Scouting Ian Mahinmi

In about one or two years, Ian Mahinmi will be a rotation player for the San Antonio Spurs. As for now, he's a lanky, 21 year old Frenchman trying to learn the nuances of NBA basketball. He was a surprise selection (the 28th pick in the 2005 draft), but has shown enough potential for the Austin Toros to be named a D-League All-Star this past week. He has averaged of 18 points (on 62.5% from the field), 8 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks a game in 26 games. I'm going to blog about Mahinmi's development whenever I can, partially because he's going to be a major part of their future, but also because it's better than writing about Tony Parker's foot for the millionth time.

Ian, Mahinmi
Position: PF, C
6'11", 230 lbs

Strengths: To this point, the most promising part of Ian's game is his shot blocking prowess. With long limbs to go with his 6'11" frame and above average hops, Mahinmi is a fantastic help defender. Even more impressive is that he goes after everything. He hustles on fast breaks to contest layups and rotates over when a teammate needs help. He has great instinct for swatting shots and alters more attempts than his stats will give him credit for.

Offensively, Mahinmi gets most of his buckets by utilizing his athleticism. He outruns his defender down the floor most of the time and uses his length for offensive rebounds, putbacks, and easy dunk opportunities. I've yet to see him take a shot outside of 5 feet. When opposing teams send him to the line instead of giving up easy buckets, Mahinmi makes them pay by shooting at a 76.8% clip (his form is decent considering he's not a jumpshooter). He has decent hands for his size and doesn't drop many passes. Not a fantastic rebounder because of his slender build, but he hits the boards hard on each possession.

At 21, his intangibles are just as valuable. He listens to his coach and hustles each game.

Weaknesses: Most of Ian's weaknesses are a result of his youth and inexperience. While he plays his ass of, he does make the occasional spastic rookie play, making a terrible outlet pass or creating an inexplicable turnover. Defensively, his rotations are solid but could use improvement. Because of his intuitive shot blocking skills, he picks up some cheap fouls by leaping after shots instead of contesting shots without leaving his feet.

Offensively, Mahinmi has a very unrefined offensive repertoire. He has a right-handed baby hook that seems to be his only consistent tool. Ian possesses no real 1-on-1 scoring maneuvers...when he gets the ball in the post his bad footwork leads to some awkward attempts reminiscent of Reggie Evans. He has a good first step but doesn't possess the handle or the jumper to play face-up on the offensive end.

He is built a bit like David Robinson, with a long, slender torso and thin hips. Because of this, he gets pushed out of positions easily (Ian compensates by using his speed to get where he wants to go). His lack of a strong "foundation" forces him to miss a lot of rebounding opportunities.

Needs to Improve: As I mentioned, most of his weaknesses will be corrected just by getting some experience and overcoming the natural foreign rookie learning curve. As his game progresses, he needs to become more vocal on the court and hit the weight room while developing some sort of offensive weapon, be it a spin move, a hook, a midrage J or a respectable up-and-under.

Stoudamire to Sign, Parker to Miss Rodeo Road Trip

Well, it's not official, but Damon Stoudamire announced his plans to sign with the Spurs. This means the Spurs won't resign rookie Jeremy Richardson for the rest of the season.

As for Parker, MRI results showed no structural damage, just chronic swelling. The team announced he will miss the rest of the rodeo road trip. With a rough stretch ahead (Washington, Boston, Phoenix), the Spurs could drop out of the playoff standings before he comes back. There's bad timing....and then there is really, really bad timing.

Also, I failed to mention that the Spurs recalled Ian Mahinmi from the D-League to join the roster for the rodeo road trip. Good bonding experience, I guess. They did the same with James White last year, if I remember correctly. Hopefully that's the only thing those two players have in common.

Parker Out, Mighty Mouse to the Spurs?

The rumor mill is swirling with the buzz that the Spurs may want to sign Damon Stoudamire, who recently completed a buyout from the Memphis Grizzlies. Stoudamire was averaging 7.3 points on 39% shooting and 3.9 assists in 21.6 minutes a game for the Grizzlies. At 34, he's not the offensive threat he used to be, but he's a heady player.

Don't be too quick to believe that he would be signed to immediately take over the backup point guard role from Jacque Vaughn, whose lack of offense has long drawn the ire of Spurs fans. As it stands now, Parker is out indefinitely because of bone spurs in his left heel. It was obvious Parker's lingering injuries were influencing his play; he hasn't been to the free throw line more than 5 times in his last 8 games, showing an obvious inability to put on the jets when he needed to. While the timing couldn't be worse for the slumping Spurs, they don't have much of a chance at the 'chip without him healthy. Better to take a few losses now (gulp....to the Sonics) rather than sacrifice Parker's health altogether.

Oh, and for good measure, here's Damon looking dapper on NBAcriminals.com. Hopefully his "high times" are over.

Ime Udoka Makes Chuck Norris Look Like A Sissy

The game against the Lakers was a thing of beauty (outside of the part where they let Kwame Brown look like an actual NBA player). The outside shooting was on target, Duncan dominated Turiaf and Brown, and the defense was stifling. For at least one game, the Spurs looked like they were back in the NBA Finals:





They even got a much-needed boost from Ime Udoka, who not only pitched in 18 points on 7-10 shooting but made life a living hell for Lamar Odom and Kobe Bryant on several possessions. I knew he was a dogged defender from his time in Portland, but I had no idea how strong he was. He has no fear of tangling it up against other team's power forwards. Odom had consistently racked up great games against San Antonio, but his feeble 11 points and 5 turnovers can be largely accredited to Ime bodying him up.

