Struggle Street - The Gary Neal Thread

[Liver_Pooty]

Neal for . . . ?

Wayne Ellington (DAL)

Alexy Shved (MIN)

Dorrell Wright (POR)

?

Shved please. That'll answer our backup PG issue and move CDR to backup SG.

Shved had an absolutely atrocious year. Id much rather keep Neal. Shot 32% from the field and 29% from 3. I would almost rather keep Ridnour, almost.

[JDR720]

Neal for . . . ?

Wayne Ellington (DAL)

Alexy Shved (MIN)

Dorrell Wright (POR)

?

Shved please. That'll answer our backup PG issue and move CDR to backup SG.

Shved played as well as Luke this season, i'd want Ellington

[Liver_Pooty]

Neal for . . . ?

Wayne Ellington (DAL)

Alexy Shved (MIN)

Dorrell Wright (POR)

?

Shved please. That'll answer our backup PG issue and move CDR to backup SG.

Shved played as well as Luke this season, i'd want Ellington

Id rather keep Neal over all 3. Neal wasn't exactly dynamite for us, but hes better than all three of those guys. Especially Shved, he was horrible this year and wouldn't solve anything as a backup PG

[HornetJail]

Shved blows. I'd rather let Neal play garbage minutes. Though if I had to pick from those three? I'd pick Wright, then Wayne Ellington

[catch20two]

Neal for . . . ?

Wayne Ellington (DAL)

Alexy Shved (MIN)

Dorrell Wright (POR)

?

Shved please. That'll answer our backup PG issue and move CDR to backup SG.

Shved had an absolutely atrocious year. Id much rather keep Neal. Shot 32% from the field and 29% from 3. I would almost rather keep Ridnour, almost.

Shved got game. I can't speak on how he played this season because I don't watch Minny much but I know he got game. One of my favorite foreigners.

[Liver_Pooty]

Id prefer trading Neal for someone like a Nate Robinson, coming off an injury, but can flat out carry a second unit by himself. Also comes cheap

[Liver_Pooty]

Shved please. That'll answer our backup PG issue and move CDR to backup SG.

Shved had an absolutely atrocious year. Id much rather keep Neal. Shot 32% from the field and 29% from 3. I would almost rather keep Ridnour, almost.

Shved got game. I can't speak on how he played this season because I don't watch Minny much but I know he got game. One of my favorite foreigners.

He was horrific this year. Terrible to be completely honest. Neal is much better than he is.

[catch20two]

Damn Shved had a bad season. Lol. I'm looking at the numbers.

[Liver_Pooty]

Damn Shved had a bad season. Lol. I'm looking at the numbers.

Lol, yeah he did. Has good size for a PG, but he was horrible this year.

[catch20two]

Damn Shved had a bad season. Lol. I'm looking at the numbers.

Lol, yeah he did. Has good size for a PG, but he was horrible this year.

I'd pass on him now after seeing that but I'm still going to root for him, just from a distance. Lol

I would trade Neal for Ellington or Wright. If Shved had his stuff together he would've been the better fit tho.

I honestly would trade Neal for any player that would be serviceable. I'd trade him to have Adrien back. I like Neal too but Clifford trust him too much so it make me dislike him out of oversaturation.

[Liver_Pooty]

Damn Shved had a bad season. Lol. I'm looking at the numbers.

Lol, yeah he did. Has good size for a PG, but he was horrible this year.

I'd pass on him now after seeing that but I'm still going to root for him, just from a distance. Lol

I would trade Neal for Ellington or Wright. If Shved had his stuff together he would've been the better fit tho.

I honestly would trade Neal for any player that would be serviceable. I'd trade him to have Adrien back. I like Neal too but Clifford trust him too much so it make me dislike him out of oversaturation.

Neal for Adrien is a bit of a stretch.. Ill throw out a name that might be intriguing, although the Blazers might not be willing to give up on him so quick. CJ McCollum. Hes not going to get any minutes behind Matthews and Lillard for the foreseeable future.

Edit: Throw in some kind of sh*tty filler to make it possible.

[catch20two]

Lol, yeah he did. Has good size for a PG, but he was horrible this year.

I'd pass on him now after seeing that but I'm still going to root for him, just from a distance. Lol

I would trade Neal for Ellington or Wright. If Shved had his stuff together he would've been the better fit tho.

