I wouldn't be surprised if the Spurs dig up a vet min guy sometime between now and the start of the season. But that's probably about it. Depending how much Neal is going to get paid there might be enough MLE left to beat a vet min contract and that could come in handy after the trading deadline when guys start getting bought out.
Wouldn't surprise me.
While I think either a vet big man or vet swing would make a lot of sense for this team, I don't know that they can swing it financially without going over the luxury tax line and/or giving up on 3 of their 4 young (non-guaranteed) prospects.
I was thinking the same thing. I'm not sure when Nando will make sense now to bring over. With the glut of SG's and shooters that the team has brought in, when will we see a De Colo jersey in San Antonio?
At this rate the SPurs will end up cutting most of their young players to make room for Neal and Bogans and Jefferson, so they can start over fresh next year and dump Nando in another year for nothing.
I think it's pretty much a certainty that the Spurs are going to cut loose at least 3 guys out of the Temple/Hairston/Gee/Jerrells group. Maybe even all 4 if they find a vet min guy to their liking. That should keep them far enough away from the LT line to add someone late in the season. If they don't like any of the buyout victims then they can always bring one or two of those guys back.
As Neal has not played in the NBA before, his minimum salary in 10/11 is $473,604.
http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm#Q11
I would be surprised if he got much more than that guaranteed.
Would surprise me. We have so many small players on contract (or obligation to contract) already
Parker, Hill, Neal, Temple, Manu, Anderson, Hairston, Gee...
This.
Malik's Block per game average is very good and IMO he'll have the most minutes / better shot at being a 15 minutes contributor than anyone else.
His absence on SL and the Spurs declaring that they know what they have with Malim pretty much tells just that.
Looking at this Neal signing and seeing how the Spurs hoped for, but missed out on Wesley Matthews, I just wonder who is going to defend on the perimeter for this team?
If the Spurs sign Bogans, it's a sure signal that Hairston, Gee and Temple are all on the way out.
If the Spurs are bound and determined to grab a useless vet, they'll sign Morrisson.
That ship has sailed. The Spurs for 2-3 years now have been looking to out-score folks. This signing continues the trend. This guy will be a situational player, sort of like Steve Kerr when he was with us years ago.
The fact is Neal is a scorer. We have very few true 'scorers' on this team. It's a welcome signing.
Excellent write up!!!
Knowing what you've stated is true, it's really funny for me to continue hearing the NBA analysts (studio and game), on the various networks laud the Spurs and Pop, for their supposed "defense first" mantra. A recent example occurred during summer league action. When referencing the Spurs summer league squad, many of the analysts proclaimed "if you're going to make this Spurs team, you'd better be concerned with playing defense first because that was Pop demands and that's what they've built their foundation on".
Really?
Spurs still have the masses fooled.
In fairness the coaches, including Pop, and the players have stated before each season that they are going to try and get back to that. The just have not had the second big and perimeter defender to really pull that off.
Its really a question of what they want to do versus what they actually can do.
think theyre trying to work some behind the scenes magic and trade a couple of our 2s to upgrade our 3??
Neal was very good last year in Europe, so Spurs very likely had to offer either guaranteed money and a number a bit higher than the minimum of 473K.
even considering Euro teams no longer can pay what they used to pay in the last years, I assume he got some better offers there. (maybe close to 1 million Euro?). so, even if he gives the Spurs a discount because he wants to get into the NBA, I do expect they gave him something close to a million $.
btw. Neal brings pretty much every quality the Spurs could expect from Anderson. (Anderson is a bit taller, but it's not that he brings in above average size for the SG).
Anderson isn't signed yet. any chance Spurs still explore what they could get for his rights?
Guy definitely looks like a pure shooter. Something we had but disappeared when we started last season. Not bad pickup, low risk high reward if he manages to make an impact in the rotation.
Could a possibility be that Anderson's injury is more serious than actually believed? Perhaps hes going to miss sometime during the regular season.
Maybe we can bring Finley back as a player-coach to mentor Neal on basketball ethics.
Here's the postgame interview from the Grizz game (with highlights). I couldn't get it to embed for some reason...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr6VPwFL8-8
Last edited by bigbendbruisebrother; 07-22-2010 at 12:45 PM.
Lesson one: When the going gets tough, beg to be released so you can sign with a contender.
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