All I want for Christmas....

[spurs1990]

Spurs fans blowing up on Twitter.

Gary Neal!

[ohmwrecker]

RMJ once had big nuts too



PLEASE LET NEAL BE THE TRUTH

Neal has already surpassed RMJ. Dude was never as clutch as Neal.

[Kool Bob Love]

NEAL >>>>> mason

[SpursDynasty85]

RMJ always let 'em fly. People forget that he and Hill carried the Spurs scoring when Tony went out early in 08. It's more about mental toughness than no-conscience shooting.

Agree. But he had his up and downs with his confidence during his spurs days.

[Cant_Be_Faded]

My thoughts:

1) Neal's release is higher and better pure form than Mason's low-arcing forward leaning shot.

2) Neal is a better athlete than Mason. His first step after a 3 pump fake is much quicker.

3) Neal has better moves at the rim than Mason. Not only better, but faster. Mason's layups took longer than Bonner's. Neal has shown an ability to move the ball quickly, and even dish it for a quick assist or two. Last two games he's even shown better ability to get to the foul line than Mason ever did.

4) I still believe a large part of Mason's struggles was Pop trying to wedge a square peg into a round hole, forcing Mason to do a lion's share of ball-handling duties towards the end of his first season here. We won't make Neal do that.


I want to believe Neal is the truth as much as you, Manny, but these observations also give me some optimism going forward.

[ElNono]

He got handles and he can drive. He's also an underrated passer. The more I look at his game, the farthest away it's from the unidimensional Mason. Plus he tries to compete on D even though he's still making a bunch of mistakes here and there. Mason rarely tried.

The only question to me is if he's going to implode when the playoffs come around. It's a different atmosphere and the pressure really adds up. Although if Mason is the measuring stick, I feel pretty confident be can play better than that.

[NRHector]

Neal has much better shooting mechanics than Mason. Even when RMJ was hitting, his release could make you cringe. With Neal, you're almost surprised when they don't go in.

And like timvp said, once somebody closed on Mason, the best you could hope for was that he didn't turn it over on the dribble.

this

[BOHOLANO#21]

[BOHOLANO#21]

He got handles and he can drive. He's also an underrated passer. The more I look at his game, the farthest away it's from the unidimensional Mason. Plus he tries to compete on D even though he's still making a bunch of mistakes here and there. Mason rarely tried.

The only question to me is if he's going to implode when the playoffs come around. It's a different atmosphere and the pressure really adds up. Although if Mason is the measuring stick, I feel pretty confident be can play better than that.

this

[100%duncan]

Oh santa can you hear us? We have been so good this year

[MI21]

Hopefully Gary Neal makes love to pressure.

even if the pressure doesn't want it

[ShoogarBear]

If he just was able to hold hands with it it would be a step up.