Washington Wizards: 5 goals for Ian Mahinmi in 2017-18
By Randy Porga
5. Continue to be efficient on the boards
Ian Mahinmi may not be what you would call spectacular on offense, but he has some tools to be a productive big man. In that skill-set, he uses all of his 6’11” frame to contribute on the boards and create second chance opportunities on offense.
For his career, he averages 4.4 rebounds per game and 1.4 of those are offensive rebounds. Averaging just 16.8 minutes per game over 469 career games, he makes the most of his opportunities in this sense of his game.
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The highlight of his career is when he nearly averaged a double-double during his final season with the Indiana Pacers. He finished with 9.3 points and 7.1 rebounds per game during the 2015-16 season, starting a career-high 71 games while averaging 25.6 minutes per game.
While his durability is coming into question as he approaches age 31, he has also never played over 2,000 minutes in a season throughout his career. It is beginning to become difficult to justify how much the Wizards overpaid for someone who likely never will start for an NBA team again now that his prime seems to have come and gone.
If Mahinmi wishes to keep his NBA career alive at least few years longer, he must show immediate improvement and that begins with some core fundamentals. First on that list is continuing to remain an effective on the boards with any time he is able earn onto the court.