At an Austin Toros game.
Nice guy. Must be close to 7 feet tall. Muscular, shaved headed young black guy with a funny French accent. And he is an absolute beast on the basketball court. I must admit that dr boudreaux is justifiably excited by this prospect.
He should be backing up Tim Duncan right now. Mahinmi is way too dominant for the D-league. He is even blocking shots and igniting the fast break. Definitely a future star. Wish the Mavs had him.
Fear the French Connection
I hope you mentioned his biggest fan, the d-r-b, to him.
Tonight was one of his best games this season.
His biggest problem is fouls.
His second biggest problem is straight up post defense.
IF he ever gets an opportunity he could deliver big.
But that IF gets to be a giant IF even for next year, as the frontcourt will again be crowded with Duncan, Oberto, Bonner (can't stand him), Tiago Splitter, Mahinmi, and who knows . . . if Kurt Thomas plays well and they win the title again they'll probably re-sign his 36 year old ass to a million year extension.
---" Fear the French Connection"---
This summer has a shitty free agent class, but one thing I do hope for is that with the MLE the Spurs sign Mickael Pietrus. He's not worth the full MLE, maybe only 4 million per. He's 26 years old and hasn't improved a damn thing in his game near as I can tell.
BUT
That would give the Spurs 3 rocking frenchmen.
The French Connection would turn into the THE FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION !
Maybe with the remainder of the MLE they could sign Walter Herrmann, then they'd rock 3 Argentines!
Boo-YAA!
M A H I N M I
dr boudreaux is all over this thread. But doc, you are correct about this guy. He looks like a can't miss prospect.
I was worried when they traded with Seattle that Mahinmi would be included in the deal.
Seattle's gm Presti was the one who targeted Mahinmi when he was with the Spurs (though the rest of front office jumped on board no problem). I just don't know if Presti wanted him and was turned down and given the 09 pick instead, or if Presti didn't want him since he has young bigs like Swift, Petro and Sene that he can't get enough time for as it is.
There is no way that anyone who has seen what an emerging monster this kid is - there is no way he wouldn't want him. He must have been turned down.
Cuban, come on, Dampier for Mahinmi, make it happen.
to be fair you watched his season high in blocks.
His first few d-league games were disappoing, 12 and 5 type games. But for most of the season he's been a monster, d-league all-star and everything.
He's been working everyday with former NBA player with busted knees Roy Rogers who the Spurs/Toros brought in as an assistant pretty much just to tutor Mahinmi, and he's made a big difference in Mahinmi's game.
And that is actually a huge relief, because showing real progress in all aspects of his game wasn't a given. Hell Stromile Swift never got any better. But Mahinmi has grown by leaps and bounds from a raw athlete on a shitty French league team in Le Havre to where he is now.
I don't think he's reached close to his ceiling yet as far as skills and b-ball IQ go.
I may have seen his best game the only time I've seen and met him, but my Lord it's clear that he is a budding superstar. What an athlete. What a shot blocker! What a beast!!
And what an upside considering how young he is.