Shams: Raptors sign Mamukelashvili to a two-year, $5.5 million deal (player option)

[bballsparkin]

Of course, we only have him locked up for one year

He has to prove he can defend first. It's a try out low cost one year.

[vini_vidi_vici]

hopefully he's not kleiza

[Zeno]

We signed Kleiza to 4 years 20 million at a time where that was a good part of the mle I think. This is just a slightly over minimum flyer. If he plays well enough to opt out it is a success, though he might just give up the option to go to europe if he bombs anyway. So if he ends up sucking the cost is minimal (outside of the cost of having him suck for a month or two resulting in possibly losing games). If he is a backup C worthy of opting out, we either give him a slight raise or he gets paid by someone else more, which means we got great value for a year.

[ConSarnit]

I feel like he’s going to have to operate more as a 4 if he’s going to be effective. That is to say either Barnes, CMB or Mogbo is going to have to defend the rim whenever Mamu is on the floor. He’s been +2 dfg% at the rim over the past 2 seasons. That is a terrible number. That’s basically Olynyk level bad as a rim protector (the average C has a dfg% of around -5%).

It feels like Mamu’s playability is going to come from whether Scottie or CMB can anchor the defense. There’s a lot of hope Barnes can. I think it’s a tough ask for CMB as a rookie. Sandro really does seem like the new, cheaper Olynyk.

[LoveMyRaps]

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[TheGeneral99]

Yes let's maybe wait until the season starts.

Mamu has talent but don't forget we got excited when Schroeder led Germany to a gold medal and was MVP of the 2023 World Cup. Many here thought he could replace FVV, but we saw instantly the dude is not a good starting point guard by any measure.

[GLF]

Yes let's maybe wait until the season starts.

Mamu has talent but don't forget we got excited when Schroeder led Germany to a gold medal and was MVP of the 2023 World Cup. Many here thought he could replace FVV, but we saw instantly the dude is not a good starting point guard by any measure.

Anyone who thought Dennis would be better than Fred was delusional lol. People’s hate for Fred really had them saying the most outrageous stuff. You would think Fred was the worst player in the league if you let this board tell it lol. But yes, we shouldn’t be expecting too much from Mamu. I will say the difference with Dennis is he was already in the NBA for like 10 years by the time we got him, we already knew what he was at the NBA level.

People who thought he would be any different than he was in the past was just wishful thinking. Especially when he would have been starting for us on a team with zero spacing when he’s a bench level player in the NBA. Mamu is still relatively young, hasn’t received much of an opportunity in the NBA yet and big men usually take longer to develop, so there is a bit more of a possibility that he could take a step with us as opposed to Dennis.

I think as long as people go in expecting below average defence (hopefully not pylon bad but bad nonetheless), closer to 33% three point shooting and not the 37% he shot last season and someone who is a good driver, is unselfish and can finish in the paint pretty well they won’t be disappointed. He’s also supposedly a decent rebounder, but I’ll have to see that myself before I expect that.

[ConSarnit]

Yes let's maybe wait until the season starts.

Mamu has talent but don't forget we got excited when Schroeder led Germany to a gold medal and was MVP of the 2023 World Cup. Many here thought he could replace FVV, but we saw instantly the dude is not a good starting point guard by any measure.

Anyone who thought Dennis would be better than Fred was delusional lol. People’s hate for Fred really had them saying the most outrageous stuff. You would think Fred was the worst player in the league if you let this board tell it lol. But yes, we shouldn’t be expecting too much from Mamu. I will say the difference with Dennis is he was already in the NBA for like 10 years by the time we got him, we already knew what he was at the NBA level.

People who thought he would be any different than he was in the past was just wishful thinking. Especially when he would have been starting for us on a team with zero spacing when he’s a bench level player in the NBA. Mamu is still relatively young, hasn’t received much of an opportunity in the NBA yet and big men usually take longer to develop, so there is a bit more of a possibility that he could take a step with us as opposed to Dennis.

I think as long as people go in expecting below average defence (hopefully not pylon bad but bad nonetheless), closer to 33% three point shooting and not the 37% he shot last season and someone who is a good driver, is unselfish and can finish in the paint pretty well they won’t be disappointed. He’s also supposedly a decent rebounder, but I’ll have to see that myself before I expect that.

I think the hope would be that Sandro is in the same vein as the Hartenstein and Bitadze types. C’s who put up good per36 stats but took a while to figure it out. Now obviously I don’t expect him to be those guys defensively but if he can make any type of defensive improvement he should be a real rotation guy.

[GLF]

Yes let's maybe wait until the season starts.

Mamu has talent but don't forget we got excited when Schroeder led Germany to a gold medal and was MVP of the 2023 World Cup. Many here thought he could replace FVV, but we saw instantly the dude is not a good starting point guard by any measure.

Anyone who thought Dennis would be better than Fred was delusional lol. People’s hate for Fred really had them saying the most outrageous stuff. You would think Fred was the worst player in the league if you let this board tell it lol. But yes, we shouldn’t be expecting too much from Mamu. I will say the difference with Dennis is he was already in the NBA for like 10 years by the time we got him, we already knew what he was at the NBA level.

