FanPost

Is it time to waive & stretch Ian Mahinmi?

This is a topic that is periodically touched on and it seemed like a good time to revisit it. It would be a brutal choice without question. Because he'd end up counting as a significant chunk of dead money for a good number of years. If I understand the math correctly, if Ian was stretched now, instead of paying him $16M per year for two years, they'd pay him $6.4M per year for five years. $6.4M per year is a big chunk of dead money to carry for five years. It's basically keeping Nicholson (plus a year actually) and never playing him (that part doesn't seem so bad).

So what's the benefit? If I understand correctly, if they do this before July 1, the benefit is that it clears almost $10M from their books this offseason and the next offseason. Combined with other potential moves, that could help create some of the short term cap flexibility they desperately lack. In the process they get rid of a player who in my opinion just isn't doing the job he was brought here to do, not even as a back-up. Ian had moments this year, but not nearly enough of them. He's also a player who has no real prospects of changing that expectation going forward. Age, accumulating injuries, declining athleticism....all currently point to a player who at best maintains a status quo that isn't good enough with some expectation of further decline being likely.

What's the downside? The primary downside is that he'd eat up $6.4M of the team's cap for the next 5 years with no benefit to the team at all from those dollars. That's not at all an inconsiderable amount given John's impending SuperMax, Beal's and Porter's contracts and the possibility of an Oubre extension. Anything they might be able to do positively in the short term, might be undone long term by having to carry those dollars. Beyond that, they also lose the option of trading him and getting that number off their books without having to carry the dead money. Trading Ian in some way I think would be most people's first choice, but I don't think there's going to be much of a market even as part of a package or after next year as an expiring deal. Also, if they were given a choice between stretching Ian and repeating the here's-a-first-rounder-to-take-his-deal-off-our-hands, I think I'd rather stretch him unless the Wizards were taking next to nothing back in salary and got a big fat Traded Player Exception for him. (I'd be ok with the here's our first rounder to take his contract move if the Wizards were a team that would go out and buy another first rounder, but that's a different story for another post).

There is some chance that once waived (and he undoubtedly clears waivers) some team would pick him up. And if they did, the Wizards would be able to write a portion of his new salary off of their cap. The formula would be his new salary minus the value of a one-year vet minimum deal (this year that was around $1.3M) and then take that result and divide by two. Tough to think Ian would get much more than the vet minimum, but with his years of service, even his vet minimum (using this past season's numbers) would be around $2.3M. So even at that (($2.3M - 1.3M)/2), the Wiz could knock $500k off the amount he counts against their cap. If he managed to get paid more than the minimum it reduces the team's pain even more. It's not something the Wizards should count on in making their choice, but it's a factor.

Overall, for this upcoming season and with two years left on his deal, I think this is an option worth considering within the confines of other factors and other moves. Especially if they draft a C this year. It's a painful, painful option long term, but one that which gives them immediate substantial relief for the next two years. On its own or combined with other moves, it helps give them the roster flexibility they currently lack. It would require a much deeper examination of their short, medium and long term plans, but given where they are, it should absolutely be on the table.

This represents the view of the user who wrote the FanPost, and not the entire Bullets Forever community. We're a place of many opinions, not just one.