Washington Wizards To Sign Ian Mahinmi To 4-Year, $64 Million Deal
The Washington Wizards were in desperate need of a backup big man as Nene gets older and more injury prone. They agreed to sign Ian Mahinmi to a four-year deal.
Ian Mahinmi started for the Indiana Pacers last year and did an extremely good job. In 71 games he averaged 25.6 minutes, 9.1 points 7.1 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 0.9 steals and 1.1 blocks per game.
To put that into perspective these are all career highs in his eighth year in the league. I think it is safe to say that it was a career year. It goes without saying that these were all above his career averages.
Why then did he have to go to the Washington Wizards for a four-year $64 million deal as reported by Tim Bontemps from the Washington Post?
Mahinmi was basically the starting center in Indiana last season because Indiana had no one else. They lost Roy Hibbert to free agency last year and Mahinmi was given the job.
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Now that Indiana agreed to sign Al Jefferson, Mahinmi basically lost all their playing time. Myles Turner is developing quite well and will most probably backup Jefferson, even if Mahinmi had stayed.
Now, Mahinmi has moved to a team in desperate need of big men. When Marcin Gortat was not able to play for parts of last year, Washington simply did not have a big body to compete as Nene‘s decline accelerated.
Now, with Mahinmi, Washington has a quality backup center, one who can start if required.
Mahinmi is not the star that Washington would have liked, but they did re-sign Bradley Beal who, if his body actually holds up for a season, could eventually turn into that star.
The Washington starting five is strong, John Wall is a star, Beal will hopefully become one. Otto Porter is the weakest link in the five but his play is improving.
Markieff Morris is coming out of a troubled year, but hopefully can put that behind him and just play basketball. Gortat averaged nearly a double double last year–13.5 points and 9.9 rebounds a game.
With Mahinmi signing, the Washington bench is starting to have some more quality, which was more than missing last year. The Wizards still have Kelly Oubre on the bench who is a much improved rookie than last season.
Washington has still got several holes to fill on the bench. With Ramon Sessions agreeing to a deal with the Charlotte Hornets, there is a decided lack of a point guard on the bench.
They have traded for Trey Burke, but I am unsure if he will be a positive or like he was with the Utah Jazz, a negative.
With Garrett Temple reportedly agreeing to sign with the Sacramento Kings, there is also a lack of depth at shooting guard. This is biggest positional issue for the Wizards due to how injury prone Beal is. Given that they gave Marcus Thornton a lifeline, I can see him re-signing with the Wizards.
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Washington have addressed the depth issue at power forward behind Morris, who they got during the February trade period, and with the agreed contract with Andrew Nicholson from the Orlando Magic.
Washington still have plenty of work to do, they have filled a few spots of need but now need to continue with the positive signings to get back to relevance in the East.