Ian Mahinmi was a free agent and has left the Indiana Pacers to join the Washington Wizards on by far the biggest contract of his career.
Indiana Pacers free agent Ian Mahinmi is off to the nation’s capital after signing a four-year, $64 million contract with the Washington Wizards , according to Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports
In a neat turn of events, Ian Mahinmi himself was the first to, in his own way, report the news on Twitter.
In a world where super-reporters Shams, Adrian Wojnarowski, Marc Stein, Mark Spears, or Sam Amick usually break signings, it was interesting to see the big man be the one to announce his new plans to the world.
https://twitter.com/ianmahinmi/status/749393935546609664
Mahinmi joined the Pacers in the summer of 2012 in a much-criticized deal in which Indiana dealt away Darren Collison and new-world-champion Dahntay Jones. But the 6’11” center fit in well with the big, smashmouth team that Larry Bird and Frank Vogel were creating.
He was soon among the best rim protectors in the game.
Just as the FG% against at the rim stat was becoming available to the public, Mahinmi was proving his value by being a major deterrent to opponents finishing around the hoop. He was generally playing against second units, however, with Roy Hibbert having even better numbers ahead of him in the rotation.
Free agent Ian Mahinmi has agreed to a four year, $64M deal with Washington, league source tells The Vertical.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 3, 2016
Then Hibbert got traded and Mahinmi stepped into a starting role for the first time in his career. Many were worried about a career backup becoming a weak link on an otherwise promising team.
He did no such thing and was arguably the most consistent player for the Pacers throughout 2015-16, almost never having an off night. And in addition to continuing to provide world-class rim protection game after game — along with better outside-the-paint versatility when defending than Roy Hibbert could ever bring — he somehow transformed his offensive game. His ability to catch the ball, always a major hurdle, seemingly disappeared overnight, and the big fella was finishing around the hoop with power and, sometimes, finesse.
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Mahinmi had a career season and was instrumental to the Pacers showing flashes of high-level ball.
It was a huge shame, then, that he injured his back just as the playoffs were about to get underway. He played through the pain, but was a shell of his defensive self early in the team’s first-round series with the Raptors, getting badly outmatched by Jonas Valanciunas on the block given his physical limitations. He did manage to have one big offensive night, posting a career-high 22 points, but he simply wasn’t himself, and that factor could be considered one of the biggest reasons Indiana failed to pull off the upset.
Unfortunately for Ian’s time in Indiana, however, the team now sees its 20-year-old wunderkind Myles Turner as their center of the future.
So it seemed evident from the outset of the offseason that Larry Bird would not be put a priority on re-signing Ian. Given how valuable his newly discovered defense has become — in leaguewide circles anyway — it was obvious that his salary would be way too much to pay a backup. Add in Larry Bird’s desire for a faster, more-offensive-minded team, and Mahinmi was always going to be the odd man out.
Nevertheless, he gave some excellent years to the Pacers and turned himself from a relatively unskilled unknown into a rim-protecting beast who will now early $16 million per year during his early 30s.
Mahinmi was an excellent Pacer for four years and now moves on to a new — and richer — life in Washington, D.C.