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The Wizards wasted no time moving on from Al Horford on to Plan C. Less than an hour after Horford announced he was going to Boston, Ian Mahinmi tweeted this:
@WashWizards let's gooooo !!!!!!
— Ian Mahinmi (@ianmahinmi) July 3, 2016
Shortly after, the details came in, and they’re pretty big:
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
Ian Mahinmi to the Wizards for four years and $64 million, per league sources. Wizards moving on to Plan B after losing out on Al Horford.
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) July 3, 2016
The Wizards reportedly expressed interested in Ian Mahinmi on Friday, so this news doesn’t come as a surprise. But as we noted on Friday, handing Mahinmi a long-term isn’t exactly ideal:
He turns 30 in November, so he doesn’t really help the team get much younger at the center position. He also played through a bevy of injuries last season, as Nate Taylor of the Indianapolis Star detailed.
While it’s encouraging to see that he was able to play well through pain last season, the hard truth is it gets harder to keep doing that as you get older, and that’s exactly what the Wizards would be investing in if they signed him to a deal.
Now the question is: Who is the starting center? Mahinmi will make more than Marcin Gortat, but the cap has gone up quite a bit. It will be interesting to see whether Scott Brooks emphasizes Gortat’s pick-and-roll skills or Mahinmi’s rim protection as paramount moving forward.
More to come.