Gary Neal Filling Needed Role for Spurs
By Kori Ellis | San Antonio Dispatch
Prior to this past summer, Gary Neal wasn’t much of an NBA prospect. The 26-year-old was undrafted out of Towson and had never been in an NBA training camp. In fact, he had never suited up for an NBA summer league team.
While he was making waves in Europe as a multi-purpose guard who could drill an open jumper, his name wasn’t mentioned very often when discussing potential imports. His lack of height and lack of explosion in his legs had most scouts pegging him as a European basketball league lifer.
Neal’s big break came when he got an invitation to join San Antonio’s summer league team. Although he didn’t play much right away, eventually it become increasingly difficult to keep the Baltimore native off the court.
Gary Neal Spurs
By the end of the five games, Neal had left his mark. Not only did his 16 points per game lead the Spurs squad in scoring, he nailed 17-of-34 three-point attempts. In the fifth and final contest, Neal was 6-for-10 on three-pointers on his way to 25 points in 27 minutes.
A few days later, with multiple teams from around the world interested in acquiring his services, Neal signed a partially-guaranteed three-year contract with the Spurs.
Following an uneventful preseason in which Neal admitted to being nervous, nobody quite knew what to expect. Privately, Spurs staffers wondered whether Neal could make the transition from the European three-point line to the NBA three-point line. Another worry was that his lack of size (he’s listed at 6-foot-4 but he’s closer to 6-foot-2) would make it impossible to get clean looks against the long, rangy athletes that litter the NBA landscape.
Six games into Neal’s NBA career and all worries are, at the very least, on hold. He’s shooting 47.2% from the floor and has buried half of his 24 three-point attempts. Against the Charlotte Bobcats on Monday night, Neal had his best game yet.
In 14 minutes, Neal made 5-of-7 threes to register 15 key points off the bench.
“Tonight was a total team win,” said Neal to the Fox Sports Southwest broadcast team of Bill Land and Sean Elliott after the game. “Manu and Tony, they’re our two leaders and they carried us. A lot of the shots I got today were because Tony and Manu — their defense was just so drawn to them. That makes my job easier; I get to shoot open shots. Hopefully I keep making them.”
Early on, one characteristic of Neal’s game that stands out is his confidence in taking shots. Perhaps more so than any player on the team, he’s letting it fly without hesitation when he catches the ball. Neal credits those around him with forcing him to develop the trait.
Said Neal: “They just keep telling me to shoot it. It started with Coach Pop when I got here. He said if you’re open, shoot the ball. And when you have that type of confidence from the coaching staff, you don’t have any other choice other than just to shoot it.”
“It’s great because Coach Pop has confidence in me,” Neal continued. “In timeouts, he’s drawing up plays for me. If you’re a shooter and you have the green light with people telling you to shoot, shoot — you have no choice but to feel good and shoot the ball.”
Last season, one glaring weakness for San Antonio was a lack of reliable outside shooting. Especially against the Phoenix Suns in the postseason, the Spurs had a lot of difficulties finding a role player willing to take and make shots from beyond the three-point arc. When the Spurs invited Neal to participate on their summer league team, all parties involved knew Neal’s attributes fit the bill as someone who could possibly help the Spurs.
But this much, this quickly?
Neal’s impact on the 95-91 victory over the Bobcats wasn’t lost on Manu Ginobili.
“Huge,” explained Ginobili when asked about Neal’s play. “Huge for us. Those five threes gave us a lot of air offensively. It took a lot of pressure off of us.”
Once desperate for a chance to prove himself, Neal now fills a void the Spurs desperately needed to address this past summer.
Said Ginobili: “I’m looking forward to seeing him play like this more often.”
http://www.sanantoniodispatch.com/sa...ole-for-spurs/
Neal is going to win the 3 point compe ion... (hey I'm just going to throw it out there because if it does happen, it'll make me look good.)
Edit- Very well written article by the way Kori... That's better than anything I've read in the Express in a long while.
I thought our young players Hill and Blair would be the difference for us this year. Instead, it's been Anderson and Neal playing way better than expected, as well as Jefferson.
