So is Gary Neal the truth or what?

[jestersmash]

Hey man I just said RMJ. To say Neal is better than Kerr is laughable. It's just been one game.

I also realize that portion was not addressed to me but rather to another poster.

[jiggy_55]

Neal has a picture perfect shooting stroke. I also like that he's aggressive with his trigger.

That said, it's early. We saw Roger Mason, Jr. come out of the gates on fire with the Spurs. But after defenses got a scouting report on him and took him out of his comfort zones, it went downhill fast.

Neal's challenge of making it in the NBA as a short and not-too-athletic shooting guard will be tough. His shooting stroke gives him a fighting chance, though.

Roger Mason is a good shooter, but he never had a picture perfect shot and sometimes it seemed he would fling it and it would go in nothing but net. He was on fire for a long time. But when you have a great shooting from and have been shooting it so well throughout your career in college, europe, etc than it's a bit different. I think he's gonna be ok.

Their will be ups and downs for sure as their are with all shooters and he's still a rookie, but the Spurs love him and it's obvious why. He seems to be always confident regardless if he's scoring or not and his shot keeps dropping. His defense was good as well so surely he will get many minutes this season.

[jiggy_55]

RMJ never had any semblance of a driving game. Neal showed us a little floater and good ball handling. He's far far far more impressive than RMJ was, even when RMJ was hitting all of his seemingly off balance miracle 3s.

RMJ seemed like he had to be moving/off balance for his 3 point % to be high. He wasn't really a spot up shooter.

Neal is a much more fundamentally sound spot up shooter (and therefore already fits in better with the spurs as a role player) and we saw at least once instance where he has some ability to create a 3 point shot for himself, along with some slashing abilities. He's so much more well rounded than RMJ, and he gives a **** about defense. Did you see Neal kicking himself in the head on a missed rotation last game even though the hornets had a 24 second shot clock violation? I didn't see that level of defensive dedication with RMJ.

So yes I agree with the person who says that Neal looks nothing like RMJ.

EXACTLY as I was saying in my post above. RMJ was making crazy shots, as if he needed to be off balance to score!

[G-Dawgg]

Nope. Paul Pierce is "The Truth", but Gary Neal can be the "G-Train"..

[20beastie45]

Nope..Paul Pierce is The Truth, but Gary Neal can be the G-Train..

Choo Choo!!!!

[DespЏrado]

So going by the last few posts he's already better than Kerr, "the two Jacksons" and RMJ.

This must be Spurstalk.

It is and I will back it up, but before you jump on me. listen to what I said, I think he is a colder shooter than those listed above.

I think he shoots the shot with more cold bloodiness than just about anyone the spurs have ever had. Manu is a better proven 3 point shooter than Neal. But Neal shoots the ball without the en brance of caring about the pressure, he just let's it fly with good form, stroke, and follow through.

[jimo2305]

lol just to clear up some confusion here.. don't take neal as some one-trick pony who's just a spot up shooter.. he has a nice stroke but he also plays good D and he IS athletic.. i can tell this dude ran track at a point in his past.. i expected this sort of performance out of him when i saw him play in person and i continue to.. barring any injuries or setbacks of course

[z0sa]

Neal scored half of our 32 points off the bench. Our bench outscored their bench 32-7. Definitely the difference in the game was our "other" guys.

[20beastie45]

lol just to clear up some confusion here.. don't take neal as some one-trick pony who's just a spot up shooter.. he has a nice stroke but he also plays good D and he IS athletic.. i can tell this dude ran track at a point in his past.. i expected this sort of performance out of him when i saw him play in person and i continue to.. barring any injuries or setbacks of course

Enlighten us! How can you tell?

[angelbelow]

Neal has a picture perfect shooting stroke. I also like that he's aggressive with his trigger.

That said, it's early. We saw Roger Mason, Jr. come out of the gates on fire with the Spurs. But after defenses got a scouting report on him and took him out of his comfort zones, it went downhill fast.

Neal's challenge of making it in the NBA as a short and not-too-athletic shooting guard will be tough. His shooting stroke gives him a fighting chance, though.

Oh, such an important message.

[Cessation]

Mason was skinny couldn't defend or rebound, couldn't handle, or pass, basically had only his shot to rely on, which deserted him when he crashed and burned in the 08' playoffs, revealing his lack of mental toughness that you need for deep playoff runs.

On the other hand Neal is stocky can defend and rebound well enough, and judging by his basketball career so far, has descent mental for ude at the very least. The playoffs will show if thats trully the case, but from the single minded focus he displays when given minutes, I have a good feeling about him.

[jestersmash]

lol just to clear up some confusion here.. don't take neal as some one-trick pony who's just a spot up shooter.. he has a nice stroke but he also plays good D and he IS athletic.. i can tell this dude ran track at a point in his past.. i expected this sort of performance out of him when i saw him play in person and i continue to.. barring any injuries or setbacks of course

If neal becomes a "two trick pony" - being a solid spot up shooter and being reasonably good on the defensive end - he'll end up being far more than the spurs expected out of him. This type of role player is sorely need (spot up shooter + defense).

