Game 32: Washington Wizards (9-22) vs. Miami Heat (24-8) - 7:00 PM ET

[dobrojim]

Stunning. As much as I enjoyed it I keep telling myself something analogous to
Every dog has its day. But I also kept asking myself who among these G-leaguers
could be contributors next season. Imagine if Yawn had had a few more games
like this in the first 3 years of his $64M contract. Kind of ridiculous to think
that way though. This game was a huge outlier but it also ought to be a nice
confidence boost for Matthews and J-mac. Matthews in particular looked
like Bertans during the one stretch. We already knew McRae could score.

[pcbothwel]

Did Ian mother F******ing Mahinmi just make a 3?

The man is possessed. He is 2/3 on 3ptrs.

Stat of the night, 10/11 from the field, only miss from 3-point land, yet still finished shooting 0.66 from that range

Ian Mahinmi is one of the most baffling players I have ever seen.
- Elite measurable, quick feet and hands, and great defensive instincts
- Great work ethic
- smooth shooting stroke as evidenced by his dramatic increase in FT%

He sometimes tries to do too much (On both ends) which kills his value, but he really should be a starting caliber Center for a contender, but the sum of his parts always out paces his actual production.
Frustrating

[dobrojim]

Yawn fouls way too much. He generally can't stay in games long enough to
be impactful.

[nate33]

Ian Mahinmi is one of the most baffling players I have ever seen.
- Elite measurable, quick feet and hands, and great defensive instincts
- Great work ethic
- smooth shooting stroke as evidenced by his dramatic increase in FT%

He sometimes tries to do too much (On both ends) which kills his value, but he really should be a starting caliber Center for a contender, but the sum of his parts always out paces his actual production.
Frustrating

He has hands of stone. And I wouldn't characterize his shooting stroke as smooth. It has been mostly horrible throughout his career and he has no natural feel for shooting; but thanks to that work ethic, he has managed to teach himself to be a respectable mechanical shooter if he has an eternity to gather himself and focus on his form.

[pcbothwel]

Ian Mahinmi is one of the most baffling players I have ever seen.
- Elite measurable, quick feet and hands, and great defensive instincts
- Great work ethic
- smooth shooting stroke as evidenced by his dramatic increase in FT%

He sometimes tries to do too much (On both ends) which kills his value, but he really should be a starting caliber Center for a contender, but the sum of his parts always out paces his actual production.
Frustrating

He has hands of stone. And I wouldn't characterize his shooting stroke as smooth. It has been mostly horrible throughout his career and he has no natural feel for shooting; but thanks to that work ethic, he has managed to teach himself to be a respectable mechanical shooter if he has an eternity to gather himself and focus on his form.

Thats the point. All he needs to do is make FT's and spot up 3's. That alone means a team cant just foul him or leave him wide open. That, including a TS of 60%, with his defensive skill set is a no doubt 20+ MPG Center in the modern NBA... but it just doesnt happen. Thats why I said strange.

[tontoz]

Hopefully Beal will get the memo that his hero ball routine sucks the energy out of the team.

[nate33]

Hopefully Beal will get the memo that his hero ball routine sucks the energy out of the team.

Agreed.

Beal was fine for the first couple of months of the season, but in December he went hero ball. Just go back to "everyone eats" and let the chips fall where they may. Move the ball, pass and cut, take open shots with confidence. Get it to Beal, McRae or Ish for an iso if there's 6 seconds left and nothing else has materialized.

[montestewart]

Ian Mahinmi is one of the most baffling players I have ever seen.
- Elite measurable, quick feet and hands, and great defensive instincts
- Great work ethic
- smooth shooting stroke as evidenced by his dramatic increase in FT%

He sometimes tries to do too much (On both ends) which kills his value, but he really should be a starting caliber Center for a contender, but the sum of his parts always out paces his actual production.
Frustrating

He has hands of stone. And I wouldn't characterize his shooting stroke as smooth. It has been mostly horrible throughout his career and he has no natural feel for shooting; but thanks to that work ethic, he has managed to teach himself to be a respectable mechanical shooter if he has an eternity to gather himself and focus on his form.

