Gary Neal received a fair amount of attention in the Finals vs. the Heat, but he has come up huge for San Antonio for years.
Neal is a free agent and is testing the waters. The Spurs signed Marco Bellineli a few weeks ago and pretty much pushed Neal out the door. To make matters worse for Neal, the Spurs are withdrawing their qualifying offer. Neal is free to do as he chooses now.
Still, Neal is a restricted free agent, meaning the Spurs have the opportunity to match any offer made to him. Except the market has been quiet on Neal, mostly because teams were afraid to offer him only to have the Spurs match, forcing a sign-and-trade.
So as a result, according to multiple reports, the Spurs will withdraw their $1.1 million qualifying offer from Neal, thereby making him an unrestricted free agent.
Now the Spurs have no ties to Neal, as before, if he didn’t get an offer from anywhere he’d be guaranteed one more year with the Spurs at $1.1 million. Since the Spurs have pretty clearly already moved on with Belinelli, they’re completely severing their ties with Neal.
H/T: CBS Sports