But if Neal is open, his form and technique are so good, it seems crazy that he'll miss.
Timvp, is his defense and mobility any better in the regular season then what you remember from Summer League? From what I remember reading, you weren't confident in him.
fingers crossed he gets nominated for it haha
if you really think about, neal is our best player, and its not even close
PG: Gary Neal
SG: Gary Neal
SF: Gary Neal
PF: Gary Neal
C: Gary Neal
Best role player. He has a role to play and he is the best at it right now, but Anotonio McD. is really close to him in terms of how much impact they are having on the game.
Neal is looking great right now. I echo the sentiment that Blair and Hill have been disappointing to say the least. Neal, Anderson and Tiago have looked great and have shown great growth over the first six games. I love how fearless Neal and Anderson are. Part of being a great shooter is just taking the dang shot. Last year, only Manu and Bonner had this ability. this year, it looks like we could be one of the elite three point shooting teams again.
He's the kind of player we've always needed. We've had enough interesting, effete jump shooters with great resumes and high grade point averages and intellectual interests in poetry and architecture. That's fine for the twelth man type who doesn't play.
To his credit, Neal doesn't seem overly complex and introspective. Perhaps the locker room discussions of Kierkegaard aren't the same now that he's around, but I'm just happy to see productivity on the court. Thank you Pop for believing in this guy.
mason used to be that guy tell pop made him him run point
Nicely done, Mrs. Ellis.
Now he's making shots in close games in the fourth quarter against good defensive teams. Still very skeptical he will keep it up...
he doesnt have the constant turnovers, stupid passes, bad shots and lost championships skins on the wall like manu. although still great duncan is past his prime and we dont even run plays for him. and your PG (who cant shoot 3s) shouldnt be your best player anyway. with hill sucking, through 5 games in 2010 neal is our best player- fact
The first professional journalistic and reporter article, I think from the SA-Dispatch stable, apart from the nice Game Thoughts by LJ Ellis. Nice job on the context, the subject and the report about the present.
syntax error
Thanks Kori!
[QUOTE=timvp;4731227]Gary Neal Filling Needed Role for Spurs
By Kori Ellis | San Antonio Dispatch
Early on, one characteristic of Neal’s game that stands out is his confidence in taking shots. Perhaps more so than any player on the team, he’s letting it fly without hesitation when he catches the ball. Neal credits those around him with forcing him to develop the trait.
Said Neal: “They just keep telling me to shoot it. It started with Coach Pop when I got here. He said if you’re open, shoot the ball. And when you have that type of confidence from the coaching staff, you don’t have any other choice other than just to shoot it.”
FINALLY!!! A player that understands. Good find.
gary neal > roger mason
Well, all shooters go into slumps. So I guess it's bound to happen. So my question is, how will he handle when it happens. If he's the real deal, he won't let it discourage him and will snap out of it.
I've been as critical of him as anyone, and I just can't see how he'd have problems continuing this way. He's not going to hit at a high percentage every game, but you leave him in when he does and give someone else a chance when he doesn't. You loved what Michael Finley brought to the team and he couldn't (or wouldn't) defend 90 percent of the time. This kid hustles, shares the ball, rebounds and gets in position far better than Fin or Mason ever did.
Agreed. I don't do a face palm when Neal puts the ball on the floor like I did with Roger. RMJ just didn't even look comfortable dribbling the ball. Neal's actually got a pretty good floater in his game as well.
The point with Neal, that I have tried to stress is that he takes the next shot ...it doesn't matter whether the last six went in or clanked out. He takes the next shot, fluidly and quickly.
Slumps are all in the mind, and Neal is the kind of shooter that it never occurs to think about a slump. The shot is so text-book and quickly-released that it's an automatic process for him. So he will miss ten shots in a row, but he will take the 11th exactly the same way he took the other ten.
It's why I think he might have a shot at the 3 pt compe ion. It's so quick and natural to him to hit the shot that he would flourish under the big lights.
damn i didnt even realize that kori wrote this until the first poster mentioned, good work!!!
I think get better, as he gets more comfortable with the team. He was a great shooter in college and europe, thats 7 years of experience, its definetly showing.
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