Story by KL ChouinardTwitter: @KLChouinard
The Hawks signed veteran guard Gary Neal to a 10-day contract Wednesday because they needed depth, and because he has a skill NBA teams always covet.
"He's obviously a very good shooter," Head Coach Mike Budenholzer said. "We feel like shooting is an area where we could improve or can always use more. We're going to push him to be that third point guard, if needed, if anything were to happen at that spot."
As for the Hawks’ second point guard, the 32-year-old Neal said that he has known him for "15 or 16 years."
In a bit of a coincidental twist, Neal has long known the player who he will back up: rookie Malcolm Delaney. Neal played his senior season of high school basketball at Calvert Hall in Maryland with Malcolm's brother, Vincent.
"I was the shooting guard and his brother Vincent was the small forward," Neal said. "Malcolm has had a great career. He did well at Virginia Tech, and he had a phenomenal career in Europe. Now he's in the NBA living his dream, so I'm happy for him."
Although Malcolm recalled Vincent being more of an undersized 6-foot-1 power forward, he also remembered Neal providing lot of points.
"Gary was the scorer," Delaney said. "They didn't have the best team in the league, but they had a competitive team. It kind of helped Gary out because he came from a public school to the (stronger) Catholic League and that introduced him more to the Baltimore scene."
Here are two other facts that testify to the strength of the Baltimore Catholic League: Jack McClinton, who also played on that 2002 Calvert Hall team, eventually moved on to the University of Miami, where he made All-ACC First Team honors twice. And another pretty good basketball player, Carmelo Anthony, had just finished three seasons for rival Towson Catholic, where he led his team to a 26-3 record and won the league's Player of the Year award in his third season.
Malcolm, who eventually chose to play at Towson Catholic a few seasons later, said that he and Neal share basketball traits that trace back to their home city.
"We have that same mentality, guys from our city," Delaney said. "I watched Gary a lot. We got a chance to play together in that lockout summer (2011). I followed his career when he played in San Antonio."
Even though both Neal and Delaney function primarily with the ball in their hands, both players also shoot well enough to slide over and play off the ball when someone else takes over the point guard spot.
Delaney has bounced back from a December dip to put together a fantastic January. Not only has he made 7 of 13 threes (53.8 percent), but he has also punished opponents with his favorite weapon: the midrange pull-up jump shot. His shot chart for January shows that he has taken and made a high volume of such shots, as he did throughout his five-year European career.
Neal has an even longer track record as a shooter. Last season, Neal shot 41.0 percent from three last season while averaging 9.8 points and 1.2 assists off the bench for the Washington Wizards. Since then, he has came back from offseason hip surgery to play three games for the Texas Legends of the NBA Development League before the Hawks signed him.
Neal also played three seasons for San Antonio Spurs when Budenholzer worked there as an assistant coach.
"Gary is familiar with our system and familiar with the way that we play, so I think he can hopefully find a way to get integrated quickly," Budenholzer said.
While Neal gets acclimated to the Hawks, Malcolm said that he is excited to have a teammate from Baltimore.
"I supported everybody that came ahead me from my city. It's definitely fun, especially at this level, and I think it's even better for our city."