The Washington Wizards are delighted to have the Ian Mahinmi contract off their salary cap. Well, delighted is a bit of an understatement. They are probably having a massive celebration at the Capital One Center to mark this historic occasion. Despite his massive contract, Mahinmi offered little production and has kneecapped the franchise.
That’s not totally fair. The John Wall contract is a million times worse. At least Mahinmi was on the court. John Wall made USD 37.8 million last season to rehab from yet another injury, throw up gang signs and get weird tattoos.
But Washington didn’t get much return on investment from the Ian Mahinmi contract either.
How did Ian Mahinmi get a 4-year, $64 million contract?
Everyone remembers the 2016 salary cap spike that allowed the Golden State Warriors to sign Kevin Durant. Teams had an extra USD 24 million to spend on players thanks to an influx of television and weren’t afraid to use it. NBA players you probably forgot about were paid handsomely for no apparent reason.
The O.G. stretch four Ryan Anderson banked a 4-year, USD80 million contract from the Houston Rockets, Luol Deng cajoled the Los Angeles Lakers into giving him a 4-year, USD72 million contract and Evan Turner received a 4-year, USD70 million offer from the Portland Trailblazers. These are all terrible offers, but you could kind of make a case for them at the time.
The Washington Wizards handing Ian Mahinmi a 4-year, USD 64 million contract was inexcusable. He turned 30-years old in 2016, had been a backup for all but one season of his career and was clearly a replacement level player. Even in the crazy fog of the cap spike, this deal made no sense.
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What did the Wizards get for the Ian Mahinmi contract?
Not a whole heck of a lot. For starters, the Wizards didn’t have enough assets to trade him meaning he ended up playing out all four years in Washington. Most of the other crazy contracts were traded, but not Mahinmi.
The Ian Mahinmi contract got off to a great start when he missed 50 of the team’s first 51 games due to injury. He averaged 5.6 points and 4.8 rebounds per game in the 31 times he did see the court that year.
He played in 77 games the following season, but somehow saw all of his stat averages decline apart from turnovers and personal fouls. Injuries saw Mahinmi only suit up for 34 of the most forgettable games you’d find in 2018-2019.
There was a resurgence of sorts for Mahinmi this last season, although it started with him injured and ended with a trip to the Orlando where he recorded eight “DNPs”. He managed two 20+-point outbursts surprising everyone who had watched him play the previous three seasons.
In four seasons, Mahinmi had two double-doubles, two 20-point games, 41 starts and a ton of fouls. He actually had more fouls than defensive rebounds during his time in Washington. Dollar-for-dollar, the Ian Mahinmi contract was one of the worst in basketball history. The Wizards could have easily signed some generic big man for the league minimum and gotten the exact same performance.
