Living Without The Lee-thal Weapon

Photo courtesy of interaksyon.com

When Paul Lee was discovered to have a tear in his meniscus and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), the reverberations of that injury was felt not just by his PBA team, the Rain Or Shine Elasto Painters, but also by the Gilas national team.

Fortunately for Gilas, this injury will not have a major impact in their preparations for next year’s Olympic qualifiers. Unfortunately for the Elasto Painters, this injury will define their campaign in the Smart Bro PBA Philippine Cup.

Here are the four aspects where the Elasto Painters will feel Lee’s absence:

Playmaking

Paul Lee is, in simple words, a playmaker. He makes good things happen, whether with good passing, strong drives to the rim, kick outs to open shooters, hitting open shots to keep the defenses honest, or controlling the tempo of the game to better suit the Rain Or Shine game plan.

He’s the focal point and engine of the Rain or Shine offense, which means that when Paul Lee is in the zone, he can almost singlehandedly destroy opposing defenses.

The fact that he can do it in so many ways, not just by scoring a ton, makes him especially hard to replace. Just consider his stats from last year’s PBA season: 15.5ppg, 4.5rpg, and 3.3 apg. Those are major numbers for someone who plays just 27 minutes a game.

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Greg Slaughter. Japeth Aguilar. There was a time when one, then the other, was considered the best big man prospect in the Philippines.

For Slaughter, it was his size and heft combined with good basic basketball skills that propelled him to the top. For Aguilar, it was his preposterous length and the eye-popping athleticism (which was evident, even amongst NBA D-Leaguers) that made him stand out.

Slaughter and Aguilar have physical gifts that most of their PBA colleagues don’t have. It’s not unfair to say that the expectations for both are that they would dominate their competition every night.