Thats the point. All he needs to do is make FT's and spot up 3's. That alone means a team cant just foul him or leave him wide open. That, including a TS of 60%, with his defensive skill set is a no doubt 20+ MPG Center in the modern NBA... but it just doesnt happen. Thats why I said strange.

Who are potential trade partners at the deadline? A few more games like this and maybe someone would pay for a rental of Mahinmi in his contract year

[nate33]

He has hands of stone. And I wouldn't characterize his shooting stroke as smooth. It has been mostly horrible throughout his career and he has no natural feel for shooting; but thanks to that work ethic, he has managed to teach himself to be a respectable mechanical shooter if he has an eternity to gather himself and focus on his form.

Thats the point. All he needs to do is make FT's and spot up 3's. That alone means a team cant just foul him or leave him wide open. That, including a TS of 60%, with his defensive skill set is a no doubt 20+ MPG Center in the modern NBA... but it just doesnt happen. Thats why I said strange.

Who are potential trade partners at the deadline? A few more games like this and maybe someone would pay for a rental of Mahinmi in his contract year

I don't think so. Offensively limited big men don't play much in the playoffs. Offensively limited backup bigs don't play at all. It's further compounded by the fact that very few contenders have an expendable filler contract to match Mahinmi's salary.

Very few teams are even capable of going after Iguadola. They certainly aren't going to try and get Mahinmi, who has about the same contract.

[I_Like_Dirt]

Yawn fouls way too much. He generally can't stay in games long enough to
be impactful.

Even with the fouls he's incredibly effective. Most Cs don't play 30 mpg nowadays anyway. He's not a star but he's a quality starter. His big problem is that he's never been able to stay healthy for more than a few hours at a time.

[dobrojim]

Slight disagreement - he's not a starter even on this lousy team when TB is healthy enough to play.

[pcbothwel]

Thats the point. All he needs to do is make FT's and spot up 3's. That alone means a team cant just foul him or leave him wide open. That, including a TS of 60%, with his defensive skill set is a no doubt 20+ MPG Center in the modern NBA... but it just doesnt happen. Thats why I said strange.

Who are potential trade partners at the deadline? A few more games like this and maybe someone would pay for a rental of Mahinmi in his contract year

I don't think so. Offensively limited big men don't play much in the playoffs. Offensively limited backup bigs don't play at all. It's further compounded by the fact that very few contenders have an expendable filler contract to match Mahinmi's salary.

Very few teams are even capable of going after Iguadola. They certainly aren't going to try and get Mahinmi, who has about the same contract.

I dont think a trade for Ian will happen... but disagree about the assessment
Nurkic, Noel, Tyson Chandler, DeAndre Jordan, Marc Gasol, Clint Capela.... All average offensive Centers but are very good defenders... They all have helped their teams win in the playoffs

[closg00]

Hopefully Beal will get the memo that his hero ball routine sucks the energy out of the team.

That was my thought as-well, but Brooks has been Beal's enabler in this area

[nate33]

Who are potential trade partners at the deadline? A few more games like this and maybe someone would pay for a rental of Mahinmi in his contract year

I don't think so. Offensively limited big men don't play much in the playoffs. Offensively limited backup bigs don't play at all. It's further compounded by the fact that very few contenders have an expendable filler contract to match Mahinmi's salary.

Very few teams are even capable of going after Iguadola. They certainly aren't going to try and get Mahinmi, who has about the same contract.

I dont think a trade for Ian will happen... but disagree about the assessment
Nurkic, Noel, Tyson Chandler, DeAndre Jordan, Marc Gasol, Clint Capela.... All average offensive Centers but are very good defenders... They all have helped their teams win in the playoffs

Nurkic and Gasol are good offensive players. Chandler and Jordan are at least elite roll men with great hands and hops who provide a vertical dimension on the pick-and-roll. (And they were featured years ago when big men still played a lot in the playoffs. One wonders how much they would play now.) Noel has helped his team win jack. He's a career 1-4 in playoff games.

The only guy that remotely applies as a counterargument is Capela. But Capela is also an elite roll man with great hands.

[Ruzious]

Yawn fouls way too much. He generally can't stay in games long enough to
be impactful.

