ian Mahinmi supporters, including myself, claimed that the jury was still out on this kid, and perhaps he deserved another look. It now appears that some small progress has been made. Apparently, there is certainly evidence that he can contribute and provide good energy. Same evidence we saw in small doses last season.
http://espn.go.com/blog/dallas/maver...s-more-minutes
HOUSTON -Brendan Haywood, who is locked into the longest contract on the roster, is no longer the Mavericks’ clear-cut backup center.
Coach Rick Carlisle insists that’s not evidence that he’s displeased with Haywood, who is midway through the first season of a five-year guaranteed deal. It’s just that Carlisle is especially happy with young Ian Mahinmi.
That’s Carlisle’s explanation for why Haywood didn’t take off his warm-ups during two of the Mavs’ four games this week.
“It’s no knock on Brendan, but Ian’s playing well,” said Carlisle, who made a point to praise Haywood’s performance in Wednesday’s win over the Kings.
It’s not as if Mahinmi has claimed the backup big man role. It seems to change on a night-to-night basis.
Mahinmi hasn’t played a minute in two of the previous five games. But he’s earned extended time in two other games. He had 11 points and eight rebounds in 21 minutes during Monday’s win over the Cavaliers. He played a career-high 25 minutes in Saturday’s win over the Rockets, scoring seven points and grabbing six rebounds.
The sporadic minutes serve as motivation for Mahinmi, an athletic 6-foot-10 24-year-old whose offensive game who has developed a midrange jumper this season.
“If I’m out there for three minutes, I try to play as hard as I can so maybe I can get four minutes,” Mahinmi said. “I try to earn more and more minutes by being out there on the floor and doing the right things. As a role player, you come off the bench and really try to get a lot of energy.”
If Haywood had done that consistently, it would have been much harder for Mahinmi to compete for minutes.
Maybe Mahinmi's increase in playing time is just as much a testimony to Haywood's inconsistency and laziness, as it is to Ian's development. Maybe not. One thing is definitely clear - the kid has is hungry and has not stopped working hard. While he's not a full-time Mavs rotation player yet, nor can he shoot 3's to spread the floor, but he's certainly not the garbage player that some on this board were so quick to indicate.
Now tell me again why is was such a good idea for the Spurs to kick out a youhg, high-energy, back-to-the-basket frontline player?
i saw some of him against denver. 2 fouls in about 4 minutes. same old ian.
Hopefully good news for Ian. I hope the guy has a good career after his string on injury induced false-starts.
Maybe you're right, but as a 6th man I take a young stud that can play defense, run the floor, and already knows more than a bit our system any day of the year, week ands included...expecially at the price the mavs are currently paiyng him (that, however, is less than what we should have payed him in case we decided to re-sign him).
Ian is a 10 day contract to me.
No... Haywood is still a MUCH better player...
Maybe the Spurs felt he couldn't break the rotation of Duncan/Blair/Bonner/Dice, and they had to pick between Tiago and Ian for the 5th big spot...
Can't really argue with keeping Tiago, since he's much further along in overall development as a player (even though he's probably much less familiar with the system or the league).
Didn't Pop mention in an interview recently that a big part of the reason the Mahinmi experiment failed was because of the restrictions the NBA places on the type of players that can be slotted into the D-League? Mahinmi got hurt a few times, didn't have the time to learn the Spurs' complicated sets, etc. and was unable to get the minutes he needed as a result. And because he was too far along in his career, he couldn't go to the D-League anymore to get the valuable playing time he needed to get over his penchant for being out of position, which resulted in all the dumb fouls he got nearly every game...
I'm quite surprised that more of the posters in this forum haven't been snapped up by NBA front offices to take personnel positions.
Completely agree. Especially since it's well known the Spurs FO periodically lifts ideas from this very forum...
Ian is ranked 25th in the NBA in PER/48 minutes. So, when he gets on the floor he is producing and having a positive impact. He has played in 33 games so the sample size is getting large enough to actually have some relavance.
i take the PER with a grain of salt. jackie butler once had a very high and supposedly relevant PER too... once.
Wow we're still talking about this? Who the cares, he still would get no time on our team. him and dallas!
Oh yeah and dallas!
Mahinmi definitely has a nice offensive skillset. Good postup skills, nice touch around the rim, a decent mid-range shot. Looks very smooth and natural. Is great at drawing fouls too. His defense is full of energy, and he is willing to get physical, but he tends to get in foul trouble, and bite on fakes too easily, causing him to get out of position at defending backdoor cuts/passes.
He definitely has a fair amount of talent, and seems to have a natural feel for the game, but needs more experience. Has talent to be similar to someone like Nene or Chris Kaman. Whether he applies it is another thing.
lol carlisle playing ian over haywood.
I'm living in Dallas and since my mother is a Mavs fan we watch all their games. Mahinmi is producing for them and isn't really a liability on fouls. He gets his share--but so do all rookies (virtual) who play hard on the frontline.
Overall, you can tell Rick Carlisle really likes his effort and level of play by his comments on Ian after games. He is earning his minutes.
The fact that Pop couldn't find him more minutes is more a comment on the good depth of the verteran front players we have on our bench than a negative on Mahinmi.
nene or kaman ? more like d'andre jordan.
Ian didn't get many minutes but he had earned plenty of respect and good words from Coach Pop and the Spurs FWIW. He's got talent but seems prone to making too many bad decisions and could bulk up a little bit more.
However I think this is a way of the Mavericks accomplishing several things:
- Raising Ian's value in the market for a trade by the deadline
- Boosting Ian's confidence
- Kicking Haywood's overpaid ass some more as some kind of motivation. However his confidence has been shot and he's also clearly worse than Chandler. Haywood's contract and impact is basically a bad joke.
I'm pretty shocked dude isn't putting up 20/20 yet, tbh.
He played well against the Cavs.
I say that in the sense that he could be like a 15/10 kind of guy, like a second or third tier center among the nba. Definitely a quality player. potentially.
Ian has played well on both ends for the Mavs. Nothing out of this world, but clearly an NBA rotational big.
A 15-10 guy isn't a second or third tier center in the NBA; a big who gets 15-10 is an All-Star (or at least someone who is deservedly in that conversation).
Well, hes below someone like Dwight Howard, like I said, more on the level of guys like Nene, Bynum, or Kaman, give or take a couple points or rebounds, but close to the 15/10 range. Howard is more of a 22/12 guy, while Bynum is like a 15/10 guy, and Howard is definitely superior to Bynum, so I'd say that 15/10 can qualify as a second tier level center.
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