Bonner's defense is subpar, I don't think anybody is going to deny that. RMJ had his miracle 3 stretch but was almost always subpar on defense, letting people blow by him far too often. The centerpiece was average on defense and couldn't do anything else.

[EricB]

the one big difference I notice between him and Mason is ball handling...

Also much more fundamentally sound on the defensive end.

[duncan228]

Notes on a scorecard: Tiago’s debut upstaged by Neal’s blistering shooting
by Tim Griffin

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/spursna...ring-shooting/

[AussieFanKurt]

Neal's defence as pointed out by many posters makes him a better RMJ and Pop obviously has faith in him giving him extended minutes. Same with JA. Lets hope they keep getting minutes

[HarlemHeat37]

The people that are saying Mason and Neal are nothing alike are using revisionist history..

Mason didn't show any major flaws during his great 1st half of the season in 08-09..he did mix mid-range shooting with his long range game..he was never great at driving to the basket, but he did mix some of that too..

His flaws as a ballhandler weren't exposed until defenses keyed in on him after a few months, like timvp said..

His defense wasn't exposed at all, there were actually people here talking about how he's a better defender than they thought he would be, just like they're saying about Neal right now..it wasn't until other teams started exposing his defense and going at him, where everybody here started calling him out for it, I was actually one of the first IIRC..

Also, Mason was going up against starting units most of the time, not bench guys like Neal has been going up against..Roger also didn't have any problems with confidence until the 2nd half of the season, and until Pop moved him to PG..

The bright side for Neal and what will help him out will be the fact that his role won't be as important as Mason's was during that 1st season..players like Mason and Neal should have strict roles as spark plugs, and Neal could fit into that minor role very well..he also won't have to guard SFs and bigger SGs, which Mason actually had to do at times..

I like what I'm seeing from Neal, but we'll see when teams adjust to him..a lot of revisionist history here..

[EricB]

I think one thing your leaving out is that it seems Neal is a little mentally tougher than Roger Mason.

[HarlemHeat37]

Hopefully he is..my point is that none of us saw any of Mason's flaws, including his lack of mental for ude, until the 2nd half of the season, when the pressure was on..

Personally, I don't believe Neal will suc b to pressure, I'm just pointing it out..a man that would ride the tracks with a vomiting girl probably has a killer instinct IMO..

[20beastie45]

and he cares about rebounding! 6 Reb

[bigdog]

Neal has looked pretty solid. He looks extremely confident and has hit a few tough, contested shots along with the wide open ones. His ball handling seems to be much better than Mason's ever was, and he might not be a great defender, but he really hustles on that end. If he can be consistent, this signing is a steal.

[jestersmash]

I think one thing your leaving out is that it seems Neal is a little mentally tougher than Roger Mason.

Well, to be fair, this facet is virtually impossible to discern just by watching the game.

Mental toughness is usually attributed to teams as a whole when they successfully "weather the storm" (being down double digits to the other team) and end up winning the game by making a run of their own.

[DespЏrado]

The people that are saying Mason and Neal are nothing alike are using revisionist history..

Mason didn't show any major flaws during his great 1st half of the season in 08-09..he did mix mid-range shooting with his long range game..he was never great at driving to the basket, but he did mix some of that too..

His flaws as a ballhandler weren't exposed until defenses keyed in on him after a few months, like timvp said..

His defense wasn't exposed at all, there were actually people here talking about how he's a better defender than they thought he would be, just like they're saying about Neal right now..it wasn't until other teams started exposing his defense and going at him, where everybody here started calling him out for it, I was actually one of the first IIRC..

Also, Mason was going up against starting units most of the time, not bench guys like Neal has been going up against..Roger also didn't have any problems with confidence until the 2nd half of the season, and until Pop moved him to PG..

The bright side for Neal and what will help him out will be the fact that his role won't be as important as Mason's was during that 1st season..players like Mason and Neal should have strict roles as spark plugs, and Neal could fit into that minor role very well..he also won't have to guard SFs and bigger SGs, which Mason actually had to do at times..

I like what I'm seeing from Neal, but we'll see when teams adjust to him..a lot of revisionist history here..

Am I really supposed to buy into the fact that Neal won't be better than RMJ was because RMJ ended up being a weaker version of Derek Anderson?

Neal already has a proven record and pedigree overseas that RMJ couldn't equal if he tried. He's been the leading scorer on a team that didn't have any other go to man. He's already hit more game winning shots in his career than RMJ ever will.

[jestersmash]

I would not say that RMJ had a "lack of mental for ude." I think the term "mental for ude" has almost become a synonym for shooting well or going through and coming out of a shooting slump.

It's just a vague, empty term to me.

It does, however, usually mean what I described in my last post when being referenced to teams as a whole.

[AussieFanKurt]

HarlmeHeat makes a good point its too early to say but we can wait and see

[DespЏrado]

It's definitely too early to say what his impact will be, but the Spurs better not stop calling his number when they need the spacing and scoring.