Neal's attitude issues didn't just randomly crop up after he was traded- that would be forgetting the various reports throughout the season about how unhappy he was with his role (including potentially having removed his gear from the locker room during his "injury" break... Dubious injury...) and then being healthy scratched in the playoffs. I think the 'leadership' pieces you saw being pushed by the flames reporting group were done intentionally- when it was clear his production wasn't going to come this season, we saw lots of pieces about his leadership, his intangibles, how he was "saving himself" for the playoffs when the time is right.
Either these were pushed by management who was trying to justify the bad signing, or they were the lies that Neal was telling everyone to try and justify his own behavior.
When everything he said about turning it on later in the season came up empty, I think management had little choice but to look at moving him.
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