McDonald: After two years, Spurs' Mahinmi finally emerges

[kace]

McDonald's article le. "After two years, Spurs' Mahinmi finally emerges After two years".

What would you have led it?

This is mine. "Mahinmi proves French Players for the Spurs can play Defense".

wow. dbestpro finding a way to bash TP in a thread that has nothing to do with him. how original !

you're worthless.

[Blackjack]

There's just no rationale that reasonably explains why someone like Mahinmi hasn't seen the court until last night; I think I know why Pop went the route he did, though.

Trust. As in, Pop doesn't feel he can trust Ian to become an integral part of the team because he hasn't seen him be able to maintain his health. As in, he refuses to allow a player whose talent their rotation could become dependent upon, be taken away at a moments notice due to his perceived frailty.

I don't agree with it if that's the case, as all players are one turned ankle from being useless, but Ian's inability to gain Pop's confidence, physically, may have just prevented him from finding the court sooner; last night may have been a showcasing, a need for a hungry player or a minute-eating occurrence, but it could have been something else as well.

It may just be that Pop believes Ian has become a necessary evil, frailty be damned, because what they need he has the potential to deliver and the Spurs urgency to win now has forced Pop to do something he's never been keen to do: roll the dice.

[rvman21]

Ian is this years Narz Mahamed,this years Elson, this years glen robinson, this years rasho, give the guy a chance, he already knows the system, anyone who thinks otherwise are you blind or just on the pop can do no wrong band wagon

[Obstructed_View]

Ian is this years Narz Mahamed,this years Elson, this years glen robinson, this years rasho, give the guy a chance, he already knows the system, anyone who thinks otherwise are you blind or just on the pop can do no wrong band wagon

Not sure what you're saying. Two of those guys were key parts of chamionship runs, two of those guys were basically useless. Most people can't even agree on which of those guys belong in each group.

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

The scary thing is you can totally see Pop signing off on trading him, which would be stupid.

The fact is that as Pop has aged, he's come around to the Larry Brown school of coaching which leads to aged veterans getting preference over youthful exuberance and inexperience in the name of corporate knowledge.

In any other year where the Spurs were their typical geriatric selves, Pop could be tolerant of Ian's mistakes that he is bound to make. But in a year where the other talent brought in (including the vets) is struggling to grasp the Spurs system, you have to wonder if he's got the patience for that.

The more likely scenario is that he's being showcased, which would be a horrible front office move...

[SenorSpur]

There's just no rationale that reasonably explains why someone like Mahinmi hasn't seen the court until last night; I think I know why Pop went the route he did, though.

Trust. As in, Pop doesn't feel he can trust Ian to become an integral part of the team because he hasn't seen him be able to maintain his health. As in, he refuses to allow a player whose talent their rotation could become dependent upon, be taken away at a moments notice due to his perceived frailty.

I don't agree with it if that's the case, as all players are one turned ankle from being useless, but Ian's inability to gain Pop's confidence, physically, may have just prevented him from finding the court sooner; last night may have been a showcasing, a need for a hungry player or a minute-eating occurrence, but it could have been something else as well.

It may just be that Pop believes Ian has become a necessary evil, frailty be damned, because what they need he has the potential to deliver and the Spurs urgency to win now has forced Pop to do something he's never been keen to do: roll the dice.

You may be onto something. After all, trust is the reason he benched George Hill last year, when it was obvious to everyone on this board that the kid was the right answer at the backup PG position. In fact, he went onto bench Hill during the season - even after that prolonged stint, where he started in place of an injured Parker at the beginning of the season, for about a 2-3 week stretch, and more than held his own. He simply trusted Jacque Vaughn more, even though he was the inferior player. Of course, by the time Pop elected to go back to Hill, the season was over, as the Spurs were going down to the Mavs in that playoff series.

He screwed around with Beno in the same way - even though Beno was clearly better than a raggedy Nick Van Exel. That meltdown Beno had in the 2005 NBA finals sealed his fate with Pop. Of course, in Beno's case he didn't do the work to maintain Pop's trust. However, it was very interesting that after Beno was traded, Pop admitted that he handled his development the wrong way.

He's repeating the same stubborn mistake with Ian, too. If he doesn't allow this kid to continue developing in this organization, he will have screwed up another key personnel move - a la Scola. I thought he would've learned his lesson by now. I don't understand why Pop is allowing his ego and stubborn pride to intervene. This is checkers, it aint chess. This shouldn't be a hard call to make.

[Sigz]

Go Ian. Make me eat crow.

