This is underrated part of Cavs PG Raul Neto’s game

Raul Neto was one of three Cleveland Cavaliers offseason signings from last month, with the others being Ricky Rubio, who was brought back, and Robin Lopez.

None of those signings were going to be making a ton of noise, but for veteran depth/insurance, I think they could help the Cavaliers in some facets. With Rubio, that could be more so in the second half of this coming season, in that sense, and/or the season following; we’ll see on the third year, which is non-guaranteed.

As for Lopez, he’s a playable backup 5, for some matchups at least, and can aid the team as an interior presence, finisher, post-up and/or screener. He’ll be a mentorship presence, I’d think, behind the scenes, too, a la Rubio.

How about Neto, then? Like Lopez, Neto was a one-year, veteran’s minimum signing, which wasn’t going to be making any waves among casual fans, but when the opportunities have come, he’s done a nice job in recent seasons.

He did fine with the Philadelphia 76ers when active as a ball-mover and defensive reserve, and with more chances to make plays on the other end, gave the Washington Wizards some of a boost the last two seasons.

In that span with more opportunities, he had 8.1 points and 2.7 assists in 20.7 minutes per outing, and started 41 of 134 appearances. Over his seven seasons, he’s had 4.8 assists per-36 minutes, for what it’s worth.

He’ll help provide some insurance until Rubio is back from injury, feasibly in December or January, and Neto has typically done a solid job at the point-of-attack defensively in reserve minutes, but offensively, his driving is underrated, in my opinion.

Neto’s driving and finishing with body control and in early offense is an underrated part of his game, which can help the Cavs.

Neto is not a player that’s going to provide the playmaking Rubio can for others, but in rotational burn, he can self-create some in early offense, in pick-and-roll and his use of craftiness and subtle change-of-pace could give Cleveland a spark.

In his time with the Wiz, whether it was off the bench or at times in spot starts, Neto gave them a nice driving presence for stretches, and I could see that playing out next season. He can make plays when getting downhill, and Neto’s herky-jerky driving style is unorthodox, and he has demonstrated the propensity to get to his spots leading to effective interior finishes playing off that.

With Washington, he showed the ability to use both acceleration and deceleration to make plays on drives, with the latter countering the former, and that led to him putting pressure on defenses regularly in his minutes.

It was a positive development from him with him having far more chances in meaningful minutes than he had in his Utah Jazz tenure, and with Philly, he was more so a defensive sub that would occasionally get looks from off-ball catch-and-shoots. As an aside, Neto shot only 29.2 percent from three last season on a low volume of 1.7 attempts per outing, which wasn’t great, but in a similar volume (1.6 attempts) throughout his career has hit 36.6 percent from three.

However, as we’ve hit on here, while I’d imagine he’d be more so called upon in bench minutes to be a rotational ball-mover and facilitator, Neto’s driving game could give the Cavs a lift in non-Garland minutes.

Whether he’ll play with Garland a bit and/or Collin Sexton (if he’s back)/Caris LeVert is something we’ll have to see on, but overall, Neto’s driving/finishing shouldn’t be discounted, either.

Last year, in large part due to his own self-creation, Neto converted on 66.7 percent of his shot attempts at the rim, per Basketball Reference. The season prior, that was a 61.4 percent hit rate; though that was with 51.0 percent of those attempts assisted, whereas last season, he was more efficient with more attempts by his drives. Only 39.7 percent of his attempts there were assisted then, per Basketball Reference.

Granted, a number of Neto’s driving attempts didn’t lead to shots right at the rim, and ultimately, he converted on 49.2 percent of his driving looks, per Second Spectrum. That’s factoring in some floaters, push shots and runners. On shots 3-10 feet, his hit rate was 44.9 percent, to that point.

Anyways, what we’re driving home here is that despite Neto not being a guy that’s going to be necessarily a key offensive presence in the way Garland will be, nor does he Rubio-esque vision, Neto as a driver I believe could be flying under-the-radar a bit.

It’ll be intriguing to see how regularly the 30-year-old reserve lead guard deploys that area of his game in bench stretches, when the opportunities do come for him.

As a counter to penetration leading to pocket feeds and sprayouts, that could help maximize his impact in reserve chances until Rubio is back, and we’ll have to see if he could receive minutes here and there after then.