While he is sometimes a good defender, he often gets in the bad habit of using his hands too much on d - even though he doesn't need to - because he has good quick feet. His numbers are much better this season than his other Wiz seasons, but he's not a starting quality center.

[I_Like_Dirt]

I don't think so. Offensively limited big men don't play much in the playoffs. Offensively limited backup bigs don't play at all. It's further compounded by the fact that very few contenders have an expendable filler contract to match Mahinmi's salary.

Very few teams are even capable of going after Iguadola. They certainly aren't going to try and get Mahinmi, who has about the same contract.

I don't think Mahinmi is going to fetch anything in a trade unless some team is looking to cut salary somehow and his contract is needed to make it work. I do think he's a better defender than some of those players, a few of whom I feel are overrated defensively (DeAndre Jordan) or simply too old for the league (Tyson Chandler). It's defense that keeps Cs off the floor in the playoffs, not offense, and Mahinmi's defense is solid enough that he would still get his minutes unless the team already had a better C in front of him (quite possible for the contenders out there). Dewayne Dedmon just got paid handsomely by the Kings, for example, and I'm not convinced he's notably better than Ian other than being healthier (which is admittedly a big deal).

[pcbothwel]

I don't think so. Offensively limited big men don't play much in the playoffs. Offensively limited backup bigs don't play at all. It's further compounded by the fact that very few contenders have an expendable filler contract to match Mahinmi's salary.

Very few teams are even capable of going after Iguadola. They certainly aren't going to try and get Mahinmi, who has about the same contract.

I dont think a trade for Ian will happen... but disagree about the assessment
Nurkic, Noel, Tyson Chandler, DeAndre Jordan, Marc Gasol, Clint Capela.... All average offensive Centers but are very good defenders... They all have helped their teams win in the playoffs

Nurkic and Gasol are good offensive players. Chandler and Jordan are at least elite roll men with great hands and hops who provide a vertical dimension on the pick-and-roll. (And they were featured years ago when big men still played a lot in the playoffs. One wonders how much they would play now.) Noel has helped his team win jack. He's a career 1-4 in playoff games.

The only guy that remotely applies as a counterargument is Capela. But Capela is also an elite roll man with great hands.

Uhhh Gasol and Nurkic have been mediocre AT BEST offensively. Gasol over the last 2 years has been below average. Nurkic until last year had a TS of 51% with more turnovers than assist. He was hot garbage...

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

Not ashamed to admit I have schadenfreude reading the Heat board game thread.

[nate33]

Uhhh Gasol and Nurkic have been mediocre AT BEST offensively. Gasol over the last 2 years has been below average. Nurkic until last year had a TS of 51% with more turnovers than assist. He was hot garbage...

Gasol is still a good decision-maker, if not a good scorer. And he is still an effective floor spacer that teams have to guard. He shot 38% from 3 in the playoffs last year and had a 3.6 to 1 A/TO ratio.

Nurkic was bad up until last year. And up until last year, his team was 0-5 in playoff games when he played.

My point stands. If you are nothing more than a mediocre roll man with no other offensive skills to provide, you don't win playoff games and you generally don't play.

[nate33]

I don't think so. Offensively limited big men don't play much in the playoffs. Offensively limited backup bigs don't play at all. It's further compounded by the fact that very few contenders have an expendable filler contract to match Mahinmi's salary.

Very few teams are even capable of going after Iguadola. They certainly aren't going to try and get Mahinmi, who has about the same contract.

I don't think Mahinmi is going to fetch anything in a trade unless some team is looking to cut salary somehow and his contract is needed to make it work. I do think he's a better defender than some of those players, a few of whom I feel are overrated defensively (DeAndre Jordan) or simply too old for the league (Tyson Chandler). It's defense that keeps Cs off the floor in the playoffs, not offense, and Mahinmi's defense is solid enough that he would still get his minutes unless the team already had a better C in front of him (quite possible for the contenders out there). Dewayne Dedmon just got paid handsomely by the Kings, for example, and I'm not convinced he's notably better than Ian other than being healthier (which is admittedly a big deal).

Yes. Chandler and Jordan are washed. When pcbothwel referenced them, I assumed he meant back in their respective primes.