I honestly would trade Neal for any player that would be serviceable. I'd trade him to have Adrien back. I like Neal too but Clifford trust him too much so it make me dislike him out of oversaturation.

Neal for Adrien is a bit of a stretch.. Ill throw out a name that might be intriguing, although the Blazers might not be willing to give up on him so quick. CJ McCollum. Hes not going to get any minutes behind Matthews and Lillard for the foreseeable future.

Edit: Throw in some kind of sh*tty filler to make it possible.

The Blazers not trading McCollum. However I wouldn't mind borrowing the guy that's eating all of his playing time. Mo Williams only got 1 more year left on his contract for 2.7 mil. He's a good backup PG that can score in bunches and he's a better option than that Jameer Nelson bs Cliff want.

[Liver_Pooty]

I'd pass on him now after seeing that but I'm still going to root for him, just from a distance. Lol

I would trade Neal for Ellington or Wright. If Shved had his stuff together he would've been the better fit tho.

I honestly would trade Neal for any player that would be serviceable. I'd trade him to have Adrien back. I like Neal too but Clifford trust him too much so it make me dislike him out of oversaturation.

Neal for Adrien is a bit of a stretch.. Ill throw out a name that might be intriguing, although the Blazers might not be willing to give up on him so quick. CJ McCollum. Hes not going to get any minutes behind Matthews and Lillard for the foreseeable future.

Edit: Throw in some kind of sh*tty filler to make it possible.

The Blazers not trading McCollum. However I wouldn't mind borrowing the guy that's eating all of his playing time. Mo Williams only got 1 more year left on his contract for 2.7 mil. He's a good backup PG that can score in bunches and he's a better option than that Jameer Nelson bs Cliff want.

Just because we trade for Nelson doesn't mean we would keep him. Only 2 million of his 8 million dollar deal is guaranteed if hes waived by july 15th. Is Jordan going to pay 8 million for a backup PG? Hell no he isn't. That trade would basically be for Afflalo. Unless Nelson and Clifford have some kind of very close insane personal sexual relationship together there is no way we will pay a backup PG 8 million.

[LamarMatic7]

Shved please. That'll answer our backup PG issue and move CDR to backup SG.

Shved had an absolutely atrocious year. Id much rather keep Neal. Shot 32% from the field and 29% from 3. I would almost rather keep Ridnour, almost.

Shved got game. I can't speak on how he played this season because I don't watch Minny much but I know he got game. One of my favorite foreigners.

He definitely has game. He's one of those virtuoso players who thus probably needs confidence that his coach trusts him making spectacular and risky plays. Unfortunately, I somehow have a feeling that he'll leave in a couple of years and go back to Russia for this reason. But, yeah, he's like a mini Brent Barry.

I guess we could give Wayne Ellington a shot, out of the players mentioned. His shooting used to be real valuable in Memphis, I remember him killing Miami with threes on national TV. Yet he hasn't found his place after they traded him to shed salary.

Dorrell Wright probably has more value around the league than Neal. Portland will happily pay him three mil for two more years for the production he gives them.

[fatlever]

Rick Bonnell ‏@rick_bonnell 4m4 minutes ago

I'm writing about Gary Neal today, with some eye-catching numbers how much better the then-Bobcats played offensively with him on roster.

this should be interesting

[HornetJail]

Rick Bonnell ‏@rick_bonnell 4m4 minutes ago

I'm writing about Gary Neal today, with some eye-catching numbers how much better the then-Bobcats played offensively with him on roster.

this should be interesting

Note it says "with him on the roster", not "with him on the floor". We were hitting our stride offensively
around the time that trade was made anyway and I bet the vast majority of the stats being presented here have a lot more to do with the improvements of Zeller, CDR, McBob, and of course, Al down the stretch. You can't convince me that Neal wasn't 85% atrocious and 15% alright last season.

