Paul Lee era begins; RoS 94 - Gin 93
Perhaps Powerade Tigers' head coach Bo Perasol would like a do-over of the PBA Draft and SMART Gilas management made a better effort in luring Lee in (I'm willing to bet my last Peso that the only reason why Lee's camp didn't push for a spot on Gilas is because the SG coaching staff wants him to play BEHIND Chris Tiu at the SG spot).
While credit should be given to the Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings who staged a furious 24-6 blitz in the 4th quarter to erase a huge RoS lead, there's no denying that the PBA's 37th season's opening game ball belongs to the 2nd overall pick in the 2011 PBA Draft.
The minute Lee checked into the game for RoS, which was trailing at the time in the first quarter behind the faulty quarterbacking of Gabe Norwood, everything seemed to fall into place. He drove and spun for a lay-up, drove hard again, took AKTV-hype rival Mark Caguioa one-on-one to swoosh a jumper and made flat-footed, drive-and-kick passes to his big men inside the crowded lane.
Wow. What's more, he even drove against Caguioa and bodied up on the superstar veteran for an and-1 play. In the last ten years or so, I've never seen a PBA player drive and bump with MC47-- not even the guy who Lee replaced in the RoS scheme of things-- the overhyped, flashy, one-dimensional Sol Mercado.
RoS head coach Yeng Guiao, who was quoted on-cam to have thought of Lee as the same type of player, was probably as surprised as the whole SMART Araneta Coliseum was the entire night. This wasn't a rookie playing off adrenaline or excitement. This was a grown ass man, owning defenders not with out-of-this-world athleticism (Gabe Norwood 2008) or flashy crossovers (Mark Caguioa 2001), but with high basketball IQ, great court vision and testicles the size of grapefruits.
Lee's all around brilliance masked yet another pedestrian showing from teammate Gabe Norwood who continues to show that despite the US NCAA pedigree, he's pretty much a better ball-handling version of Japeth Aguilar (the current epitome of today's PBA players- all athleticism with average to no skills). You could even argue that RoS was running better (and it showed in the final minutes) without Norwood on the floor and having solid role players such as Jeff Chan, Ronjay Buenafe, Beau Belga and Jervy Cruz with Lee.
It should also be noted that RoS might just be sitting on the next Mark Caguioa-Jayjay Helterbrand backcourt combo (since AKTV has decided to go with the Lee: Caguioa slant) with Lee and Buenafe (who almost cost them the game by dribbling off his own foot).
There were a lot of instances wherein Buenafe was trying hard to act like the alpha dog by dominating the ball and that's where Ginebra made their brilliant 4th quarter come back. Not to say that Lee didn't have his share of errors, but it did seem that Buenafe was trying to steal some of the super rookie's thunder a bit.
That being said, it's up to coach Guiao to find a balance between the two young bucks who could very well turn out to be the future of RoS. In my mind, Norwood should be traded for a quality big man or future draft picks while there's a high demand for athletic wings in the league. That way, it would open a spot at the forward position for Ryan Arana, Jeff Chan and Jireh Ybanez (who are all elite level defenders and quality offensive players).
On a last note, you can't help but wonder how Gilas would've fared with Lee on board (assuming that he'd play more minutes than Chris Tiu of course). He'd be an upgrade over JVee Casio at the PG owing to his size (people who argue that Lee isn't clutch haven't seen his games) and a better banger than Tiu at the SG spot. Lee could've also opened things up with drives to the basket which SMART Gilas didn't have (except for Jimmy Alapag's inside forays in the FIBA-Asia tournament). Sigh.
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