In the 3rd quarter of their ugly win against Miami, the Spurs again went small using Udoka as the PF. The Heat responded by posting Udonis Haslem on three straight possessions. The results? One non-shooting foul, one turnover, and a fierce ball denial by Udoka that forced Miami to rotate the ball and ditch the post up. Despite giving up 3-4 inches and some pounds on a decent post player (Haslem), Udoka screwed up the play every time. If he can continue to hit outside shots, he's perfect for their small ball lineup.

- In other news, Tim Duncan, in case you hadn't heard, is pretty good. He'll be starting in his 9th straight All-Star game and also registered his 17,000th point, putting him just 600 short of Otis Thorpe. Hm...maybe points aren't everything. He did, however, average 24.2 points, 13.2 rebounds, and 3.0 blocks over his last 5 games....MVP numbers.

- Brent Barry tore up his left calf muscle again, just three games after coming back. He'll have an MRI Monday. The Spurs really missed his shooting, so Finley and Udoka will have to pick up some slack.

- As great as Duncan's been, Bowen has been equally bad. Take out a 5-10 game against the Knicks and Bruce is 8-38 for the month of January prior to tonight's game in Miami. That's 21% shooting....for the month (this after shooting under 40% for December). He's scored total of 10 points over his last 7 games. But I digress, he's not on the team to score. His defense on Dwyane Wade at the end of the game was amazing; he forced one contested jumper, a crazy spin-fadeaway, and stripped the ball from Wade on Wade's last three shot attempts.

- Popovich went small in two straight games, starting Brent Barry and, uh, Jeremy Richardson against the Lakers and Bobcats. Elson seems to have fallen out of the lineup amid all the small ball play, playing just 12 minutes in his last 5 and racking up 2 DNP's.

Update: Barry will miss 3-4 weeks with what is being called a "strain" of his left calf muscle.

The Spurs Are Sucking*

AP Photo/Eric Gay

*Sucking in relative Spur terms. They are sucking insofar as a defending champion and perennial contender can suck. We aren’t talking about the Knicks here.


As enthralling as those sluggish victories over the Knicks and the 76ers were, the Spurs have been in their general winter slump. It’s like bears hibernating, but far more painful to watch. It’s characteristic of the team (they generally pick it up on their rodeo road trip), but their malaise still reeks for all the fans out there that pay their hard earned dollar to see Ryan Gomes and Eddy Curry undress the Spurs’ defense. (Sidenote…do you think if San Antonio had better 1 A.M. hotspots players like Eddy Curry would be more likely to be hungover than posting nearly 30 points on Fabricio? Holt should invest in a club and put it next to the visitor’s hotel. Tell everyone Jay-Z owns it or something.)

So what are the central culprits in the Spurs’ recent sucktitude? Well, injuries are the obvious scapegoat. Brent Barry’s continued absence hurts the team more than people realize (although he's set to return), and Manu is still adjusting to having a club on his hand all the time. But I’d be amiss if I ignored other irritating trends…

Tony Parker’s overall shooting numbers are noticeably on the decline from the last two years. His 54.8% shooting in 2005 got the attention of the league, and he shot 52% last year while integrating his fancy new midrange jumper. This season? He wants to act like a badass and shoot 3’s...despite the fact that it takes away from the biggest strength in his offensive game and there are numerous better shooters on the floor at all times. In fact, he’s already taken about as many 3’s in 32 games this season (37) as all of last season (38). That’s more than one a game, and at 27% from behind the arc, it’s part of the reason why he’s shooting under 50% this season.

Another disturbing trend is Tim Duncan’s inability to get to the free throw line. He’s taking 1.7 less free throws a game since last season…which would be fine if his shooting numbers weren’t taking a slight dip too. He seems to wait for the double team to come too often instead of attacking his defender (much to the ire of Sean Elliott, who acts like he’s going to have an aneurism every time Duncan sits in the post with the ball for 5 seconds without doing a thing). I watched Duncan all game against the T-Wolves and he inexplicably kicked the ball out when he was being defended by Michael Doleac.

Finally, Popovich is toying with his lineups. It’s the little things like bringing Manu in for Bowen instead of Finley in the first quarter. Or randomly deciding Francisco Elson should sit the game out despite the fact that he’s starting to get into a rhythm with the second team. Robert Horry is also in full dinosaur mode, which never helps.

It’s a typical Spurs January, but keep in mind that they are still tops in their division.

Spurs Sign Jeremy Richardson

So, after Keith Langford and DeMarr "don't call me Demarr" Johnson were shown the door, the Spurs front office went out and signed Jeremy Richardson, the leading scorer in the D-league for the Fort Wayne Mad Antz at 28.5 points a game.

That's right...the Fort Wayne Mad Antz. God help us all.

The Return of Manu

Ginobili seems to have returned in full form, albeit sporting a bandage on his left hand to protect his finger. I kind of dig it...it makes him look tough as nails, like he just got out of an alley fight or something. He scored 23 against the Clippers in his return (12 in the fourth quarter).

His return, of course, means another Spurs goes down. Duncan collided knees with Corey Maggette, but he seems to be OK.

The Spurs' offense struggled with Manu and Barry both out. Although Finley played great in their absence (17.8 points a game while Manu was well-dressed behind the bench), the Spurs lost some obvious offensive firepower. Ime Udoka has yet to find his shooting touch (37.5% from the field, 25.6% from three) and Popovich resorted to signing DeMarr Johnson. Yes, that DeMarr Johnson (don't worry, he was already cut).

But, despite a 6-6 stretch, the Spurs are still where they want to be. They won against the Knicks and the Clippers based on experience and 4th quarter savvy, not just talent. While the Suns deal with chemistry problems and the Celtics deal with....ummm...being arrogant pricks, it's good to see the Spurs will always have their grit to rely on.