[fatlever]

neal played 22 games. during that time his Ortg was 104.6 and Drtg was 105.0. last 15 games was much better Ortg of 105.1 and Drtg of 99.7. last 10 games Ortg 103.5 and Drtg 96.3.

playoffs was awful Ortg of 102.5 and Drtg of 117.3

[LofJ]

Rick Bonnell ‏@rick_bonnell 4m4 minutes ago

I'm writing about Gary Neal today, with some eye-catching numbers how much better the then-Bobcats played offensively with him on roster.

this should be interesting

Note it says "with him on the roster", not "with him on the floor". We were hitting our stride offensively
around the time that trade was made anyway and I bet the vast majority of the stats being presented here have a lot more to do with the improvements of Zeller, CDR, McBob, and of course, Al down the stretch. You can't convince me that Neal wasn't 85% atrocious and 15% alright last season.

I agree completely, I've argued that removing Sessions from the team was a large contributing factor for the increase in production from a lot of the guys on our bench - CDR and Zeller in particular. Sessions took way too many touches. He's a good guy, but there's a reason why we didn't resign him. I'm also not surprised that Bonnell is incapable of making the distinction between on-court and off-court impact.

[Liver_Pooty]

I like Neal, and think hes going to have a good year. I hated Sessions on this team alot of the time.

[JDR720]

Charlotte Hornets coach Steve Clifford made a bold statement Monday about shooting guard Gary Neal’s value.

"Our offense, once he got here, was totally different," Clifford said.

Bold but not inaccurate. In the 25 regular-season games that followed Neal being traded to Charlotte, the then-Bobcats averaged 104.3 points per game, compared to 95.3 before his arrival. The Bobcats’ shooting percentage improved from 43.7 percent pre-Neal to 45.3 percent with him.

That’s not to say the offensive improvement was exclusively Neal’s doing. For instance, rookie power forward Cody Zeller shot far better from the field in April than in February.

However, the trade that brought Neal from Milwaukee to Charlotte now looks like a coup. The other players involved in that deal – Luke Ridnour, Ramon Sessions and Jeff Adrien – all had expiring contracts and moved on to other teams. Neal is under contract to the Hornets this season at $3.25 million, which looks particularly cost-effective.

Shooting guard is the deepest position on this roster with Lance Stephenson, Gerald Henderson and rookie first-round pick P.J. Hairston. But there’s no question Neal is in Clifford’s plans.

"He’s a basketball player – he loves to play the game and he has a high IQ," Clifford said. "He knows the offense – how to get a shot, how to make a play, how to move the ball, how he should play."

Clifford said Thursday at UNC Asheville that Neal has had arguably the best training camp of any Hornets player. That’s not a big surprise considering all the work he put in this summer. Neal stayed in Charlotte to work out daily with strength-and-conditioning coach Matt Friia.

He’s lost about 23 pounds since arriving in Charlotte last February. Neal said his goal wasn’t specifically weight loss, but rather getting in optimum condition after playing little for the Bucks between November and February.

After three seasons with the San Antonio Spurs, Neal chased the money in signing with the Bucks. It proved to be a bad fit, so the trade to the Hornets was welcome. It put him on a team in a playoff chase and heavily in need of a scorer/shooter off the bench.

"With coming to Charlotte and playing right away, there was only so much you could do off the court" to improve conditioning, Neal said. "I had to save my energy for the games."

Clifford knew he was getting a shooter and the numbers supported that: Neal was 40 percent from 3-point range as a Bobcat and 96 percent at the foul line. What Clifford didn’t anticipate was how good a decision-maker Neal was with his ball-handling and passing.

"When I first came to the Spurs I was thought of as just a guy who stands in the corner" waiting to take 3-pointers, Neal said. "That kind of stuck with me, but every year in the NBA my game has advanced and evolved."

Neal says people forget how much backup point guard he played in San Antonio. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich used to tell Neal, ‘You’re no John Stockton but you’re serviceable."

Almost by osmosis, Neal said, being part of the Spurs makes you better at the craft.

"That’s the best basketball organization in the past 15 years," Neal said.

"Coach Pop (Popovich) being hard on me, of course that makes you a better player. So does playing with (guards) Manu (Ginobili) and Tony (Parker) every day. You don’t have a choice but to get better being around that much knowledge day-in and day-out."

Now he’s with a team highly in need of that skill set.

"It’s always important to go to a team that needs you, but it’s more than that: Me and Coach Cliff have connected," Neal said.

"We have an understanding of how he wants me to play. It’s been a perfect fit."

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/1 ... C2-NfldXnh#storylink=cpy