People who thought he would be any different than he was in the past was just wishful thinking. Especially when he would have been starting for us on a team with zero spacing when he’s a bench level player in the NBA. Mamu is still relatively young, hasn’t received much of an opportunity in the NBA yet and big men usually take longer to develop, so there is a bit more of a possibility that he could take a step with us as opposed to Dennis.

I think as long as people go in expecting below average defence (hopefully not pylon bad but bad nonetheless), closer to 33% three point shooting and not the 37% he shot last season and someone who is a good driver, is unselfish and can finish in the paint pretty well they won’t be disappointed. He’s also supposedly a decent rebounder, but I’ll have to see that myself before I expect that.

I think the hope would be that Sandro is in the same vein as the Hartenstein and Bitadze types. C’s who put up good per36 stats but took a while to figure it out. Now obviously I don’t expect him to be those guys defensively but if he can make any type of defensive improvement he should be a real rotation guy.

I would love for him to make that kind of leap with us for sure. He’s just such a different player than they are. Defence is Hartenstein and Bitadze’s calling card while being good enough offensive players for Cs and they are both bigger than Mamu. If Mamu was either a better defender or more consistent shooter I would be a little higher on him, but sadly he’s neither. I still think he’ll be good for us because he brings things our other bigs don’t, but I don’t know if the breakout will be on Hartenstein or Bitadze’s level. I hope I’m wrong, truly.

[Kingsway_fan]

He will be the best backup C this franchise has ever had, outside of Ibaka, and one of the teams best bigs going into the season.

[youngRAPZ]

He will be the best backup C this franchise has ever had, outside of Ibaka, and one of the teams best bigs going into the season.

The Fanbase will love him. He will be the new Garbo/Scola!


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[GLF]

I hope y’all are right

[YogurtProducer]

I think it is important o remember a 34 win Spurs, which Wemby only played 46 games, only played Mamu 11mpg, and didn't even try to bring him back.

There is most likely a reason for that. Maybe he is the next Hartenstein (bargain barrel big who works out), but it is unlikely.

[GLF]

The thing is the bar is so in hell for any back up C to be better than what we had the last couple years that Mamu could be bad and still be better than those G league Cs lol. Him being better than them isn’t saying much. I would hope he could at least do that

[bape_lovers]

The same could be said for Chris Boucher i guess. He should be better than the Orlando Robinson's, Castelton's out there

I think it is important o remember a 34 win Spurs, which Wemby only played 46 games, only played Mamu 11mpg, and didn't even try to bring him back.

There is most likely a reason for that. Maybe he is the next Hartenstein (bargain barrel big who works out), but it is unlikely.

[Raptorfan2012]

Georgia upset France today. Our boy Mamu with 14/11.

[FOB]

Man... I can't be the only one here who's pi**ed at Matt and Jack's moronic jokes about Mamu's name, right? That would have been lazy and infantile in the 90s, but joking about not being able to pronounce an own foreign player's name in 2025? So cringey even the first time you hear it, but they keep doing it 50 times a game.

Oh but that's not even the worst part of it. Instead, the guy out of the two who's supposed to know the player's name fu***ng says it wrong, every single time! Did anyone with a single brain cell in the entire network read that name carefully even just once? The guy's name is not MamuSHkelashvili, there's no SH there. How the f**k is it so hard to learn a name? So close to turning the sound of man, too much stupidity to just enjoy the game...

[LoveMyRaps]

Man... I can't be the only one here who's pi**ed at Matt and Jack's moronic jokes about Mamu's name, right? That would have been lazy and infantile in the 90s, but joking about not being able to pronounce an own foreign player's name in 2025? So cringey even the first time you hear it, but they keep doing it 50 times a game.

Oh but that's not even the worst part of it. Instead, the guy out of the two who's supposed to know the player's name fu***ng says it wrong, every single time! Did anyone with a single brain cell in the entire network read that name carefully even just once? The guy's name is not MamuSHkelashvili, there's no SH there. How the f**k is it so hard to learn a name? So close to turning the sound of man, too much stupidity to just enjoy the game...

Ya Jack and Matt were doing too much.

It’s not even a hard name to pronounce…

Mamu-kelash-vili

Not sure why they’re struggling with that.

[ImaBeatDatAzz]

Holy what a steal

[Saul Goodman]

Man... I can't be the only one here who's pi**ed at Matt and Jack's moronic jokes about Mamu's name, right? That would have been lazy and infantile in the 90s, but joking about not being able to pronounce an own foreign player's name in 2025? So cringey even the first time you hear it, but they keep doing it 50 times a game.

Oh but that's not even the worst part of it. Instead, the guy out of the two who's supposed to know the player's name fu***ng says it wrong, every single time! Did anyone with a single brain cell in the entire network read that name carefully even just once? The guy's name is not MamuSHkelashvili, there's no SH there. How the f**k is it so hard to learn a name? So close to turning the sound of man, too much stupidity to just enjoy the game...

Ya Jack and Matt were doing too much.

It’s not even a hard name to pronounce…

Mamu-kelash-vili

Not sure why they’re struggling with that.

on the postive note its why I love Herbie Kuhn so much. That man gets every single inflection down to a science