The Washington Wizards lost out on Al Horford on Saturday evening, and moved on quickly to their next big-man target. Former Pacers big man Ian Mahimi sent out a tweet indicating that he had agreed to a deal with the Wizards:
@WashWizards let's gooooo 💪🏾!!!!!!🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
— Ian Mahinmi (@ianmahinmi) July 3, 2016
Tim Bontemps of the Washington Post reported that Mahinmi’s deal was for $64 million over four years:
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
With Horford, Dwight Howard and Bismack Biyombo off the board, Mahinmi was probably the best big man still available, and the Wizards got him for the same price the Lakers paid for Timofey Mozgov, who was considerably worse last season.
What will be worth keeping an eye on with this deal will be if the Wizards decide to move Marcin Gortat, who is entering year three of a five-year, $60 million deal. Gortat is better offensively than Mahinmi and worse defensively, but neither has much shooting range, so it’s tough to see them playing together effectively. Washington should be able to get something back for Gortat if they choose to move him.