[blkroadrunners]

You may be onto something. After all, trust is the reason he benched George Hill last year, when it was obvious to everyone on this board that the kid was the right answer at the backup PG position. In fact, he went onto bench Hill during the season - even after that prolonged stint, where he started in place of an injured Parker at the beginning of the season, for about a 2-3 week stretch, and more than held his own. He simply trusted Jacque Vaughn more, even though he was the inferior player. Of course, by the time Pop elected to go back to Hill, the season was over, as the Spurs were going down to the Mavs in that playoff series.

He screwed around with Beno in the same way - even though Beno was clearly better than a raggedy Nick Van Exel. That meltdown Beno had in the 2005 NBA finals sealed his fate with Pop. Of course, in Beno's case he didn't do the work to maintain Pop's trust. However, it was very interesting that after Beno was traded, Pop admitted that he handled his development the wrong way.

He's repeating the same stubborn mistake with Ian, too. If he doesn't allow this kid to continue developing in this organization, he will have screwed up another key personnel move - a la Scola. I thought he would've learned his lesson by now. I don't understand why Pop is allowing his ego and stubborn pride to intervene. This is checkers, it aint chess. This shouldn't be a hard call to make.

It's really tough to be in Pop's shoes, and most ppl don't realize it. This team has been the most winningest franchise for the past decade, won 4 ships, and still have their core of Tim, Tony, and Manu, so obviously the organization still feels that if they can bring in players of experience and talent, the Spurs would still be in the group of contenders. For the Spurs and coaching staff sake, why bring in players like Ian and Hairston into the regular lineup when they still don't have true NBA experience and young and while most of the players whom are still productive and the team is still (fairly) a contender? I'm well aware that Ian and Malik have to start somewhere, but at the same time, the organization must feel that players like McDyess, Finley, Bogans, and even Ratliff still have enough left to bring bball IQ and the talent to win a championship, or at least be one of the top 5 teams in the league. That's just my opinion....

[Bruno]

There is no mystery around Mahinmi not having played in the first 34 games of the season.

Ian got his chance during the preseason. Pop gave him some playing time in the preseason games (he was even a starter in one). After 5 preseason games, they obviously decided that he wasn't good enough to pick his option so he went in the doghouse. There's nothing shocking in that way to do.

Had Ian do well enough during the preseason, the option would have been picked and he would have played like Blair do this year.

Spurs could have given more playing time to Ian at the end of the training camp and some playing time in the first two games of the season but they fell that it wasn't necessary and that there were few doubts that giving up on him was the good choice.

Future will tell if Spurs have make a mistake or not with Ian. I've always liked him so I think that they have. However, it's just my opinion and one good game against Nets isn't enough at all to say that I was right.

[SenorSpur]

For the Spurs and coaching staff sake, why bring in players like Ian and Hairston into the regular lineup when they still don't have true NBA experience and young and while most of the players whom are still productive and the team is still (fairly) a contender?

I'll tell you why. In fact, I"ll give you a few reasons:

1. Roster Depth. Because you cannot comprise a roster of strictly the Big Three and a bunch of older free agent aquisitions. The Big Three dominate the bulk of the salary cap space. Therefore, the roster must be supplemented with younger, cheaper, talent. Free agent acquisitions can be costly (see RJ's salary) and many veterans aren't willing to play for the minimum.

2. Long-Term versus Short Term view. It is the responsibility of the GM, for any team, in any sport, to keep an eye on the future of the franchise. It's fine that the Spurs FO have seriously loaded up for a possible two-year run, but what happens after that? Are they going to gut the roster and re-enter the lottery in hopes of landing another Tim Duncan or David Robinson? It doesn't work that way. Therefore, a GM must begin to identify and acquire younger talent that can be mined and developed in the short term or used for tradeable assets as down the road.

3. Injuries and Fatigue. It's a fact that older players are more prone to injury and fatigue because of natural wear and tear. The reason the Spurs have sucked in back-to-back games is because they're veterans have been literally worn down. As players get older, the B2B games are tougher to deal with.

4. Improving the overall talent. All of the contending teams in the Western Conference have players that present various matchup problems. Many of them are either young or in the prime of their careers. Look around the NBA rosters. Things have changed since the Spurs last won the le. Fielding the "oldest roster in the NBA" on an annual basis, does not increase a team's chances of winning a le. Increasing the overall athleticism is a necesssary step in keeping up with the compe ion. It's one of the reasons why the Spurs finally made the decision to overhaul the roster this past summer.