Monroe: Mahinmi Must Show Spurs His Worth

[benefactor]

I have been sensing much bitterness in Bruno since the whole Parker ordeal over the summer......

[in2deep]

Ian is a mystery

[nkdlunch]

ummm, I've never said that Ian should get minutes if he doesn't deserve them.

well you did make it seem like it's up to the Spurs to give him minutes or not in order for Ian to stay. My point is, Ian has not even earned a spot in the Spurs, it's up to him to accomplish this. He needs to put the effort, it's not up to the Spurs

IMO, money isn't the deciding factor (Ian salary is and will stay low). The deciding factor is playing time.

Ian needs a somewhat consistent playing time to grow as a player. Spurs have a limited number of minutes available and they must make the best use of these minutes. We will see at who Spurs decide to give these minutes. If they think that it's better for the team in the short or middle term to give these minutes to another player, Ian will likely be salary dumped.

[ElNono]

This is not compare players. The point was to highlight the development strategy. Even going into his 5th season, Bynum is nowhere near a finished product. While he's come a long way, he's still got significant development to do.

Except that Bynum is set to make 50+ millions in the next 3/4 years. The Lakers already committed to his development.
I'm not completely sure the Spurs want to commit over $2 million on Ian unless he shows significant progress when the season starts. Especially since we're on luxury tax territory already. So, for Ian, the time is now. Either show what you have or pack your up.

[NFGIII]

The Spurs have invested a lot in Ian's development. For a kid who has a ton of raw talent, yet has accomplished nothing, it's hard to believe that hunger and desire would be his problem. I trust he will reward them and hopefully things will work out. After all, Duncan is nearing the end and young, talented bigs are at a premium.

However if it turns out that Ian cannot be salvaged, I don't want to see the Spurs simply dump him. Rather the Spurs should pick up the option for his 4th year and use him as trade fodder, either later this year or over the summer. They will most certainly find some team willing to take him. Better to get something for him, than dump him altogether.

Exactly. There has been too much time and money invested in Ian just to simply dump him. And as chumpdumper already pointed out he is only 22.

I don't get the feeling that Ian is lazy. I think he just doesn't have real good basketball instincts. If he's not directly involved in the play, offensively or defensively, he's not sure what to do with himself, so he just stands around or wanders around a little aimlessly.

I hope he really does well. Last season early he played some promising minutes. But I think he's going to really have to show that there's very little doubt he can see floor time this year or they won't keep him.

I've had the same feeling, too. I think he is a little on the low side of BB IQ which doesn't bode well for him as a Spur. Hopefully I will turn out to be wrong and all he needs is more playing time as well as some NBA tutoring via TD, McDyss and Ratliff. But to me Ian is a model of inconsistency which he had better do something about.

Come on Ian and show us why you got the attention of the FO and became our 1st round pick in '05! Opportunities like these don't come around all the time. And there won't be too many after this season for you to prove you belong.

[SCdac]

For the most part, I hope he's retained. A young 7 footer who averaged 17/8 with the Toros and should know our system by now, depending on if he floats or massively sinks in the next 25 days, I'd say absorb that 3.5 million and have an extra big on our roster for insurance. It's unfortunate somebody we've had the rights to for almost 5 years has such a limited amount of time to prove himself, but that's the business when you're frequently injured.

[Mark in Austin]

It's like the EN writes are trolling SR for story ideas...

[sonic21]

Hope he'll make the rotation.

This kid has improved with each passing year and seems to have a solid offensive skill set to play in the NBA. He brings a different skill set than any other big on the Spurs roster.

Too bad he lost a year because the spurs doctors didn't have a clue what he had.

[timvp]

I hope Mahinmi gets a ton of minutes in the preseason and does well. Even if he's not able to win minutes this year, hopefully he shows enough to give the Spurs confidence that he can eventually fill in for players like McDyess and Ratliff.

Hopefully he can get comfortable enough to get back to that energetic and aggressive type of play we saw out of him in preseason a couple years ago. I don't expect much from him early in preseason but by the final couple of games, he'll need to show something for the Spurs to continue their investment.

[SamoanTD]

Ian, blair, and haislip future primary bigs of SA if they produce like every one expects them 2.