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4 blocked shots is promising. We could certainly use a young, athletic presence on that end of the floor every night.
Spurs' Mahinmi gets the best of Thabeet in summer league finale
Jeff McDonald
LAS VEGAS — Midway through the third quarter of the Spurs' summer league finale Sunday night, Ian Mahinmi found himself posting up Hasheem Thabeet, the Memphis Grizzlies' 7-foot-3 human flyswatter from Connecticut.
Out on the perimeter, one of Mahinmi's teammates chimed in with some helpful advice.
“Bust him!” he hollered. “Bust him!”
Promptly, Mahinmi did, corkscrewing around Thabeet to finish a layup over his opponent's long, flailing limbs.
It wasn't the first time Mahinmi had taken the draft's No. 2 overall pick to school during the Spurs' 76-75 loss to Memphis at UNLV's Cox Pavilion. In one of his best all-around games of the summer, Mahinmi finished with 15 points, much of them coming on aggressive drives at Thabeet, and grabbed nine rebounds.
“I like to compete,” Mahinmi said. “When I play against someone like that, I like to go at him and see if he can guard me.”
Thabeet couldn't. At least not consistently and at least not without fouling eight times.
The former UConn All-American created more questions than answers for the Grizzlies with his uneven summer league play.
Thabeet finished with nine points and grabbed five rebounds, numbers that were actually better than his averages coming in. He is a project, which is not something a team wants to hear about a high lottery pick.
But Sunday's game also said something about Mahinmi. In the past, the knock on Mahinmi has been an aversion to contact.
There was no such knock Sunday. Mahinmi charged Thabeet almost from the jump.
“He was certainly aggressive,” said Spurs assistant Don Newman, who coached the summer league team. “Here's this guy perceived as one of the top guys to come out, and Ian was up to the challenge. That's what you want to see.”
Mahinmi went at Thabeet and drew back-to-back fouls on the Spurs' first two possessions. Moments after that, he spun past Thabeet for a driving hook shot.
Using his explosive first step, Mahinmi went to the line eight times, making seven foul shots. His activity wasn't limited to offense, either, as Mahinmi also logged four blocked shots.
“He's pretty big, and he's got long arms,” Mahinmi said of Thabeet. “It was hard to get my shot way up there. It's good to play against those kinds of players.”
Sunday's game was supposed to feature the much-anticipated rematch between Thabeet and Spurs rookie DeJuan Blair. As an All-American at Pittsburgh last season, Blair made his name busting Thabeet.
Instead, Blair sat out the second night of a back-to-back. He left Thabeet-busting duties to Mahinmi.
Blair did give Mahinmi some advice.
“He told me to go at him and get into his chest,” Mahinmi said. “He likes to jump, so pump-fake and all that. It was good advice.”
Asked afterward how well his new Thabeet-busting protégé had taken his advice, Blair grinned like a proud papa.
“Look at the numbers,” Blair said. “Just look at the numbers.”
It was a significant achievement for Mahinmi, who had hoped to use the summer to show the Spurs he can be a useful big man in a rotation that also will include Tim Duncan, Blair, Antonio McDyess and Matt Bonner. Mahinmi missed all but one game last season dealing with a nagging ankle problem.
Mahinmi is already under contract for the upcoming season, but the Spurs must decide by Oct. 31 whether to pick up his option for another season.
He is only 22, same as Thabeet. And he appears to be more ready for prime time than Thabeet.
“We wanted him to come out this week and show us what he could do,” Newman said. “I certainly think he helped himself.”
That's all Mahinmi wanted out of nine days in Las Vegas. Closing it with a Thabeet-busting was only icing on the cake.
“I like to compete against the best, and he's one of the upcoming best,” Mahinmi said. “I told myself to be aggressive from the start, and we'll see what happens.”
4 blocked shots is promising. We could certainly use a young, athletic presence on that end of the floor every night.
I like him but Ian still has a long way to go, a long way.
Damn, it sounds so good to hear that Mahinmi is holding his own against one of the top picks in the draft. He's really developed and even passed some lessons from Blair. Them two have developed some really good chemsitry. That's not even including Malik, George, James, and Williams(?). We have a damn good set of young players.
So is the last game over? When do they name the SL MVP, etc.?
Never mind, they already named Blake Griffin MVP.
Mahinmi outplays a fellow 22-year-old center prospect who was the 2nd overall selection in the most recent draft. Mahinmi sucks! Waive him immediately! I'm sick of the Spurs wasting 8 years on him! They could have had Dwight Howard!
Nice.
I play him over Bonner........ Id rather Have A Presence Down low, then Another perimeter Guy.... We have Enough Perimeter players....
Ian seemed proud of bulking up earlier this year, I hope he continues over the summer. It would be nice if he could gain another 15 pounds or more of muscle.
I was hoping that Blair would share some tips on how to go at Thabeet with Ian. It's good to see that he did and that it paid off.
You can say that again. It's clear that Ian is MUCH further along than Thabeet. While he still has a ways to go, Ian looks primed and ready. I'm glad he impressed the Spurs coaches . It's going to be fun watching him contribute this year.
I wouldn't say Thabeet is one of the best. In fact, had they both been in the same draft class, I believe Ian would've and should've went ahead of Thabeet.
Good for the french.
-yawn- -yawn- -sigh- big deal...
Mahinmi, Blair, and Splitter are each lottery level bigman talents the Spurs obtained shrewdly using nothing higher than a 28th pick. There just might be life after TD.
That would be incredible.
We lose the best PF in history and don't go down dramatically.
Damn. As much as I don't want to think about losing him, I can't help it.
We could be looking at the Spurs frontcourt rotation for the next 10+ years.
Imagine that.
Bonner's only 29...i'm sure he's got 7-8 good years left in him....
We could be really deep next year if Splitter comes over. I'm not sure what the rotation would be to accommodate all the talent.
Of course there are a lot of assumptions; we re-sign Ginobili, etc., but we could be really deep if some of our players with potential pan out.Code:Splitter Mahinmi McDyess Duncan Blair Haislip Jefferson Hairston (1st rounder) Mason Ginobili Parker Hill Williams
French players = the suck.
If he plays well, of course it won't be RC or Pop that get the credit.
Sam Presti.
Duh.
__JaG__... that lineup at the bottom of your profile looks absolutely beautiful..
I chimed in late, but I was glad that I caught Ian vs Thabeet. I saw 3 plays where Ian posted and either scored or drew the foul.
Ok, good for Ian, if he can come in and provide 10-15 solid minutes off the bench ALA Chris Anderson of the Nuggets... that would help alot.
So uh, where is the poster called "50 cent". I wanna know if still trading Mahinmi off for Sefa-loofus,...
Really, how stupid would the spurs be to do that.... do we need another defensive wing that badly? It already upgraded with Jefferson. They also most likely will have Hairston to fill that role. So, why would u get rid of the only guy on the team that is a 7 footer outside of Duncan, and the only one that has ANY shot blocking ability for something you already have two guys providing?
Great game by Ian, props. Hopefully this is the year he gets some burn in the NBA and becomes a rotation player.
i would hardly call thabeet one of the best. all signs point to bust and diop clone. he was drafted at least 10 picks too high. but it's still nice to see mahinmi do well against someone bigger and taller than him.
Poor Thabeetch. Four times a year he's going to be going up against a line-up consisting of Duncan/Blair/Mahinmi. He may never recover from the psychological beat downs.
Too early to judge Thabeet..either way though, there aren't many guys in the NBA that have his size, so it's a good test..
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