Mahimni Sighting

[SApuro_]

Watch out Mahimni scores 15pts and brings down 9 boards. I say package him NOW why he has some trade value.

[TAI8]

I don't know about that..If anything Blair should be on the trade block..This was Ian's first game since god knows when and he showed glimpses of being a regular rotation player for us..I'd say it's way too early to be thinking about trading a young player with potential especially when we have another one on our team who is a big reason why our defense is inconsistent..Blair at this point is a defensive liability and does not fully box out and grab all the boards in his reach consistently contrary to popular belief..His size hurts him in many match ups and thus does not have the capability to be more than just a minor role player for us..We'll never win anything with Blair starting full time at center...there I said it. As much as I didn't want to say it it's the truth and that truth will only be further manifested on Tuesday night when we play Pau and company..

[Donald Kaufman]

I'm with wone, let's give Mahinmi some serious PT...our other bigs have underperformed as a whole. That said, Blair has shown flashes and I'm not keen to give up on someone so young and cheap.

I'd sooner bail on Old Man McDyess and or Gimpy Ratliff.

And I think I'm in the minority when I say that Bonner could be a valuable piece for us down the stretch.

[Nolan]

Ian played well last night and he deserves more minutes but I haven't given up on Blair yet. He's still a inconsistent but he's improving.

[TAI8]

I'm with wone, let's give Mahinmi some serious PT...our other bigs have underperformed as a whole. That said, Blair has shown flashes and I'm not keen to give up on someone so young and cheap.

I'd sooner bail on Old Man McDyess and or Gimpy Ratliff.

And I think I'm in the minority when I say that Bonner could be a valuable piece for us down the stretch.

That makes two of us...

[Ballings7]

I'd like to see us keep him

I was very glad to see that he got significant minutes last night, finally, and didn't just do decent, he did quite well!

As far as trading him or even Blair, it should be for an above-average return (in a package)

[batmana]

Wow, I was pretty sure we will never see Mahinmi play again for us. I was surprised but then I'm also not too willing to start praising him immediately.
As for Blair, it looks like he isn't the best complement to Duncan, I think we need a true center to play alongside Timmy and allow him to be a PF on offense. Just remember - on the championship teams in '05 and '07 we had legitimate centers starting (Nazr and Rasho in '05, Fab and Elson in '07). And yes, Blair's defense is only getting worse - in the start of the season he was playing with more passion and made up for some poor rotations or slow recoveries, now he is purely awful.

[SApuro_]

We aren't going to win a championship with Blair starting. But just like with Bonner last year Pop makes due with what he has. Blair is ideal coming off the bench providing energy and pulling down some boards.

As for Mahimni I have been so disappointed with this guy. I was very optomistic year after year but they guy has produced nothing. He is a free agent next year and going to cost us 2 mil with lux tax. I imagine we have the inside track on signing him but where does he fit in? We already declinded his extension which would have been dirt cheap. The team obviously does not believed in him.

15pts and 9 boards is nice but lets be honest it was against the Nets for crying out loud.

[Donald Kaufman]

We won the chip with Nazr Mohammed starting for us - anything is possible!

[TAI8]

I say take the wait and see approach with Ian...One game does not make a career but it does not fore-go a conclusion either..His youth and size are too much to just throw it all away especially on a team lacking a true starting caliber center (asking Duncan to handle the toils of guarding 5s is too much)..That being said we are still lacking that one extra post defender to help protect the paint when Duncan is not in the game and out of all the bigs we got at our disposal Ian is the one who has the potential to be that guy for us..The others are too old (Dyess and Ratliff) and too physically handicapped (Blair and Bonner)..

[Donald Kaufman]

I agree. Apparently he does some pretty amazing things in practice. Take that at face value, but the skills are there. He just needs an opportunity to show it in games, and hopefully he'll get that chance now.

No matter what though, fielding a rotation of Dice, Blair, Ratliff, Bonner and Mahinmi is not enough to contend with the bigs that LA or Portland (when healthy) have in their arsenal. We could get away with pairing TD with trash when he was in his prime, not today.

[Nolan]

I agree. Apparently he does some pretty amazing things in practice. Take that at face value, but the skills are there. He just needs an opportunity to show it in games, and hopefully he'll get that chance now.

No matter what though, fielding a rotation of Dice, Blair, Ratliff, Bonner and Mahinmi is not enough to contend with the bigs that LA or Portland (when healthy) have in their arsenal. We could get away with pairing TD with trash when he was in his prime, not today.

Yep, we need to go out and get ourselves a true center to pair with Duncan. Apparently Jeff Foster is available and I think we could get him for expirings. He's a really unrated player, solid defender, tough as nails and a terrific rebounder all things that we need more of.

[Donald Kaufman]

There are very few true 5's left in the league. Foster is one of them. He's underrated for sure and would fit in well on this team.

[Ballings7]

Oh man, I forgot about Foster - he doesn't block many shots, but he's got good size, and does all the fundamentals well...

I love Foster, would be quite the fit next to Duncan

[Nolan]

Oh man, I forgot about Foster - he doesn't block many shots, but he's got good size, and does all the fundamentals well...

I love Foster, would be quite the fit next to Duncan

How about we send Bonner's expiring and cash to buy Bonner out to Indy and maybe a conditional 2nd rounder. Indy gets out of the last year of Foster's contract and continues to rebuild.

[SApuro_]

We won the chip with Nazr Mohammed starting for us - anything is possible!

Yeah but Nazi had the best pump fake I have ever seen...haha

[Ballings7]

Oh man, I forgot about Foster - he doesn't block many shots, but he's got good size, and does all the fundamentals well...

I love Foster, would be quite the fit next to Duncan

How about we send Bonner's expiring and cash to buy Bonner out to Indy and maybe a conditional 2nd rounder. Indy gets out of the last year of Foster's contract and continues to rebuild.

Sounds great, get it done Buford

[Donald Kaufman]

We won the chip with Nazr Mohammed starting for us - anything is possible!

Yeah but Nazi had the best pump fake I have ever seen...haha

I used to cringe every time he got his clumsy hands on the rock.

[DumbyTheWizard]

How about we send Bonner's expiring and cash to buy Bonner out to Indy and maybe a conditional 2nd rounder.

Thats not enough. Foster makes 6.1 Mill next year. So SA need to send 4.8 Mill to get him. (4.8*1.25+0.1=6.1)
Bonner makes 3.26 Mill, and cash/picks doesnt count so you need to find 1.54 Mill in salaries to send with Bonner to get Foster. Expirings: Finley makes 2.5, Mason 3.8, Bogans 0.8, Ratliff 0.8. Hairston 0.7 and Haislip 0.85 for two years each and Blair makes 0.85 for 4 years each.

[Blame Rasho]

He is trade bait... I doubt that he will be with the Spurs next year.