Quote:
Originally Posted by FINtastic
I have to say that part of the reason that I've been hard on Ajinca is because I'm of the belief that Mahinmi is the superior player in most respects. Now I don't have the privilege of getting to watch practices like you do unfortunately so all I have to go on is what they've done so far in limited playing time during their careers. And Mahinmi's production completely dwarfs Ajinca's thus far. Now we're working with a career sample size of ~250 minutes for each thus far so there is some reason to be skeptical of what the stats tell us. But they still intrigue me anyways. Here's the comparison based on a per-36 minute basis for their careers:
Ajinca - 13.8 points, 6.5 rebounds, 1.5 blocks, .438 TS%, 8.6 PER
Mahinmi - 20.7 points, 10.9 rebounds, 2.1 blocks, .657 TS%, 22.3 PER
So when you look at their performance thus far in their careers, Ajinca has looked like a JAG and Mahinmi has produced like an all-star. Granted, I don't think Mahinmi is really an all-star and this is probably where that small sample size is deceptive for us. However, when you see a guy that has been this productive in limited minutes, it really makes me want to see what the guy can do if he gets some regular minutes. So in a scenario where the regular backup seems to get benched to send a message, why not play Mahinmi here?
I don't quite buy that we really needed to spread out the Spurs defense. I don't think Ajinca has given the Spurs enough reason to fear his range. So you're maybe hoping you can catch the Spurs off-guard at best.
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Exactly - it doesn't matter HOW you get your points, but THAT you get your points...
(the rebounding and defense would have been a lot more useful too...)