RealGM

[urlhttp://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/61151/20090815/mason_helps_to_maintain_role_with_spurs/[/url]

"I've been getting that question a lot," Mason said of his role on the team post-makeover. "I know I'm not where I want to be, as far as my game's progression. The main thing is, I want to know I'm going to continue to progress, especially on this team.

"Last year I had a good year. This year, I want to have an even better one."

Mason has been working on strengthening his legs this summer.

"This is the first summer I've been able to focus on my legs and my body," he said. "I'm trying to be way more active. That's my biggest thing this year."

Its good to see that he's working hard and trying to improve hopefully he improves his defense and his point guard skills over the rest of the summer.

I really doubt he's gonna have a better year. Especially statistically. If Mason Jr had a better year than last year, that means either Manu or Parker had a season ending injury thus opening up major minutes for him to play.

I forgot how old Mason is but I believe it was 28 when we signed him. Which means he's either 29 or about to be 29 sometime soon. I think at that age, you know what you have. He showed to be a shooter. Sure, he could improve his ball handling, but he's still not a PG. I don't think highly of his court vision. He's not a slasher and being leaner won't turn him from being a shooter into a slasher.

So really, if Mason shot good percentages from the field this year while only giving us 15 minutes a game and getting 6-7 ppg, that's more than a great season from him.

I remember reading in RealGM in 2007 and 2008 off-season about how hard Gooden was training to improve. See where he is now, LOL. All NBA players are supposed to work hard during off-season. If an NBA player talks about how hard he is working at the moment it probably means that he doesn't work hard most of the time. >> >> >> >> >> >>

Mason sucked it up in this years playoffs. I don't care what he does during the regular season, he needs to bring it in the postseason.

Mason did well in the regular season. He was a big contributor to us winning the division but was non-existant in the playoffs. He also was a big reason why we got crushed by Dallas. What bothers me is he was shooting the lights out under pressure but give him an open look and he couldn't knock it down. With RJ slashing to the whole I expect more open shots hopefully this year he'll knock those down.

Pigging backing off TK ... we measure our teams success by playoffs and championships. The regular season is a mere warmup. If the guy doesn't show up during the playoffs we have problems.

Well if he focused on being leaner in the offseason, I would guess that he feels his biggest problem is conditioning and that he got too tired at the end of the season, and perhaps the reason his shot deserted him in the playoffs.

Honestly, I hope we never have to rely on Mason's clutch shooting this season because with Jefferson, Manu, and Parker, I don't want Mason on the floor at all during crunch time.